Moving Beyond Mission Driven
Mission statements are ridiculous
They’re big, bold, kind of ludacris when you trace them back to what the company actually produces (or your experience as a customer / employee). They encompass the world or some enormous market of people or other businesses and include verbs like: create, build, imagine, increase/decrease, improve, or make over and over again.
Their purpose: chart a north star for an entire organization.
Then there’s a subset of companies that define themselves as “mission driven” and only want to hire mission driven individuals. Meaning workers need to be energized by that mission statement, believe in it, hold it as a core personal value, and most importantly - mission driven organizations expect workers to sacrifice for their part in making this mission happen. (Pay, hours, health, advancement, benefits, location, etc.)
You (the worker) are so connected to this organization’s mission - you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. The more zealous you are, the more engaged, the louder you advocate on behalf of, and the longer the hours become, the faster you turn a blind eye to bad behavior…the more mission driven you are.*
*Arguably you can substitute mission with culture as culture driven organizations exhibit identical conditions.
But in 2024 the pool of talent seeking and falling into these opportunities (traps) has shrunk. Because the mission, the culture, the product, the leadership of countless organizations have burnt hundreds of thousands of tech workers over the last 5 years.
Our product, my product, your product
This excerpt from a recent piece by Cory Doctorow in the Financial Times “‘Enshittification is coming for absolutely everything” hit a critical point. He argues there used to be 4 elements that would constrain companies from engaging in predatory practices: competition, regulation, self-help, and workers (and examines how each of these forces have waned - I highly recommend giving this article a read).
“For bosses, there’s a downside to motivating your workers with appeals to a sense of mission. Namely, your workers will feel a sense of mission. So when you ask them to enshittify the products they ruined their health to ship, workers will experience a sense of profound moral injury, respond with outrage and threaten to quit. Thus tech workers themselves were the final bulwark against enshittification.”
Cory follows the evolution of the tech worker’s dream and how it shrank over and over until we no longer had the power to keep our own leaders in check.
This loss of power was incremental until it became a runaway train. I argue that the evolution of layoffs is the clearest indicator of this power shift.
It’s not just that layoffs happen - it’s how they’ve been happening
The average tech worker has gone through this dance at least once - you’re loyal, you do good work, good reviews, you’re engaged and then one day you realize this job that became integral to your identity, social life, and community views you as a name and number in a spreadsheet.
It’s all gone in a blink. (Or painful Zoom call with HR). You realize that the relationship asymmetrical - you gave more than you got.
Companies used to be ashamed to do a layoff, they’d strive to keep it quiet and out of the press. It was an indication someone at the top had really messed up - and would also be exited. Employees impacted would carry a stigma. (One positive from recent years is that because layoffs have become so prevalent and routine, they no longer leave a blemish on worker’s records.)
Layoffs are no longer indications that leaders have mismanaged their businesses.*
*(Culturally - in reality, they messed up or they are messed up.)
Instead, a permission structure developed, turning layoffs into a budgeting exercise with a complete lack of corporate accountability:
The pandemic driven market volatility means we need to reduce staff (2020)
We overhired to course correct from our 2020 layoffs and believed pandemic growth would be forever (2021)
There’s macroeconomic headwinds, we may face a recession (2022)
We can’t get free money anymore, and investors are expecting us to be profitable (2023)
Now - in 2024 companies announce layoffs ahead of earnings calls to get a nice bump in stock prices. Just a normal course of business. Investors are excited. Layoffs! Efficiency! Woooo!
And so - tech workers became expendable…again.
We’ve lost this round. But employers lost as well. Employee loyalty is a thing of the past (or at least at an all time low) and workers are redefining what they will sacrifice for their next employer, for many - avoiding those who substitute pay, benefits, and balance for the sake of the mission.
For Candidates: How to assess a “mission driven” coded opportunity in 2024
So you’ve landed an interview with a company that has branded themselves the most mission driven of mission driven organizations. How do you evaluate that opportunity?
Ask for tangible results or milestones the company has achieved in working towards that mission. How have they actually shown up as a mission driven organization? If the answer encompasses solely non profit work, corporate side quests, or employee experience programs (like ERG’s, volunteer days, etc.) and this is a for profit company - dig deeper (or run).
Follow the money - who are their clients? What clients are they targeting? Where do they receive funding from? If it’s from venture capitalists or private equity firms, look at the other companies in those investors’ portfolios. Do they have a common thread and align to this mission? What are the investors’ goals or investment thesis?
Get a realistic perspective from a current employee - not on the interview panel. Glassdoor, Blind, etc. can give you a hint or some themes as to what may be going on in the company, but talking to a current employee will yield more relevant feedback. Validate or challenge feedback you’re seeing online. What are the unspoken trade offs expected on the team?
For Talent Teams: Uh oh - I’m hiring and we’re “mission driven”
Have answers for how, why, and what you’re doing specifically to be a mission driven company - not just hiring mission driven workers so leaders can enjoy mission driven profits accountability free.
Next, be transparent about the employee experience - every role or team will have its pros and cons. The more upfront and honest you are about what you offer and what you expect in return, the better hires you’ll make. It’s critical to avoid using short hand in interviews or job posts. Employees who perceive their companies to be transparent have almost 9x greater job satisfaction - so start this practice early in the recruiting process. (Future Forum, 2023)
Remember employer branding is your filter - to both attract and repel the talent that will align or struggle in your organization. Branding your organization as mission or culture driven is not enough to do either motion.
Is this a company in the midst of a change? If you’re targeting a new industry or set of clients, pivoting, or in the process of staffing up - be honest: here’s what the employee experience or company’s delivery on mission looks like today, but here’s where it’s headed (and how long it will take to get there). Remember, it’s not enough to sell that vision, you have to show the company is taking steps to transform.
This is a transaction
We’re trading our time for pay. At the end of the day we spend a lot of money, technology, and fancy branding to find people that will trade their time for our pay. It’s ok to spend less time on selling a mission and trying to inspire candidates with your culture and more time on the realities of the job. And for workers - being clear on what you will give and get out of a role while excluding mission, culture, happy hours, and buzzwords from your decision is critical in this new phase of tech work.
Final note on layoffs…
I omitted prompting asking organizations about layoffs - you’ll either find they’ve done none, one, or several in recent memory, the assumption is as you consider an opportunity in 2024 you’ll know that you are not layoff-proof and more layoffs could or will occur. However - it can’t hurt to ask why a recent layoff happened and what the company or leadership team is changing within the business to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Unfortunately, in many cases it’s akin to reforecasting budgets or a check and balance against a shoddy headcount planning process so the answer will be: we aren’t changing anything. It’s on candidates to change how they evaluate their next role.
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