Organizational Culture: CSRHub

As a remote company, CSRHub has company norms unlike any traditional in-person organization. One interesting norm that I was not expecting is the remote interaction style of CSRHub teams. The interaction is formal in that we do not text each other, however, it is informal in that I address my direct supervisor, the CEO, and CFO, by their first names. I do not interact with the other teams but know through email threads that other teams also exist on a first-name basis. In our interactions, we adopt a “office small talk” at the beginning of our meetings that often not found in a remote setting but allows us to connect in a way similar to that of “water cooler talk” in an in-person organization.

The person I most often interact with is my supervisor, Ruth. When we first started working together, she verbally stated that we will not use video on our calls together. We call on the Free Conference Call app, which is very similar to Zoom. I have worked with Ruth for over a year now and we have never spoken “face to face” with our screens on. This feels neither formal nor informal, simply an option that Ruth likes to utilize that has become our norm. She has emphasized that CSRHub’s organizational expectations do not require visual online conferences and that keeping her video off is her preference.  For me personally, I have found this to be a challenge and possibly a weakness in my experience. I think in a small remote company that has global employees; disconnection is easy. With no physical group setting, limited face to face interactions, many time zones, and no all-team meetings, there is a lacking sense of CSRHub identity, at least from my point of view. I feel that although the employees rarely have work that overlaps, it is important and valuable to build connections with co-workers, especially in this circumstance because we have a shared interest in sustainability. I have spoken up about this already on a one-on-one call with the CEO, Cynthia. She agreed with the idea and was excited at the possibility of connecting, but the idea fell to the wayside as customer needs and research projects took priority. I think in the future it would be valuable to have a monthly call on a Monday just for an hour, given that we cross many time zones. I think this touch-base would be helpful in fostering connections, strengthening group identity, and also in the development of new ideas, as this would allow employees from different sectors to interact for the first time.