The new employer culture change

Our company is getting snapped up by a much larger company. This has been in the news. Nothing new here. I have some comments about the changes in culture that we are going through.

Well, they took my photo for my brand new ID badge. Our old badges were just RFID devices that let us in the door and clocked us in and out. We are going to have to wear ID badges. That is going to be culture shock for a bunch of people here. I had to at my last job. It is annoying to be legally blind and everyone expects you to read their name off their badge. Then there are the times people who have names that I couldn’t pronounce on a bet show up.

New people are overrunning the place. This is new. There was a village feeling at our company. We really only have one location with a few people who are remote. That is changing by miles. I have met every single person at this company at least once. I’m the IT guy. I created their account. I got them a system. I fix broken stuff. Many people at the company had this kind of contact with most if not all of the company. We hang out together. We party and play in bands together. Now there will be more people from the other company working here than original people. This is awesome from a getting work done standpoint, but that village feel is out the window.

Something else we are going to have to get used to is last name first. My Android phone refuses to list people last name first. Google Mail refuses to list people last name first. Up to now just about everything at this company was listed first name first. Everything at the new company is going to be last name first. I’ll get used to it. I prefer last name first.

I’m not going to get in to the changes that will happen that are in the rulebook. Those are expected. I’m talking here more about the feel of the place. It hasn’t happened full bore yet. Not by any measure. I really can’t wait to know what this place (or where ever we are) feels like in three years. How many of us will have moved on to other projects that are not even related to this company?