Corporate Culture

Post Reply New Topic

Here's something I think might be really useful since a lot of us find concern with this. In almost any industry you find some work places that are average, some that are extremely petty and psycho-professional, and some places that are laid back enough to feel that we could even have a respectable place there as long as we do our work, do it right, and at least - even if we're socially clumsy - are respectful and courteous to our coworkers as best we can be.

My biggest concern abotu getting out of highschool or even college is that I really wish I could find out ahead of time who I would or wouldn't want to apply with (my major is accounting and just from some of these stories about Arthur Anderson or Earnst & Young I'm a tad worried).

What we could try to do for eachother with this thread, or at least those of us who've had professional or even service related work, is kinda namedrop some of the companies who we feel have a relaxed corporate culture.

As for me I've mostly had jobs in the food industry; places like Little Caesars (1 1/2 years), Taco Bell (2 years), and Olive Garden (5 years). Many of those have had their pros and cons regarding coworkers and bosses though so it's kind of tough sorting that out on AS tolerance.

I recommend getting a job with a technical company. It should be pretty easy for you, since you're an accounting major, and almost every company has an accounting department. Tech companies tend to have more aspies than business ones, so you should be more comfortable there.
Best of luck.

I haven't found a place with a relaxed culture yet so I'll list the places I have worked and a summary of what it was like.

• Cost Plus - The manager was strong, diligent, experienced, and active, and expected everyone else to be the same. 2 days and they dropped me for not working fast enough.
• Farmer's Insurance - Corporate insanity of the worst sort: higher level executives who can't be held accountable impose unreasonable expectations, motivating managers and employees to work each other to death.
• Togo's - The manager there would have done better as a football coach. Contract required we do what the customer asks, even if it results in worse service. Store owner cooked the books to pay for his hummer.
• Java Makers - A "small business" coffee shop, really owned by a megalithic food supply corp. The boss cuts your hours because they can squeeze more work out of fresh employees.
• Some Warehouse - They set the conveyor just a hint faster than you are comfortable working, and don't provide hand protection so you scrape your fingers bloody opening crates of Gatorate(tm) as fast as you can.

I haven't worked anywhere else...

The one place you don't want to work is in the retail industry. The company I worked (roundys) for treated all of us as a brain-less herd cattle.

All of the policies they have are big-brother in nature and the managers weren't even managers in a sense, they just puppets of the corporate big-wigs.

And I might face the prospect of going back to work for them this summer.

Despite the negative reputation that the federal bureaucracy has, I've had a generally positive experience working for the Department of Defense. As long as you're patient enough to deal with red tape and astute enough not to offend anyone in senior management, the government is a relatively good place to work.

I worked for the Department of Transport until they privatised my division into a not-for-profit, non-share-capital corporation. There is a lot to be said for working in government. My union was never very effective, but at least the collective agreement and government employment policies made the working environment fairly safe by limiting how much trouble the PHBs could get into.

Gotta agree with Aspie1 - tech companies could be your best choice if only for the odds of a higher aspie concentration in the industry... unless you are thinking about doing freelance accounting (something that doesn't lend itself too well to aspies), you should consider applying for a mid-to-large-sized tech company if you are looking for an in-house position.

That said, you could strike gold getting a place in Microsoft, Apple, or somewhere else in Silicon Valley...

Just half-kidding... best of luck.

Well, for right now I'm really thinking of starting in a plain old boring staff accounting such as accounts recieveable or something like that. Of course I definitely plan on getting my CPA despite doing internal accounting, I just want something to start off with that's real structured even if tedious. I tend to prefer jobs where I know exactly what's required of me and exactly whats gonna be on my plate from one day to the next.

Maybe after a few years I may get bold enough to move to a riskier department like payables and if I realy feel like I'm digging it even go for a controller or auditing position. I just know that having a project based job, which is what CPAs in a CPA firm do, really isn't something I'm big on - don't get me wrong, my social skills are aaight, but its more strain than I wanna deal with everyday if its a constant barage of customers rather than me and a small handful of coworkers.

Yes, I think retailing or selling would be pretty sucky - also any jobs like being in a call centre. Something behind the scenes would be better, maybe clerical and/or computer work.

The public service can be okay but gee it's hard to get in there now. It was good when you could get put onto an order of merit by doing what was basically a test of literacy and numeracy but now they seem to want to test for social skills too and that's where a lot of us have trouble.

Retail is horrid. I can second that. I worked for a Waldenbooks for a few weeks, and it was the worst job ever. The manager was a woman with a Masters Degree in Anthropology, and it seemed like she was taking it out on the rest of us. I had a pager so family could stay in touch with me. She felt I should not wear that, so she would stand next to me making sure I locked it in a locker when I got in each day. After the first time she did that, I initiated a new job search and when I got the call about a job offer in the middle of a shift, I accepted immediately and quit right after I got off of the phone. She was outraged and when I finally went back for my paycheck she waved it around in the air while trying to lecture me, and then told me I was not welcome in her store ever again. Retail has got to be a last resort. They expect you to be a lemming, and they get really upset when you return their lack of respect to them.

