Organizational Culture Reflection: Reflection 1

My first week at Barclays has been a very unique yet exciting experience. Being in a virtual setting has its challenges as seen in technology, lack of face-to-face interaction, and the inability to really meet the other interns. However, one thing that has been made abundantly clear is that the culture of the company is one that is incredibly collaborative and fast-paced in nature.
The expectation is that everyone does their part and works together to reach a desired outcome. The attitude is generally along the lines of, “do it your way on your time, but have it done by the deadline”. Essentially, they take a fairly lenient approach in terms of not really micro-managing at all but rather giving people and teams independence do things the way they see fit. At its core, the Barclays values are integrity, service, respect, excellence, and stewardship. These values are for how to act in the office and with clients.
Given that it is a collaborative, team oriented division, there are many different ways in which people communicate. For the most part, most formal communications are sent either through email or WebEx. However, given the work hours, texting and phone calls are not out of the ordinary. Furthermore, the main method for general communication is through the Bloomberg terminal chats.
In terms of interaction, the company has a culture that definitely fosters teamwork and friendship. We have weekly intern happy hours and other intern events that allow us to connect with other members in our class. While nothing is conducted in person, WebEx makes it possible to engage with presentations and people quite easily.
In terms of strengths and weaknesses, I’ve hit on a couple of the company’s strengths earlier in this reflection. The main weakness is the difficulty in setting up and assigning remote work as many of the remote platforms we need access to have been down quite a bit. Furthermore, it would be helpful if our managers communicated with HR more as it feels as though they give us overlapping sessions which can get pretty stressful to figure out how to schedule. Overall, the first week has been good and I look forward to the next 5.