Netflix is known for its eccentric yet successful work culture with many startups also taking a page out of their book to emulate the same structure. Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings has a book, ‘No Rules Rules’ coming out this year talking all about the work culture at Netflix.
The company is known for paying its employees well and give them perks such as absence of expense policy. In fact they even encourage employees to meet recruiters from different companies so that they can know what the highest pay for their designation is. Talk about being chill, right?
The employees get a sense of freedom and autonomy to work the way they want but they’re always reminded by the company that if they don’t perform well they could be replaced by someone else just like sports teams replace members.
This is an upside for employees as they can execute decisions if they think that’s what’s right for the company.
For example, Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer, spent 100 million dollars for the first two seasons of ‘House of Cards’ without taking permission from his boss. This move as we all know today paved the way for production of original content digitally and this wouldn’t have been possible without Netflix encouraging its workers to take such bold decisions.
But this kind of pressure can be stressful for many and can lead to feeling overwhelmed and insecure while working which is very demotivating.
One of the company’s policies is “farming for dissent” which originated after the whole Qwikster fiasco in 2011. Basically this practice allows workers to run their ideas by colleagues and let them tell you what works and what doesn’t in the plan. Even if the coworker is your boss, the employee is entitled to their opinion and can freely express their criticisms.
Policies like these are what makes Netflix such a successful company and one that’s evolving continuously despite its previous shortcomings or high expectations from its employees.