Week 1: Organizational Culture at Six One Agency

My first official week as an intern at Six One, a PR and brand strategy agency, was both exciting and informative. As of right now, the agency is still working remotely, so I started my week off with a number of orientation meetings and virtual meet-and-greets with various members of the team. As I got to meet a large number of people throughout the course of my first week, I was able to get a better grasp on the company culture at Six One. Prior to starting my internship, the majority of my communications with the team members at Six One who interviewed me and guided me through the onboarding process were rather formal. Going into my first day, I expected most of the interactions to be at this same level of formality, but I quickly learned that the agency has a much more relaxed, while simultaneously professional, atmosphere.

While working remotely, the main forms of communication are email, Google chat, and Zoom. I’ve found that email is by far the most formal form of communication used among my co-workers, while Google chat is the most relaxed. Zoom meetings can range in formality, depending on the purpose of the meeting and who is attending it. What has stood out to me the most about Six One’s team and how they communicate with one another is that everyone has mutual respect for every single team member, regardless of their status or position. On my first day, the founder of the agency joined a team-wide zoom call to welcome myself and the rest of the summer interns. She discussed her background in the PR world, telling us how she spent 20 years of her career working in-house doing PR for a variety of major companies. In sharing this with us, she stressed how she wants Six One to feel different from these large corporations and wants everyone to be treated as though they are equals – even if they are interns. The anecdotes that she shared validated everything that I had already experienced right off the bat at Six One, and it is evident that each of Six One’s employees feel valued based on the way the team communicates internally. After just a week, I feel that the culture at Six One is genuine, welcoming, and collaborative. I’m looking forward to the rest of my time with the agency and learning more about how the team communicates and works together day-to-day.