The end of Netflix’s culture of feedback - The Verge
CEO Reed Hastings repeatedly cited Netflix’s company culture — one that valued honest feedback — as its greatest strength. But with subscribers dropping and the stock price tumbling, the streaming giant is no longer interested in hearing from its workers.
This article is a collaboration between New York Magazine and The Verge.
The sign that Netflix’s culture had irreversibly started to change came in the form of a Google doc. The company had long prided itself on welcoming brutally honest feedback — a value embodied by the Open Q&A doc, where employees could ask executives tough questions and expect a good-faith response. Co-CEO Reed Hastings had a reputation for answering queries from any department, no matter how critical or tricky, usually within a few days: How does Netflix feel about giving money to conservative politicians? Does the company regret putting the controversial film Cuties on the platform? Should 365 Days, a film glorifying gender-based violence, be taken down?
On October 8th, 2021, dozens of employees eagerly awaited a response: where does Netflix draw the line between commentary and hate speech?
Page after page filled with angry blocks of text. “Is there a clear distinction made between offensiveness and harmfulness to populations when evaluating what content to buy and air?” asked one. “If we can measure an appetite from members for transphobic and bigoted content, will we start partnering with dangerous celebrities, actors, and comedians who are intentionally divisive (Owen Benjamin, Alex Jones, Ann Coulter) in an effort to ‘entertain the world’?” asked another.
The impetus for the questions was Dave Chappelle’s newly released comedy special, The Closer, which Netflix had bought for $24.1 million. Many employees felt the comedian had crossed a line with his jokes about the trans community. Netflix executives disagreed. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer and co-CEO, sent an email to directors and executives on October 8th saying The Closer wasn’t going anywhere. Chappelle’s prior special, Sticks and Stones, was the company’s most-watched stand-up set to date, but stats about its popularity did little to assuage those who found the jokes transphobic.
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