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Netflix Updates Culture Memo, Refuses to Cater to ‘Woke’ Crowd

Dave Chappelle: The Closer. c. Mathieu Bitton

&NewLine;<p><em>Netflix isn&&num;8217&semi;t for everyone&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s okay&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In 2009&comma; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings published a 125-slide presentation titled &&num;8220&semi;Netflix Culture&period;&&num;8221&semi; Available to employees and the public&comma; the presentation explains how Netflix strives to maintain the highest levels of transparency&comma; keep only its most effective employees&comma; and avoid traditional corporate rules&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchingbagpost&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;10&sol;image&period;png" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-23244"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Included in a list of &&num;8220&semi;Real Values&&num;8221&semi; are qualities like judgement&comma; curiosity&comma; selflessness&comma; inclusion&comma; impact &lpar;removed in 2022&rpar;&comma; and integrity&period; Perhaps the most intriguing part of the document is a&nbsp&semi;statement which suggests Netflix would prefer that its employees place a higher value on the work done by their colleagues than on work they did themselves&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As explained in the updated and retitled &&num;8220&semi;Netflix Culture &&num;8211&semi; Seeking Excellence&&num;8221&semi; memo published in May 2022&comma; the company has decided not to &&num;8220&semi;censor specific artists or voices&&num;8221&semi; for content that may be perceived as biased&comma; harmful&comma; and&sol;or discriminatory&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The update&comma; which trims the memo from 4&comma;340 words to 4&comma;070 words&comma; comes in response to an employee walk-out that occurred when Netflix refused to censor comedian Dave Chapelle&&num;8217&semi;s stand-up special &&num;8220&semi;The Closer&period;&&num;8221&semi; <em>Protestors described the show as transphobic and homophobic&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories&comma; even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values&comma;&&num;8221&semi; reads the culture memo&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;Artistic Expression&&num;8221&semi; section&period; &&num;8220&semi;Depending on your role&comma; you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful&period; If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth&comma; Netflix may not be the best place for you&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>In other words&comma; employees who are unwilling to work on certain content can find a job elsewhere&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the document continues&period; &&num;8220&semi;We let viewers decide what&&num;8217&semi;s appropriate for them&comma; versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The streaming service&&num;8217&semi;s&nbsp&semi;refreshing stance on content presents a contrast to that of Facebook&comma; which does its best to control what its&nbsp&semi;viewers read &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchingbagpost&period;com&sol;wp-admin&sol;post&period;php&quest;post&equals;22831&amp&semi;action&equals;edit">click here to read more<&sol;a>&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view&&num;8230&semi;So we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies&comma; some of which can be provocative&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;The memo encourages sensitive viewers to pay attention to content warnings and to take advantage of Netflix&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;easy to use parental&nbsp&semi;controls&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Unfortunately for Netflix&comma; however&comma; its commitment to transparency and the fact that its culture memo has been available to the public since 2009 have made it an easy target for the media&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>After interviewing more than 60 current and former Netflix employees&comma; <em>Wall Street Journal <&sol;em>contributors Joe Flint and Shalini Ramachandran wrote a scathing article describing the company&&num;8217&semi;s workplace environment as &&num;8220&semi;ruthless&comma; demoralizing&comma; and transparent to the point of dysfunctional&period;&&num;8221&semi; The journalists took particular issue with &&num;8220&semi;sunshining&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8211&semi; a Netflix policy that asks&nbsp&semi;employees to share their mistakes with others &&num;8211&semi; and the &&num;8220&semi;keeper test&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which asks managers to consider during performance reviews whether they would fight to keep an employee on staff&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Another new addition to the culture memo is advice that Netflix employees act with fiscal responsibility&period; Appearing in the &&num;8220&semi;Valued Behaviors&&num;8221&semi; section&comma; the updated memo replaces the phrase&comma; &&num;8220&semi;There are virtually no spending controls and few contract signing controls&comma;&&num;8221&semi; with the words&comma; &&num;8220&semi;You spend our members’ money wisely&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As noted by&nbsp&semi;<em>Forbes<&sol;em>&nbsp&semi;contributor Bretton Putter&comma; Netflix&&num;8217&semi;s voluntary attrition and involuntary departure&nbsp&semi;rates are close to the national average&period; The company is wildly successful and part of that success is a result of Reed&&num;8217&semi;s commitment to transparency&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;If you want to build an innovative&comma; disruptive&comma; high-performance&comma; rapid growth company that attracts and retains the best talent&comma; then you need to be deliberate about the culture you create&comma;&&num;8221&semi; writes Putter&period; &&num;8220&semi;Those strong cultures are demanding and hence they are not for everyone&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Individuals who feel alienated by or uncomfortable with this type of culture need not apply&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Sources&colon; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;washingtonexaminer&period;com&sol;restoring-america&sol;equality-not-elitism&sol;netflix-sends-culture-memo-to-woke-employees-saying-they-can-work-elsewhere">Netflix sends &&num;8216&semi;Culture Memo&&num;8217&semi; to woke employees&comma; saying they can work elsewhere&nbsp&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;forbes&period;com&sol;sites&sol;brettonputter&sol;2018&sol;12&sol;04&sol;netflixs-company-culture-is-not-for-everybody-and-thats-exactly-how-it-should-be&sol;&quest;sh&equals;5af26f0f1880">Netflix&&num;8217&semi;s Company Culture Is Not For Everybody And That&&num;8217&semi;s Exactly How It Should Be&nbsp&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;variety&period;com&sol;2022&sol;digital&sol;news&sol;netflix-culture-memo-update-censorship-spending-1235264904&sol;">Netflix Updates Corporate Culture Memo&comma; Adding Anti-Censorship Section and a Vow to &&num;8216&semi;Spend Our Members Money Wisely&&num;8217&semi; &lpar;EXCLUSIVE&rpar;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;jobs&period;netflix&period;com&sol;culture">Read the full memo here <&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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