I have a good employer with a solid salary, but I got an invitation for an interview with a very prestigious company in my field of work so I said yes to the interview. On the appointed time and date, I arrived at the company and the entrance hall was just amazing. I was impressed and I felt like I want to be there. The HR picked me up and said we start with the tour and then discuss the job in his office. We arrived at a section where I would work and the workplace was nearly empty and I said: Oh awesome you still let people WFH. I did not see his reaction but he replied: No, they are on morning energizer let’s see them, it is an important part of our culture. I had no idea what is morning energizer and I did not ask since we were going there anyway. We came to the doors with the big sign Cafeteria and entered. There were several circles made of people holding hands. Some were by my guess composed of 10 staff members some might have over 20. In each circle stood the manager and said stuff like “Technical designer team finished Project Blablabla yesterday 2 days before the deadline, LET’S GO!” and with that, the team cheered and lifted their hands all in unison. Then the managers stood in line at the exit doors and I kid you not the employees started jogging and high-fiving them like you can see when a sports team exits the field. The HR looked at me and said “We are big here on mental health and employee motivation. Let’s see the Rec room since we are in the resting section of the building”
The room was… insane. I never saw anything like this before. There were several tables from Fussball to Pool. Darts, some consoles, and napping areas. He looked at me and deadpan seriously said “Here we meet after work to let some steam off or sleep when there are telecalls at 4 am with people from Australia or Asia. “
I asked him “So this is not allowed during work”?
He said “No, but it's accessible for the employee’s family as well and we can all have fun together. Kids especially love it here and sometimes stay here till late at night to play. Some employee family members even volunteer to babysit here when we need to pull some extra work and schools are already closed”
We finished the tour through the rest of the building and we entered his office and had some small talk while he was making drinks in some juice maker, which he would not shut up about. After an HOUR of his talk about the company and my position he let me ask questions and I asked
“And how is overtime handled?”
“We as a collective here decided that we won't paycheck our overtimes but donate it to the sick bank”
“I think I would not mind giving that hour or two, what is the average OT here?”
“15 per week”
“I am not sure I can put in such extra hours just like that, I have a lot of responsibilities in my personal life which must be handled either with extra money or with my own time”
“This is not going well right now, we like people here who have their priorities set straight. We want Adults, not children, and if you think that fun comes first then you are the latter and this is no place for you”
“I think that this interview is over, well sorry for wasting our time, have a nice day”
And this was my first encounter with a corporation.