Culture Built by Beer

How did it go so wrong?

I’ve come across a few managers who liked to tell people that their job was to “build culture” in their organization. So they organized drinks after work, drinks at work, and an event was never without beer.

No, sorry… Pub night should not be the default for corporate culture building.

Given a choice, would you choose:

a) A company whose investment in you is to pick up your bar tab and organize your social life?

or

b) A company who doesn’t meet up as much outside of office hours but instead allocates their resources to employee career advancement?

I’m not saying that it’s an either/or proposition but too often “culture building” is equated with happy hour. And, for some of these events, there can be a feeling of binge drinking.

I think it’s good to kick back with co-workers and enjoy a pint every now and then, but if your company’s social outings are only after hours, it discriminates against:

- employees with families or kids
- employees who commute long distances or work remotely
- employees who have other commitments outside of work (e.g. night classes or even other side jobs)

Besides logistics, a culture of heavy social drinking can make it very awkward for:

- employees who don’t drink for personal, religious, or health reasons (including pregnancy)
- employees who feel uneasy drinking with a manager of the opposite gender, or when they feel like they may be subject to undesired sexual advances from drunken co-workers.

(The last bullet might sound extreme but you can’t always pick your co-workers and workplace harassment does happen.)

You will meet great people through the workplace that you’ll be proud to call friends but let’s be more realistic with how we define culture building within a company.

If you are an employer (or manager), treat your employees for what they truly are: someone that you hired to do work for your business. You are not organizing a frat house.

This is someone’s 9-5 job; they should have a life outside of it.

Employees come and go for various reasons. Regardless of how much I love my co-workers, I’m most ready to leave a company when I feel like I’ve professionally stopped growing, or if there’s a bigger challenge elsewhere. I don’t leave for another company because I think I will make more friends there.

So instead of defaulting to pub night as the work culture carrot, what can you offer your employees that make them feel fulfilled professionally?

Do they feel properly challenged?
Identify employees who want to step into bigger roles and offer them that opportunity.

Are their ideas heard?
Is there an open environment that allows them to speak freely about their concerns? How are suggestions fostered? (This could translate to 20% time or hack days for working on experimental projects.)

Are they pushed to learn new things and grow?
Offer in-house training and mentoring. Cover off-site training expenses. Pay for them to go to conferences and mingle with other peers in the industry. Or even offer paid work days for community volunteering since teaching can be its own form of learning.

And most importantly: Do they feel like they are doing things that matter?

Yes, you could be spending your time building up someone who might leave for another company — or maybe even start their own! But more likely, an employee who feels fulfilled will be more willing to stay. Now that is a culture that has long lasting benefits and can be sustained.

Halfway through my time at TELUS in 2013, I requested that TELUS change my role from a senior developer and instead invent an “internal developer advocate” role for me; my wish was granted.

Instead of doing production work, my main responsibility was to offer mentorship to the other frontend devs on the team. “If you at all want to be a better web developer, I am here to support you in whatever way I can,” is what I offered them.

That might mean making sure I gave a code review my fullest attention, or by doing some casual peer programming. I would identify what in-house training needed to be put together or curated. And I would advocate for the devs when deadlines got hairy and scheduling/estimating advice was needed.

When I proposed this new developer advocate role, I did suggest continuing business hour events like our “Munch and Learn” (where we would watch YouTube videos recorded from tech conferences during our lunch hour) but I resisted requesting for anything after hours.

So despite being in a culture that puts pressure on people to drink socially in order to be accepted, I don’t think the lack of pub nights lost me any respect from my peers. I rightfully earned my spot as a senior dev based on skill — not on how much I can chug.

So start investing in your employees as their employer first — not as their “buddy”. Build a culture where devs are looking out for each other professionally rather than looking to out-drink one another.