A reader writes:
Do you assume it’s a pink flag when a crew in a smaller firm instantly drops you into a gaggle textual content in your private telephone upon hiring?
The context is that I’m very blissful in my mid-level place at my very not-toxic Fortune 100 firm. I just like the work and the individuals and whereas I wouldn’t hang around with a couple of of those of us for leisure espresso, we’re Work Buddies. I’ve labored for smaller firms and have discovered them to all the time be cliquey and poisonous and in one another’s enterprise. Like high-stakes highschool, the place as a substitute of shedding head cheerleader, you lose your job.
For me the frequent denominator pink flag was that my poisonous jobs had group chats. “All of us get alongside” and “lols” and morning affirmation texts and extra.
My mom got here from massive time company America and is now working for small time firms. The final one she was at was so poisonous and went up to now south I legally can’t say what occurred. She informed me that from day one at her present job, she’s been in group texts with the “crew.” Extra “morning guys!” and many others. I’m not going to diss my mother’s new job as a result of she’s so blissful to be out of the opposite place, however I’m seeing indicators already and I’m curious for those who and/or the readers assume group chats/texts are a pink flag!
I don’t assume groups with group chats are inherently a pink flag.
I do assume that when a crew is dysfunctional, a gaggle chat can usually be one thing that reinforces that — as a result of it’s utilized in ways in which trample individuals’s boundaries (like unwelcome work texts throughout your off hours, or an expectation that you just’ll take part in infinite socializing that doesn’t curiosity you or actively distracts you, or a crew that expects everybody to be “like household” in problematic methods). However that’s typically a mirrored image of different problematic norms on the crew, not one thing basic to the group texts themselves.
There are wholesome, practical groups which have group chats! In these instances, I would theorize that they’re extra more likely to pop up in particular use instances, like when the work is emotionally tough and the group chat is a spot to blow off steam, or if all the crew is in a youthful (learn: going out) stage of life, or comparable. However that’s not completely the case both.