Do you think it's important to fit into the culture of your company?

[CCrox24]

Sometimes they say that it's the "people" that make the job. Well, I work with mostly older people - and the culture here I would say it very sterile and absent of any creativity whatsoever. I am wondering if this is going to start bothering me...

[paiger81]

Sometimes they say that it's the "people" that make the job. Well, I work with mostly older people - and the culture here I would say it very sterile and absent of any creativity whatsoever. I am wondering if this is going to start bothering me...


Depends on the job. I mean, I've always worked wit holder people, but they job cultures have in no way been boring.

[wordsmith]

I work with mostly older people, but the culture, such as it is, is fine.

[coll214]

I work with mostly older people too. i think it has the opposite effect, I'll always be the young one! Try to slowly incorporate some 'creativity' as you said slowly but surely...

[yankeeyosh]

I think so...otherwise it will be a miserable experience. For example, most people where I work are conservative traditionalists, while I crave a dynamic, open environment. This compounds my frustration with this company. Also, it does bother me that there are few people under 45 on my floor...it's very hard to relate to people.

[ToughButch]

It definitely helps and is definitely a plus to fit into the culture of your company. However, when I was looking for my first job out of college......this wasn't a priority. It was just a matter of survival to get myself on my feet in the real world. I took a job, gained some stability, and in future employment prospects this will be of importance to me.

[Adam Strange]

The culture at my company is hip and irreverent. “Fitting in” may seem more important to me because I moved to an entirely new city and have no other social life (yet). I haven’t been there for that long but it seems unlikely that someone would be left behind because he or she doesn’t embrace the culture of the place. One of our strongest staff writers (in my opinion the strongest) is not on any of the goofy e-mail threads we send each other and I’ve never seen him out with the “gang” (presumably by choice) and he gets along just fine.

[WorkInProgress]

I think the "people" make or break the job as well. If I were in a miserable work environment, I'd walk, even though my company is great. In fact, I turned down a job that came with a substantial raise with my company primarily because the work environment at the new opportunity would have made me very unhappy, frustrated, stuck, claustrophobic, etc. My current situation is very good, even though there are good days and bad days.

I, too, work mostly with people older than we are, and get along fine. I've never had issues connecting to those older than I am (as a group), though. I'm young enough to be the child of most of them, and I've always been good with parents. Plus, they see me as capable (or seem to, at least), which is very, very important to me.

[wordsmith]

I, too, work mostly with people older than we are, and get along fine. I've never had issues connecting to those older than I am (as a group), though. I'm young enough to be the child of most of them, and I've always been good with parents. Plus, they see me as capable (or seem to, at least), which is very, very important to me.

Same, here.

I have to be comfortable in my environment, but I think I'm happy with an environment that some wouldn't enjoy. I don't really need my work environment to be full of same-age peers for me to be comfortable, as long as I get along with my coworkers and they pull their weight, I don't care how old they are or the level of hipness. As luck would have it, the people who have passed through here who are my age have been mostly slackers I didn't enjoy working with, because they didn't do their work. So I'll take the older folks, at least the ones I work with.

[WorkInProgress]

I don't really need my work environment to be full of same-age peers for me to be comfortable.

I just recently got a new coworker my age, and I really like her. However, in the past, with other jobs where I've been around people my own age, I've never liked it much. So I probably wouldn't turn down a job with people mostly my age, but it would really be a selling point, for me.

[allie1105]

I think its REALLY important. I definitely didn't fit in at my last job - I am bubbly and happy and eager, and everyone else was quiet and reserved. I hated it, and it was obvious that they weren't too fond of me.

At my current job, I fit in well with the culture. If this career was a good fit for me, I would like it here - but I don't want to do advertising sales forever. One of my other coworkers, on the other hand, hates it SO MUCH because the culture does not suit him.

How long have you been with your current job?

[wordsmith]

I just recently got a new coworker my age, and I really like her. However, in the past, with other jobs where I've been around people my own age, I've never liked it much. So I probably wouldn't turn down a job with people mostly my age, but it would really be a selling point, for me.

Yup, I have a coworker who is a year younger than me, in our graphic design dept., and I really like her, too. But I've also had a string of coworkers who hover around my age who are writers, and they have yet to pull their weight. My favorite coworker by far is a woman in her early fifties.

[Kitty]

I definitely don't care about older coworkers - my biggest issue is that the culture be fair with a sense of camaraderie. I'd probably sacrafice everything else to work in an environment free of gossip and petty, selfish, immature behavior.

[shorty]

I work with mostly older people too (most are at least twice my age). I wouldn't really mind except they seem to think I'm the stereotypical young person, which gets kind of annoying. Plus it's hard to relate to some of the things they talk about. And honestly, I don't care about some of the things they say (or the 'advice' they give to me).

The other thing is that most of them are from small towns/rural areas (and they are white). I grew up in the city (not a big city, but a city... and I'm not white). I didn't think that would really matter, but it's hard when they all talk about hunting and fishing and farm equipment. My family never did any of that. I really can't relate to that either so it's hard.

I think I could handle it... if people at work didn't think we had to be incredibly personal. I wouldn't mind just going to work to do my job and not acting like everyone is my buddy. But that's the way it is at my job. So in that situation, I think it would be easier if I could relate to them. It really does bother me sometimes. But sometimes I think it's just the people themselves and the attitude of the whole company. If they were younger and acted the same way, I'd still hate it.

[wordsmith]

I definitely don't care about older coworkers - my biggest issue is that the culture be fair with a sense of camaraderie.

Yup. Camaraderie and fairness are really all that are biggies for me.

[wordsmith]

The other thing is that most of them are from small towns/rural areas (and they are white). I grew up in the city (not a big city, but a city... and I'm not white). I didn't think that would really matter, but it's hard when they all talk about hunting and fishing and farm equipment. My family never did any of that. I really can't relate to that either so it's hard.

Be careful. I am white and from a small town/rural area. I worked with mostly nonwhite people in a large city in my first job, and we got along famously. I don't know anything about hunting or fishing, and only know what I know about farm equipment because I paid for my books in college by putting it together summers. But I did invite them and their kids out to the farm in the middle of nowhere that I grew up on, to play with pigs and cattle and kittens and run around 80 acres of pasture. Differences are an opportunity to learn new things from, not a reason to write sombody off as unrelatable. Just because somebody doesn't have a similar background to you doesn't mean you can't dig deeper and find common things.