A reader writes:
Do you assume it’s a purple flag when a group in a smaller firm instantly drops you into a bunch textual content in your private telephone upon hiring?
The context is that I’m very pleased 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 just a few of those of us for leisure espresso, we’re Work Pals. I’ve labored for smaller corporations 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 dropping head cheerleader, you lose your job.
For me the frequent denominator purple 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 large time company America and is now working for small time corporations. The final one she was at was so poisonous and went to date south I legally can’t say what occurred. She advised me that from day one at her present job, she’s been in group texts with the “group.” Extra “morning guys!” and many others. I’m not going to diss my mother’s new job as a result of she’s so pleased to be out of the opposite place, however I’m seeing indicators already and I’m curious in the event you and/or the readers assume group chats/texts are a purple flag!
I don’t assume groups with group chats are inherently a purple flag.
I do assume that when a group is dysfunctional, a bunch chat can typically 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 simply’ll take part in infinite socializing that doesn’t curiosity you or actively distracts you, or a group that expects everybody to be “like household” in problematic methods). However that’s typically a mirrored image of different problematic norms on the group, not one thing elementary to the group texts themselves.
There are wholesome, purposeful groups which have group chats! In these instances, I’d theorize that they’re extra more likely to pop up in particular use instances, like when the work is emotionally troublesome and the group chat is a spot to blow off steam, or if the entire group is in a youthful (learn: going out) stage of life, or comparable. However that’s not completely the case both.