Look for a technical corporation, which tend to be more laidback these days. Beyond that, try to get in with one where the founder is still directly involved in day-to-day operations. Entreprenuers are a lot more fun and tend to run things as one big team instead of putting a stifling bureaucracy in place that legislates the life out of everything. When my employer's founder was still walking the halls, we had a lot of fun and were massively successful. Since he was moved on when a bad merger was forced by the Board of Directors, things have been a lot worse. Slowly, every 'fun' aspect of the workplace has been sucked out and replaced by the same stuffed shirt boring atmosphere that most corporations must have. With all the wonderful bureaucracy came lots of financial losses and 'brain drain' that we had never seen before. Oh well. My group still operates about the same as we always did because our management structure was here during the good ol' days and we try to continue working that way despite the forces mounting against us.

Retail does suck. I like helping people shop, and all, but the management tends to be horrible, frustrated, bossy types with low people skills.

Tech jobs are good, with one caveat. If you are a programmer, you have to check the methodology (the mechanics of how programming is managed) the shop uses. Agile methodologies (XP) are a wonderful way to program, but they demand that you work closely with a partner. Typically this is very stressfull in the beginning, even for personable NT's.

Depending on the shop, they may leave you with a partner long enough to work out the rough edges and that's great. You start finishing eachother's sentences. But six months is more like average, I think. Other shops only leave you together for a few weeks at a time. Not enough time, especially if you're partnered with the wrong kind of person.

I like agile programming, and think it's great for the company. But it is very stressfull, any you are really at the mercy of your partner's goodwill. My team is all (with one notable exception, and there's history there) good guys. Now that I know I'm aspie, we can work together at making communication easier.

And agile methodologies are dynamic. You may not get to finish things before you have to move on to something else. A mixed blessing. And you can't - don't - ever - want to get "posessive" about your code. All code is collectively owned in an agile shop, so you have to accept whatever happens to it. If you feel like your code is "your baby" -- look for a different place!

You may not think it's worth the hassle, and would rather look for a more traditional programming methodology. They tend to support people staying in the same part of the system, interacting with fewer people and having more clear-cut and ordered "rules" about code and behaviour (we throw things, laugh, run and play jokes a lot here!).

Insurance company business is big here and they tend to be very rigid. You can get by on blue suit - brown suit alternation, and be on the same part of the same system for years.

Government and education software jobs have been the least rigid places I've worked (except for the current one). There are hundreds of rules and procedures in government shops, and that means your deadlines are not as tight as in private shops. And there are many rules protecting personal rights, so where I've been the dress codes were less strict. If you play by the rules, you're pretty safe.

Private shops are wildly variable. Here again, stay away from programming for retail -- they pay worst of any industry, and typically are BAD about other benefits.

Medical applications and hospitals can be great shops! Most of them are reasonable and the benefits are great.

Chemical and industrial shops pay best, and require the best math skills. I can't speak to working in them, though.

Sure a technical job is great, unless you want to actually be able to find a job (without ended up in India). You can't go wrong with accounting. What AS people need are options. They don't need to retreat to the area they feel the most comfortable in. Accounting opens the most options. I am finishing a masters degree in accounting, and I had 5 interviews last week and more this week. AS people are the most likely to find and keep employment in areas with the most security, stability and options.

Corporate culture can kiss my arse. I'll take the detour around it, thankyou very much. Someday I hope to get into building up housing to accomodate the increasing baby boomer retirees. The market is HUGE and ready to explode soon! Corporate culture and the blue collar fad that society is obsessed with is good for me. The dreams that so many people have of a cushy office job will keep them out of the real games. In most cases, they will be simple slaves, bowing to the pressure of arrogant "smile to your face-stab you in the back" types. If you're lucky then you can climb the ladder but even then, it's a stressful environment.

Of course it takes alot to upkeep housing too but in my opinion, it's not stressful. It's funny that everyone I know who are rich and running apartments don't seem to have a trace of a snobby attitude. They are down to earth, happy and easy going. This is a sharp contrast to the typical office monkey who is stressed out, driving their luxury sedan 30 over the speed limit like they have to be everywhere 10 minutes ago, with a scowl on and their head against the backrest.
Nope, that's not for me.

However, don't take my pessimistic statements too seriously. A friend of mine graduated from engineering and he works for an amazing company. They believe in "people first" and in giving people 4 vacations a year if they want it.

I think I have worked out why the whole Job Game is a Rigged Gimmick that fails to reward talent, hard work and all the other alleged 'desirable qualities' employers spout about yet rarely adhere to.

Below is a quote from an email I received from one of the web-based recruitment sites. I shall not say much about it; I think the missive speaks for itself.



According to our latest jobseeker survey, British workers cannot spend enough time with their co-workers. 73% of Brits are meeting up with their work mates at the weekend, whilst 39% holiday with their colleagues!

And it's not just friendship that employees are finding in the workplace. One in four of you have either had a long-term relationship or married a colleague and 44% have dated a co-worker.

What is really interesting is the extent to which British workers are voluntarily choosing to spend their spare time with colleagues. So what may be causing this trend?

Well, British workers work the longest hours in the EU. This means that colleagues are becoming an important part of each other's lives. Also, work mates understand the stresses of your job more than those you don’t share a career with. And for those people who are moving further afield to pursue career opportunities, the workplace can become a pivotal part of their support network.


I think this tells us everything that the World of Work is really about; another snidey popularity contest.