{"id":5451,"date":"2014-09-25T08:12:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T15:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.wpengine.com\/?p=5451"},"modified":"2016-03-01T14:14:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T22:14:25","slug":"casual-fridays-clock-watchers-smoke-breaks-other-culture-defining-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/casual-fridays-clock-watchers-smoke-breaks-other-culture-defining-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Casual Fridays, Clock Watchers, Smoke Breaks & Other Culture Defining Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I read Jenn\u2019s most recent blog post<\/a>\u00a0the other day, my first reaction was to add a\u00a0comment. After all, company culture has been something that has come up literally thousands of times for me during interviews over the years.<\/p>\n

But then rather than simply adding a short comment beneath Jenn\u2019s post, I thought I would just write a stand-alone piece.<\/p>\n

The notion of company culture is something my clients would always want me to promote to candidates. Perhaps more important though, was their expectation that I would carefully explore and assess the candidates\u2019 suitability (and therefore potential fit) for their specific culture.<\/p>\n

Assessing a candidate\u2019s \u2018cultural suitability\u2019 for a client<\/em> is one thing. But having recruited hundreds of people into my own teams over the years has meant that I have also had to think very carefully as to whether certain candidates (no matter how good they looked on paper) would be a suitable cultural fit for my business.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I would ask specific questions hoping to solicit a particular response. But fortunately (as so often happens in an interview) it would be the candidates\u2019 own questions or passing comments that would paint the perfect picture of the type of workplace culture they would be most suited to.<\/p>\n

And quite often it wasn\u2019t mine \u2026<\/p>\n

Here are few memorable questions and comments from candidates that I still remember to this day which very quickly helped me sort the yesses from the nos when it came to assessing cultural suitability.<\/p>\n

“Would I get my own birthday celebration or would I have to share a cake with others?”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s incredible how many candidates would ask a question along those lines! Who knew that mature, experienced professionals would obsess over whether the team would celebrate with them on their actual birthday, or whether they would just be included in the monthly \u2018sing-song\u2019 and afternoon cake festivities.<\/p>\n

Personally my policy was to always give team members their actual birthday off. And then once a month we\u2019d get together and wish everyone celebrating a birthday in that particular month a \u2018happy birthday\u2019 with a nice cake.<\/p>\n

At one stage I had nearly 60 team members in one office. If we\u2019d celebrated individual birthdays, my staff entertainment budget would have been blown on cakes alone and I would have had an obese (not to mention bordering on diabetic) team of recruiters sitting around me!<\/p>\n

“Are you a clock-watcher? Because if you are, \u2018this\u2019 probably won\u2019t work!”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the candidate said. And when she emphasised the word \u2018this<\/em>\u2019, she kept flicking her finger vigorously between us.<\/p>\n

Whilst I am certainly not<\/em> a clock-watcher, I am (and have always been) a very punctual person. And I believe having respect for other people’s time has always been one of the core values in any of my businesses.<\/p>\n

My response to Brigid at the time was that I never patrolled the office to see if anyone\u00a0was one minute late for work; who may have snuck out early at the end of the day; or who may have taken a slightly longer lunch. But if I arranged\u00a0a meeting (whether with the whole team or with an individual) then given that I would always be on time, I would expect the same of everyone else.<\/p>\n

It was when she rolled her eyes at that point that I knew the only meeting I\u2019d ever be having with Brigid would be that interview.<\/p>\n

“What\u2019s your Friday dress code?”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Like I said I was never a clock-watcher. But I was<\/em> a bit of stickler for dress code. (If any former team members are reading this post, they\u2019re probably joining Brigid on the eye rolling front right about now!).<\/p>\n

I always engendered a \u2018smart casual\u2019 working environment. Not \u2018suit and tie\u2019 but we all had to look professional at all times.<\/p>\n

My philosophy has always been that if you are visiting clients then you should always be well presented and (at the time!) I just didn\u2019t feel that jeans equated to professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo is it a yes or no for jeans on a Friday?<\/em>\u201d, Sheldon asked \u2013 slightly more demandingly now.<\/p>\n

I explained that I wasn\u2019t comfortable with anyone dressed in jeans visiting clients (call me old fashioned!). And that if I let the team wear jeans on a Friday, then this meant that for 20% of the week the team\u00a0wouldn\u2019t be out visiting clients.<\/p>\n

Sheldon laughed sarcastically.<\/p>\n

Sheldon didn\u2019t get a second interview.<\/p>\n

How times have changed! I\u2019ve worn jeans every single day for the last three years \u2026 and visited hundreds of clients.<\/p>\n

Sorry Sheldon!<\/p>\n

“What do you do for Melbourne Cup?”\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Australia, the Melbourne Cup is the most famous (and celebrated) of all horse races. It\u2019s often referred to as \u201cthe race that stops a nation<\/em>\u201d. But I never thought it would become \u201cthe race that stops an interview<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Melissa clearly enjoyed going to the races.<\/p>\n

I explained to her that every year on Cup Day we put lunch on for the team, we watched the race on the TV in the boardroom and we organised an office sweep. Of course I explained that if she wanted to go to the races she could always \u00a0take the day off as annual leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I would have to put in a leave form!<\/em>\u201d, she shrieked (literally).\u00a0\u201cMy friends in Melbourne all get the day off!<\/em>\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s because in Melbourne it\u2019s an official public holiday<\/em>\u201d, I explained trying not to laugh.<\/p>\n

I lost all concentration from that point.<\/p>\n

“What would you say if I told you I was a smoker?”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Well are you? <\/em><\/p>\n

Of course I didn\u2019t ask that, but I definitely thought it.<\/p>\n

I jokingly said, \u201cWell all my non-smoking team members get an extra week\u2019s leave every year since they don\u2019t take 30 minutes a day for smoke breaks<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cynthia looked mortified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s blatant discrimination<\/em>\u201d, she said very matter of factly.<\/p>\n

Did I mention I was joking?<\/p>\n

“I really prefer to have my own office”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gosh even when I had my own office when I managed a team in Hong Kong, it was all glass and the door was always open!<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do realise this is a recruitment consultant role<\/em>\u201d, I said to Adrianna, since I have never known any<\/em> recruiter to have their own office.<\/p>\n

But it was when she explained that she didn\u2019t really like anyone working around her since she found it extremely off-putting that I decided\u00a0she would never be a part of my team.<\/p>\n

I received an email from Adrianna the next morning. \u201cPaul, I\u2019ve had a good think about the job overnight and I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s what I\u2019m after right now. Thanks for considering my application<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Great minds think alike!<\/p>\n

Have you had any culture defining moments? Feel free to share them with us!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are few memorable questions and comments from candidate interviews over the years which very quickly helped me sort the yesses from the nos when it came to assessing cultural suitability for my own teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,22,30],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCasual Fridays and Other Culture Defining Moments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are few memorable questions & comments from interviews that quickly helped me sort the yeses from the nos when it came to assessing cultural suitability.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/casual-fridays-clock-watchers-smoke-breaks-other-culture-defining-moments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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