![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/images\/picnic_op.jpg\")
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Dear Office-Politics,<\/p>\n
I need some insight in figuring out what type of workplace culture I’ve joined. I joined a new company in April.<\/p>\n
At first it seemed friendly enough. I wasn’t looking for perfection nor to assume that my co-workers would become my “friends.” Though I’m at a loss to define it. It’s a very quiet, busy, cubicle environment (only mgrs have offices)<\/em> and most everyone (including my team)<\/em> keeps to themselves, except for the occasional happy hour. I’ve been at my new job since April — I have observed that even the managers do not associate or collaborate with each other — their doors stay closed a lot.<\/p>\n Functionally, we’re all in the same group. So… a week ago we had our annual group picnic – it was about fifty of us. The picnic was slated from 12-3. Most of the women were dressed business casual, a few were casually dressed, and a couple of business suits – with flip flops or tennis shoes. Mind you, the picnic notice had pictures of volleyball, softball, etc. No — we didn’t play . It was very awkward and strange to me — we all sat down to eat — conversation was minimal — and I noticed that even the other departments did not really talk to each other — it was like sitting in the company cafeteria. There was no music as well.<\/p>\n I thought it weird because I learned most of them have worked together for 5+ years – some have been there 10-15 years together. While I ate, I struck up a conversation with a woman I’d just met, and those immediately next to me. When I finished eating, I looked up…. more than half of the people had left the pavilion, including every one of my team members, and my boss. Some were walking down towards the lake, and some were standing in the parking lot next to the pavilion. I don’t know where the others went. Twenty min later (and just a bit irritated), I found my team and a few others on the putt-putt golf course. As each team played, conversation was very minimal, a joke or two, and more disturbingly, my boss (I was adopted to her team after showing up alone) and another woman stood apart from our team, giggling and whispering to each other the whole time — like teenagers. When the game was over, the scores were announced and we all headed back to the pavilion. A few people went straight to their cars and left. I followed the rest of the group back to the pavilion. It was 2:30 — the pavilion was empty, the food had been packed up and everyone else was gone. There were only 8 of us left. My boss looked around and asked “who was going to stick around.”<\/em> All said “not me”<\/em> She said okay…and said ‘See you tomorrow.’<\/em><\/p>\n What am I missing? There’s definitely an undercurrent — not totally unpleasant — but I can’t put my finger on it. No one seemed hostile towards the other, but the picnic seemed like a company of strangers… or do I just feel like I’m on the outside?<\/p>\n Thank you<\/p>\n Cultural Misfit<\/p>\n OFFICE-POLITICS REPLY BY CHRISTINE COMAFORD-LYNCH<\/strong> Dear Cultural Misfit,<\/p>\n Play this game with me….<\/p>\n See yourself as an anthropologist exploring a different culture. What are its tribal customs? Costumes? Rituals? Seems like the culture at your new job is unlike any other you\u2019ve experienced before. Do you want to join this culture? Can you be comfortable in it?<\/p>\n It appears that your colleagues are fine with the culture. It appears that everyone treats their job as such \u2014 a job \u2014 not a place to build relationships and connection. That\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n My main question is can that be ok for you? I\u2019d give your job a good solid 90 days simply so you can explore this new culture and find colleagues you resonate with. Out of fifty people I\u2019m confident you\u2019ll find some. If not, you may want to do some soul-searching to determine if there were signs in the interviewing process that you may have missed. If so, resolve to look more closely into the culture and human dynamics during future job interviews. And if the culture genuinely is affecting your work performance and overall happiness, start your quest for a new job.<\/p>\n Thank you for writing to Office Politics.<\/p>\n Best regards,<\/p>\n Christine Comaford-Lynch, Author, <\/strong>Rules for Renegades<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Christine has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX Business Network, PBS, CNET and is frequently quoted in the business, technology and general press at large. Stanford Graduate School of Business has done two case studies on her and PBS has featured her in three specials (Triumph of the Nerds, Nerds 2.0.1, and Nerd TV ). CNET has broadcast two specials covering her unconventional rise to success as a woman with neither a high school diploma nor college degree. Christine believes we can do well and do good, using business as a path for personal development, wealth creation, and philanthropy.<\/p>\n (Video bio at: http:\/\/www.mightyventures.com\/bio.php <\/a>) Dear Office-Politics, I need some insight in figuring out what type of workplace culture I’ve joined. I joined a new company in April. At first it seemed friendly enough. I wasn’t looking for perfection nor to assume that my co-workers would become my “friends.” Though I’m at a loss to define it. It’s a very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[244,665,325],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cliques","category-office-politics","tag-christine-comaford-lynch","tag-office-politics","tag-rules-for-renegades"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"christine](\"\/images\/comaford-lynch.jpg\")
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<\/a>New York Times bestselling author Christine Comaford-Lynch<\/strong> is CEO of Mighty Ventures<\/a>, an innovation accelerator which helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value. She has built and sold 5 of her own businesses with an average 700% return on investment, served as a board director or in-the-trenches adviser to 36 startups, and has invested in over 200 startups as a venture capitalist or angel investor. Christine has consulted to the White House (Clinton and Bush), 700 of the Fortune 1000, and hundreds of small businesses. She has repeatedly identified and championed key trends and technologies years before market acceptance. Christine\u2019s popular column on www.BusinessWeek.com\/SmallBiz<\/a> launched in January 2007.Christine has led many lives: Buddhist monk, Microsoft engineer, geisha trainee, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Her triumphs and disasters are revealed in her New York Times (and USA Today, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Amazon.com ) bestselling business book: Rules for Renegades<\/a>: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality. The book is available at all major retailers, the Office-Politics bookstore<\/a>, or via www.RulesForRenegades.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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