There’s a popular idea that executives like to parrot about a company being like a large family, but Neflix CEO Reed Hastings believes that’s not an appropriate comparison.
“It used to be a classic metaphor for companies — the family. You’d hire employees, and you’d be like, we’re a family. You know, we look after each other,” Hastings said at an event. “And it’s kind of baloney because you’ll lay someone off in a way that you wouldn’t, you know, your sister,” he added.
“It’s like you want them to work for you like they were a family member for free and cheap,” Hastings continued. “But you’re not really prepared to treat them like a family member if you’re honest,” he added.
Hastings said that the more appropriate comparison around how high-performing companies should be a structured is that of a sports team. “And so, really, the professional relationship is like a sports team,” he says. “And if you want to win a championship, you got to have incredible talent at every position. And so we say, look, we’re like a professional sport. Not like your kid’s soccer team, but, no, like a professional sports team where we pay people well. We want them to win. And if you have one good game, bad game, you don’t lose your position, but ultimately, you’re fighting for your position every year,” he explained.
“That’s how we feel about it. As long as we’re honest about it, it’s exciting because then you can play really sophisticated sports. So to do a blind pass in soccer and you just know the person’s there, that’s an art. You need great teammates that you are so well rehearsed. And so to do that, you need great talent, and it’s fun to be around,” he said.
This isn’t the only unusual work culture hack that Netflix has had. The company is known for a Keeper Test, in which it periodically asks managers if they’d work hard to keep someone at the company, and if the answer is no, those people are asked to leave. Hastings has also been outspoken about the demerits of remote work, calling it a “pure negative”, and had asked employees to return to offices as soon as the pandemic was over. And by doing away with the platitudes of a company being a family — and focusing on the much more practical metaphor of a sports team — Netflix also seems to be have a much more pragmatic approach to how to organize its employees.