An old colleague reproached me the other day: We could not and will not be able to find the same working environment that we had together. We realized that, that was an exception, the working life is not like that in general, and we could not be happy after that company any longer, she said.
So, I decided to list the issues that I am sorry about and to apologize from my ex-colleagues for setting these as the company culture.
…
I’m sorry because:
-We managed the company through a committee that we established,
-I enabled information flow from top to bottom in such a way that there was no room for gossiping,
-I gathered all employees together and informed them even in hard times, including acquisition period,
-I sent e-mails to all employees once a month, as company CEO, informing them about the company’s financial standing and performance,
-We arranged feedback meetings with managers on a quarterly basis about what we did right or wrong,
-We never left any subject vague,
-We arranged “vision” meetings once a year where we provided information to all employees about what we did, what were the mistakes, what we plan to do the following year, etc. and then had a party where everybody had fun until the next morning,
-We arranged a reward ceremony once a month for employees who made positive contribution to the company,
-We distributed the performance targets to all employees and evaluated them based on the same criteria,
-I did not locate the CEO’s room on a separate floor, and never kept it close,
– I made motivation tour on floors and patted my colleagues on their backs everyday,
-We made it the company culture to interfere in whatever is not right and fight with it until it is corrected
-I had conversations with each and every employee on life,
-I showed to people that sometimes you should just leave, because nothing is more important than “working happy”,
-We encouraged conflicts to achieve best business results, and never allowed any other conflict,
– I never hesitated to put my signature under any decision,
-We always encouraged innovation with excitement and faith,
-I encouraged people to take responsibility at work, and once something is done, I always stood by them until the end,
-We tried to make office life attractive for the employees where they spend a majority of their daily life,
– We brought musicians to play on the floors on the Women’s Day,
-We transformed the working place into a place of sympathy and respect,
-I always gave the message “to stand together” to my colleagues,
-And for many things else that I can not remember now,
I’m sorry.
You get used to these things very quickly and start believing that every place and every time it is the same, but you can not easily find these things at other places and times.