A friend recently started work as an executive with a very large global tech company and was told at his induction to forget everything he had learned in his prior career, the only culture worth anything is the culture of this company, and the only skills that matter from here on out are those valued by this company. He spoke to me after three days of brainwashing when he was doubting his decision to move, and I suggested that most large workplaces these days have at least some cult-like characteristics, and so a better question becomes how to survive and prosper in it.
A clearly stated corporate culture is an effective way to help staff to understand the skills and behaviors that are valued at work, and to unite and energize staff around common goals. Most professional staff have experience in being inducted around, and rated against, cultural standards and most develop a skillset around how to display allegiance to these standards as a way of surviving at work.
That said, when does a strong workplace culture become a cult? The tipping point has to do with the degree of control asserted over the staff’s thoughts and beliefs, as well as the reaction to a real or imagined challenge to the forces of control within that corporation. In cult environments control is exerted not just over how a person performs a role, but also over their thoughts, behaviors, values and even their feelings. Warning signs include judgments passed on employees’ personalities, or vague questions raised by management around whether they are a ‘good fit’ or a ‘team player,’ independent of how they perform the role assigned to them. The vagueness of these terms allows them to be weaponized as a measure of how well a staff member fits into the prevailing control structures.
Furthermore, cultic workplaces are hypersensitive to perceived threats to those in control and power. When a culture forbids dissent, it is a cult. This is particularly uncommercial because often times the most talented, creative staff will naturally suggest better ways of doing things or ways to continually improve, and cult-like workplaces can perceive such discussions as threats rather than an opportunity to grow and continually improve. A useful benchmark here is how are staff treated when they responsibly question directives from those in control, or when they raise a concern. Is intelligent conversation encouraged, or have they signed an execution warrant?
Finally, most modern commercial workplaces foster an overtly social or even family type environment, with a strong emphasis on ‘teamwork’ and ‘greater good.’ While this is a healthy, established way of improving team impact and enhancing resiliency, a cult like environment will react aggressively towards, and will reject, devalue, or marginalize anyone who falls outside the current line-up of the team or ‘family.’ Consider here how competent staff are treated after they have left the workplace, are they blamed for attributed failures and transgressions? Are they cancelled?
If these characteristics describe your workplace, the key question is how you can protect your mental health while pursuing your career goals. The skills that will support you in this situation involve deepening awareness of the situation you are in and enhancing your resilience, specifically:
Learn to recognize the lived culture, as opposed to the advertised culture. Regardless of what corporate jingles a company uses, a culture is formed by behaviors that are rewarded, ignored, or punished. Do staff feel psychologically safe to speak up when something is amiss? Be aware of how this plays out in your workplace and assess whether this lived culture aligns with your values and motivates you.
Stay aware of inconsistencies within the culture. For example, if you work for a company that identifies as an anti-cult, entrepreneurial environment, but staff are evaluated mostly on how they fit in and comply with control-based directives, then it will serve you well to recognize the contradiction.
Identify your network of trusted confidants, as these supports are necessary to help us face the challenges of our professional lives. The key question here is who can you be completely honest and vulnerable with. Cult-like environments can discourage trusting relationships between staff, and can foster divide and conquer values, so it may be that this support is not available in your workplace, but the role can be played by a friend, family member or a therapist.
Assess whether the lived culture aligns with your career & personal goals, and whether you can leverage this culture to achieve those goals without undue damage to other areas of your life. For example, the lived culture may not respect boundaries around personal life, but the growth and advancement opportunities may make that tolerable, at least for now. Being quietly sure of your own plans and goals will protect your self-image against the cultish practice of alternately vaulting or villainizing staff.
Develop the skill of resilience around how the workplace impacts you. Resilience might better be described as a bundle of skills including insight, motivations, learning mindset, self-care & de-personalization. Included here are the skills of recognizing when and how we derail ourselves from achieving our goals. The good news is that these are skills that any of us can learn, and we all become better with practice.
There is no likelihood that the workplace tradition of assessing staff against cultural standards will recede anytime soon. If anything, the practice is likely to deepen, with corporations shuffling towards more cult-like status, leaving staff with no choice but to adapt if they want to develop careers. The skill of adapting involves the ability to distinguish a demanding culture from a toxic one, and to develop strategies to navigate cult-like cultures without losing sight of our values or compromising our mental health. The very act of developing insight and awareness deprives a cult of its power to imprison the mind. The currency of freedom is knowledge.
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