It seems Netflix is only adding fuel to the fire.
On Friday, the New York Post revealed that Netflix is about to receive backlash for more than just their attempts to cut down on password sharing. The memo, titled, “Netflix Culture – Seeking Excellence,” expressed some statements that would make future job-seekers cringe.
Netflix Work Culture Memo Under Fire
One part of the memo reads, “As employees, we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values.”
“Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful,” the message continued. “If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”
The message seems to be in reference to the employee protests over Dave Chappelle’s Netflix stand-up special, “The Closer,” which put him – and Netflix – at odds with the transgender community. Although employees staged a workout, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos threw his support behind Chappelle.
“Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view,” said the Netflix memo. “So we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies, some of which can be provocative.”
“To help members make informed choices about what to watch, we offer ratings, content warnings, and easy-to-use parental controls,” they added, recognizing that “Not everyone will like — or agree with — everything on our service,” said the broadcaster.
It continued: “While every title is different, we approach them based on the same set of principles: we support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with; we program for a diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.”
The Company Makes It Clear That They Are Not A ‘Family’
The memo let workers know upfront that they don’t plan on treating their employees like “family” members. Instead, they refer to them as members of a sports team, which they refer to as a “dream team.”
“We model ourselves on being a professional sports team, not a family,” Netflix wrote. “A family is about unconditional love. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best possible teammate, caring intensely about your team, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever.”
However, they were quick to say that “Dream teams are not right for everyone.”
They called Netflix a “special” place to work and said that its goal as a company is to “encourage decision-making by employees, share information openly, broadly, and deliberately, communicate candidly and directly and keep only our highly effective people.”
Although the statement “keep only our highly effective people” raised eyebrows with many, Netflix continued to say, “ Beyond candor in our day-to-day interactions, we act honorably, even when no one is looking. One test we use is to ask whether we would be ashamed if our actions were made public—and avoid doing anything where the answer would be yes.”
Food for thought.
