The corporate bullshit that turned out to be true

A year and a half ago I was prepping for an interview and heard my future boss say in a talk: "a company becomes its leader." I wrote it off as a conference metaphor. Sounds great from a stage.

Got the offer. Started the job.

Nobody there hangs "our values" on the wall. No slogans. Nobody makes you chant the mission.

But at some point I noticed I ask different questions when I look at a problem. I react to hype more calmly, because I've watched someone next to me not twitch at it.

I didn't come up with this myself. It came from watching how my boss makes decisions. What he asks about and what he ignores. How he holds focus while everything around him is on fire. How he says "this is nonsense" and then calmly explains why. How he dresses and how he jokes.

It seeps in. Not through slogans, through meetings and hours spent together.

Last week I caught myself explaining something to my team and heard his intonations in my words. Fuck. There it is.