When you interview for a job in SEO with Logical Position, you will hear a lot about the importance of "culture." It's helpful to understand what that culture is.
It's a culture of disposable talent. Upper management brags that they happily let skilled people leave for better-paying jobs. You'll be made to believe that no matter your contributions, they can replace you at any time and never miss you. Sports fans may recognize this as the "Moneyball" approach of the Oakland A's, who perennially discovered overlooked talent, underpaid them for as long as they could, let them sign for more money with the Yankees and Red Sox, and repeated the cycle. Of course, those A's never won anything.
It's a culture of toxic positivity. Managers communicate in a nauseous mixture of corporate buzzwords and therapy speak. Know that if you object to "upskilling" by doing more work for the same pay, "you are heard and you are valid," but being heard and being listened to are different things. Most people learn to spam Teams with funny gifs and avoid presenting as anything but relentlessly positive.
It's a culture of cliquishness and hierarchy. Many high-ranking personnel attended the same high school in the Chicago exurbs together. Managers go on vacations with select subordinates, to which no one is allowed to object because of the professionalism, one is assured, of the people involved. If you didn't work in the "old office" before the pandemic, you will never rise to the status of those who did. If you are a remote employee beyond greater Chicago, you will never be more than transient hired help.
It's a culture of spying. Don't bother messaging your colleagues to express concerns in private; your managers will go into your account and read them anyway. What you say out loud has a way of being overheard by people whose office doors were closed when you said it. The periodic attempts to find and remove so-called instigators of a "negative work environment" only make the environment even worse.
The company culture used to be a positive that offset below-market compensation. It has since gone rotten and become a problem of its own. Treat this as your safest of safety schools: stay just long enough to build a portfolio for a shop that deserves you. Better yet, avoid it altogether.
