When you are little, nobody asks you the question: “Where do you want to work when you grow up?” They ask you to name a profession. “I’ll be a doctor.” “I'd like to be a teacher.” “I want to be a firefighter!”
It’s a fact: very early on, we are taught the importance of thinking carefully about what we will spend many years of our life doing: our work. We are asked to choose a profession, a career, without considering the importance of choosing a work environment in which we will flourish.
However, it is by searching first and foremost for a company culture that works for us that we become accomplished and fulfilled professionals, no matter the profession we choose.
A definition
Company culture, also known as corporate culture, represents all of the elements that are shared by employees and members of an organization: values, behavior, attitudes, etc. This is what separates one company from the next in how it manages day-to-day situations, in what it does, and how it applies its approach in the market.
Company culture can be compared to a neighborhood street, where every household has a different way of raising its children, and its own opinions, values, and ways of interacting with others. Every family that lives on the street is unique, and develops its own habits.
Happiness at work: a generational benefit?
After sometimes seeing the bitterness of our parents when they considered their relationships with colleagues, after noticing over time that they no longer had a flame or passion for their work, and that they were not longer happy at work, we promised ourselves (and them) that we would choose a job that we liked, of course, but above all, a job where we were happy.
And for us, benefits packages, job security, and financial security are not the only factors that contribute to our happiness. We want to be happy at work, and this quest for happiness starts first and foremost with a good environment.
Being on the same wavelength
Why prioritize company culture over a position or a salary? Every company has its own personality, color and flavor, which comes down to the people who work there. When we find a team with which we want to achieve the impossible, and who shares our values, we increase our well-being index, and this index greatly surpasses the salary index.
Moreover, when our employer’s vision matches our own, and our conversations are simplified, our strategies are in line, and we are all headed towards the same goal, solidarity increases and leads to engagement, determination and accomplishment.
Here are some thoughts to consider:
The more you feel that your opinion counts and that the organization’s values resonate with yours, the more you will flourish professionally. You will not have the feeling of paddling upstream.
If you do not find your work environment stimulating, a higher salary will not make you happier or more productive.
A healthy, happy work environment contributes to your desire to push yourself.
Liking one’s work is not enough to develop professionally. A job must be seen as a whole, a set of factors: a position, responsibilities and a salary, of course, but also a work environment, a team, ways of communicating and shared values.
