Netflix team dinners can involve giving people feedback to their face

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Getty Images

• The Wall Street Journal’s Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flit
  spoke to more than 70
  current and former Netflix employees for a report on
  the company’s radically transparent work culture. 
• They reported that some teams at Netflix have dinners or
  lunches where coworkers take turns giving feedback or criticism
  to others sitting at the table in “real-time 360” sessions.
• This practice is a part of the company’s commitment to
  transparency.

Netflix’s 5,400 employees are encouraged to give blunt feedback
to each other online, in person … and on occasion, over
dinner. 

The Wall Street Journal‘s Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flit
spoke to more than 70 current and former Netflix employees for a
report on the company’s radically transparent work culture.

Not much is kept under wraps at the company. Higher ups at
Netflix, like directors and executives, have access to
view salaries of every employee and their pay history. To
give feedback, employees use a software called “360” for an
annual review of any employee at the company, including CEO
Reed Hastings. Some
executives choose to share their 360 feedback with their
teams.

And sometimes, teams do a version of these reviews in person.

Ramachandran and Flit report that some teams at Netflix have
dinners or lunches where coworkers take turns giving feedback or
criticism to others sitting at the table. Executives call it
“real-time 360.”  

“It can be intense and awkward,” Brandon Welch, a former talent
executive, told The Wall Street Journal.

Employees are encouraged to be as forthcoming as possible with
feedback, and managers are expected to be honest about whose
skills are needed. One of the most intense examples of this
transparent culture is the “keeper test.” In Netflix’s online culture
memo, the company writes: “We focus on managers’
judgment through the ‘keeper test’ for each of their people: If
one of the members of the team was thinking of leaving for
another firm, would the manager try hard to keep them from
leaving?”

Business Insider’s Nathan McAlone
previously reported that those who don’t pass the test are
given a severance package and dismissed. The Wall Street Journal
report said that Hastings even used the keeper test to decide to

fire his product chief and friend after 18 years at the
company.

Some managers disclosed to the Journal that they feel pressured
to fire people or risk “looking soft” to other executives. In
2017, Netflix had an 8% firing rate, which is more than the 6%
average. However Netflix had an 11% turnover rate, lower than the
13% average for tech companies, the Journal
reported. Netflix disagrees that its culture is harsh,
noting to the Journal it ranks second on Comparably’s “Happiest
Employees” 2018 list. 

In response to The Wall Street Journal article, Netflix gave a
statement to Business Insider’s Travis
Clark:

“We believe strongly in maintaining a high performance
culture and giving people the freedom to do their best work.
Fewer controls and greater accountability enable our employees to
thrive, making smarter, more creative decisions, which means even
better entertainment for our members. While we believe parts of
this piece do not reflect how most employees experience Netflix,
we’re constantly working to learn and improve.”