https://medium.com/surviving-ideo/surviving-ideo-4568d51bcfb6 #design #ui/ux
I believe it. I've worked with them on two different occasions - like ten years ago. They basically appropriate and rebrand tools and practices of community organizers and social activists for corporate and consumer consumption.
🤮
The sad thing is, the people (esp leadership and management) who actually NEED to read these articles are the ones who won’t because they genuinely think they’re the BEST and the SMARTEST in the industry and that their companies are basically God’s gifts to us lowly commoners and workers everywhere..... Serious question though— how do you guys think one should (diplomatically, nonchalantly, non-intrusively) slip this article into the offending leadership and management’s awareness? My last company was like this to a T (quite scary how similar they are— from the aggressively fake positivity to the fervent kool-aid drinking and culty indoctrination of lofty company values (that literally none of the leaders follow) to the shallow “just for show” displays of fake caring about employees to the toxic politics and demeaning treatment of minorities and those lower on the totem pole.....I had to triple check to make sure George actually wasn’t talking about the company I was at!). The most nauseating and disgusting part of the company where I finally chose to resign wasn’t just the blatant exploitation of workers (including not paying interns a single cent for working 50 hours a week, often over time, for a year), but the extreme and egregious hypocrisy from the leadership and management team. Management would regularly espouse on the sacred company values of “authenticity”, “safe space,” “bring your full selves to work”, “full transparency”, “humility” and “honesty,” but then would turn around and lie blatantly RIGHT into our face. Like, the lies were so bloody obvious and bad that a 5 year old could easily find the (many, many) evidence refuting them. “Employee health above all” was also one of the company’s favorite slogan to indoctrinate. But then right after these long ass indoctrination meetings (where we, I shit you not, sit in a circle and hold each other’s hands), we would be bombarded with multiple requests and assignments from these leaders to finish “ASAP,” didn’t matter if it was the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most infuriatingly, I had asked during the interview what the expected hours for employees are like and how remote-friendly the culture was. The CEO herself as well as other execs assured me that the company was SO family-friendly and flexible and that everyone works 40 hours max at most! Well, it didn’t take me long to realize that these “perks” that the exec team were touting actually applied only for them, and not the rest of us regular peasants. So, my director could take a 2 week vacation with her family and kids on a whim and leave all her work to us, but none of us were allowed to do this without scheduling way ahead and providing plenty of evidence and information about why we are taking some time off. Execs could saunter into the office any time they want (or maybe just work from home for extended periods of time), it any time that any of us lowly peasants dared to do so, we got “gently” reprimanded and reminded us that “being in the office face to face at the same time brings us closer together for creativity and collaboration!” (but I guess the execs are the special creatures where these rules don’t apply). When I refused to participate in one of their many culty company events (“supposedly optional but highly, highly encouraged”) where we had to, yes, sit in a circle again and take turns sharing our deepest and darkest secrets and trauma with everyone at the company (including our CEO and all members of the exec team), because this wildly inappropriate, unregulated, unprofessional “group therapy session” is needed to demonstrate our bravery, inner strength, and commitment to open our hearts and trust each other. I honestly can’t make this up. Seeing the utter shock and disbelief on my face, a coworker thought that perhaps, I was still fairly new and so didn’t understand what was going on. She kindly and helpfully then told me that “It’s totally okay to feel strong emotions as you discuss these traumas. It’s okay to cry. In fact, it’s expected that most people will cry in these sessions!” Right then and there, I realized that this company was actually a cult, and I wanted no part in this. So I got up and respectfully informed everyone that I was not comfortable in participating in this and promptly left, thoughts of wondering if I was in a 1984 simulation or Truman show swirling around in my head. The very next day, HR and my manager (who actually was literally never in the office, and who scared the shit out of me until I realized and remembered that oh right, this is the face of my manager) sat me down and told me sternly that, actually, participating in these “team events” is crucial and mandatory for all employees, and that my abrupt leaving was not only insubordination but also very disruptive to the “flow of energy” in the group. I then silently pulled up the email flyer of said culty event and pointed them to the clear words stating “not mandatory— but we would all be thrilled to have you join us in this special bonding experience!!” right on top of the flyer. Silence. More silence. And then HR quickly mumbled something about how the (unpaid, working 60 hours a week) interns must have misunderstood or misprinted the words on the flyer. I really didn’t want to use this “card”, but it was clear that these people were pros at