Netflix and TikTok Cultures Reveal the Dark Side of Innovation | Inc.com

One thing I did not share with the students was the dark side of innovation, which is that working in an innovative company — think Tesla or Netflix — is extremely demanding. How so? According to an analysis of Glassdoor comments, the more employees spoke positively about innovation, the more likely they were to quit. The reason could be that with innovation comes longer hours, a faster work pace, and poor work-life balance, according to Sloan Management Review. 

This ironic twist is something I understand from my experience in the management consulting industry, which features an up or out work culture. Consulting’s high degree of prestige and excellent career development opportunities consistently attract the cream of the crop of college and university graduates.

Once new hires are on board, the consulting firms demand near-constant travel to clients and 80-hour workweeks. After a few years, most of the new recruits burn out and do not make the cut to the partner track. However, the prestige of having worked at such firms and the skills they develop make them valuable to other employers. So recent graduates continue to flock there.

Netflix’s culture is based on the metaphor of a consistently outstanding sports team. With former HR chief Patty McCord, co-CEO Reed Hastings developed a PowerPoint presentation about Netflix’s culture based on the idea that the company should part ways with all but its “most highly effective people,” according to Vanity Fair.

In 2012, McCord found herself on the wrong end of a tough question: “Would you hire them again today?” As the Netflix culture document explains, Netflix suggests that people who value “job security very highly, and would prefer to work at companies whose orientation is more about stability,” should work elsewhere, noted Vanity Fair.

It sounds to me as though TikTok’s work culture also illustrates the dark side of innovation. In a nutshell, the Journal wrote that employees experience “anxiety, secrecy, and relentless pressure,” and that “U.S. staffers tell of sleep deprivation, work on weekends, and mandatory meetings with colleagues [– 85 hours a week’s worth –] on the other side of the globe.”