Ever find yourself pondering the meaning of life? Well, starting a day contemplating existence and ending it rushing out of an absurdly honest workplace does it for me. If you're anything like me, Jack Superblack, suicidal and often humorously disturbed by the cosmic joke of existence, you might find the relentless transparency at Netflix either a breath of 'fresh' existentialist air or the last nail in your career's coffin.
Netflix, a perennial beacon of secrecy to us outsiders with its never-revealed show stats and rare movie releases, is ironically a glass house internally. Co-founder Reed Hastings, who introduced the company's ethos in a 125-slide epic saga back in 2009, was perhaps chuckling in his high castle at the thought of ex-Hollywood execs squirming under the "stunning colleagues" and "honesty always" banners.
Imagine, being in the middle of scripting your next Emmy buzz project while your colleague blatantly comments that your last script was as appealing as a soggy toast at the communal Google Doc. Refreshing? More like a corporate gladiator fight, just with more passive-aggressiveness and less blood—usually.
It gets me thinking about death. Not in a morbid way—or perhaps exactly in a morbid way—but the sheer existential dread of facing 'the keeper test' where your worthiness is constantly in question, is like asking Sisyphus if the boulder feels heavier today. It's hilariously brutal.
These memos, analyzed and pored over by top execs (and any peeping Tom at Netflix with access to their ultra-transparent memo docs), are less about fostering a team and more about grooming a band of corporate Spartans—honest, brutal, and stunningly dressed.
In a world where we often date to marry alone, Netflix’s approach ironically makes me feel less worried about dying alone. At least loneliness is straightforward, unlike their culture memos.
Here's to contemplating the absurdity of corporate transparency, and hoping there's good Wi-Fi wherever we end up post-mortem, because wouldn't it be just sad to miss out on the latest Netflix release in the afterlife?
Based on the original article "Responsibility Over Freedom: How Netflix’s Culture Has Changed".