throwing the ones they claim to care about so much under the bus, and would always double down than admit any mistakes on their part. I have already decided right then and there that I was resigning, so I no longer cared too much about what they thought and whether I should try to still preserve some cordial ties to these cult members. I then calmly stated to them that: 1) I never gave consent to participate. There were no forms to sign. I did not, in anyway, through any means (Slack, email, verbal) give consent that I was willingly participating 2) Even if I did give some consent (which I most certainly did not), this consent is waived and useless due to the clearly printed false advertisement (saying it’s not mandatory on the flyer but then changing course and said that it actually was mandatory) 3) Under California law, forcing/tricking/threatening an employee to disclose extremely personal matters is an invasion of privacy. Doubly so if an employee actually did not give any consent and actually clearly expressed their discomfort and discomfort to participate. In front of a room full of witnesses and also documented in writing. 4) Because such sensitive and private info like personal trauma are shared widely across the group to EVERY SINGLE employee, the company is liable if any of these employees, either accidentally or maliciously, leak out any extremely private info about their coworkers to others. (of course the company did not provide any forms, disclaimers, or procedures about confidentiality and the need for everyone to protect each other’s confidential and extremely private information 🤦♀️) 5) Participating in unlicensed and unmoderated “group therapy” was most definitely not listed as a job requirement for ANY of the employees at the company. I printed out my job description and also a few other random job descriptions for other roles and showed them that there was no mention of “group participation of personal matters”, “group therapy,” or “collective trauma bonding” in any of these listings. Ergo, I wonder why these events are then now considered mandatory? Could they explain to me what exactly is the relevance for these activities and their direct relation to and impact of our jobs? 6) Asking employees to recall and relive and reprocess and then SHARE all of their trauma from childhood to now (yes, even from childhood) IN FRONT OF THEIR CO-WORKERS, MANAGERS, AND THE CEO (!!!!!) without ANY licensed professionals or ANY trained experts or staff well-verses with dealing with trauma ON-SITE is not only extremely stupid (seriously, I really wonder wha the collective IQ is of the org), blatantly irresponsible, grossly inappropriate, but also borderline unethical. It puts the company squarely as the direct entity responsible for any repercussions and liable for any negative consequences that result directly from participating in this ill-conceived, dangerous event. Example: if an employee, after being asked to remember, relive, and retell to ALL her coworkers and the CEO the vivid details of the traumatic sexual abuse and extreme physical violence she endured as a child, becomes inconsolable and overwhelmed after retelling these intensely painful and private parts of her past and also receiving no actual support (because, again, literally 0 clinically LICENSED staff or trained clinicians on-site), then goes home to end up taking her own life. The company would be 💯 liable for this. Due to being surrounded by lawyers in both my family and social circles, with many specializing in employment law and labor law, I am at least somewhat aware of workplace law regulations. Manager and HR were silent after they heard me lay out these potential scenarios in a detached and matter-of-fact way. I was then allowed to leave and go back to my work. I turned in my resignation at the end of that week (all very professional, cordial, and respectful) and was able to actually negotiate a pretty sizable severance complete with full health benefits and 401k contributions. I think maybe they just realized that I am a ticking time bomb 💣 and best to just appease me 😂. To this day, I’m simply astounded and flabbergasted at how such a company can exist. And how they haven’t been sued to oblivion yet. Then, I recently found out that 1) there were actually several lawsuits against the company and most importantly 2) many of the execs actually came from IDEO........... Everything makes sense now. The end. 🤯
“authenticity”, “safe space,” “bring your full selves to work”, “full transparency”, “humility” and “honesty,” in my experience it corporate - without attribution, safe guards and payment - generally ends up being exploitation, appropriation and coercion.
I know :(. I learned the hard way. It’s like deciphering double speak.
Wow. Way to go! That sounds so unethical, especially with the imbalance of power.
"But you can't spell culture without the word Cult." 👏 The issues outlined here I don't think are isolated to IDEO. Innovation agencies hiring and promotions tends to be based on social currency and likeability (i.e., "hanging out with the people you want to have a beer with") so lends itself to being cliquish and exclusionary. It's goes far beyond racial or gender lines; it's also cult-like on personality type and thinking styles.
+1. Very good points.
Yet these places often tout about how open and transparent they are. And also how much they value diversity 😂. It’s really all about conformity— conformity to their ideas of personalities and “fit” and how hard you drink the koolaid. The cognitive dissonance is so real. Really fascinated and interesting in understanding how people deal with this.