They hint at this but don't really cover how incredibly "nice" everyone is expected to be. I have had multiple angles of sourcing on this including existing employees and high level management candidates. It doesn't sound bad on the face of it, but apparently the culture is non-confrontational to (what some perceive as) a fault.
In the cases where I know the people very well this is especially interesting because they are incredibly nice people that told me the culture is overly focused on not making people feel bad. Coming from these people this statement was a real eye opener.
I currently work in a very "nice" culture. People from places where being nice isn't a priority have trouble with it sometimes. One thing people tell me I'm good at in this culture is delivering constructive criticism in a way that is accepted and acted on without the recipient feeling "bad." All of that said, Stripe sounds like it takes the work culture I'm in today and squares it. Many people will not be able to operate effectively in that kind of culture -- both in terms of being able to deliver criticism with the right degree of nicety and in terms of not receiving or being able to understand criticism that would help them improve their performance. This is potentially a detriment to those people and to the company.
If I were Stripe I would cover this head on. In the spirit of what's already there, I'd add something like "are you capable of performing at your best without direct feedback about areas where you can improve?"
I see this a lot in west-american culture in general, actually (I'm European). Far more emphasis on form than content whenever communication is expected.
As I constantly interact both with europeans and americans, it's really shocking sometimes seeing the difference and how crippled the communication lines are when constantly worried about the form of the message.
The kicker is that communications that don't have that extra layer to them don't feel bad or are offensive in any way, unless people go out of their way to be rude/aggressive. It just feels a lot better: it's more honest, more trustworthy, you're not left wondering if the person on the other end is saying nice things just to make you feel better.
This usually leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth where these kinds of relationships have lots of asterisks to them and I don't feel I can trust the other person. I can't even imagine what it'd be like to be surrounded in that environment at work and feeling that way about all my colleagues.
(I'll add to that though that as someone who interacts with Stripe a lot, I've had nothing but positive experiences with them so YMMV)
In the cases where I know the people very well this is especially interesting because they are incredibly nice people that told me the culture is overly focused on not making people feel bad. Coming from these people this statement was a real eye opener.
I currently work in a very "nice" culture. People from places where being nice isn't a priority have trouble with it sometimes. One thing people tell me I'm good at in this culture is delivering constructive criticism in a way that is accepted and acted on without the recipient feeling "bad." All of that said, Stripe sounds like it takes the work culture I'm in today and squares it. Many people will not be able to operate effectively in that kind of culture -- both in terms of being able to deliver criticism with the right degree of nicety and in terms of not receiving or being able to understand criticism that would help them improve their performance. This is potentially a detriment to those people and to the company.
If I were Stripe I would cover this head on. In the spirit of what's already there, I'd add something like "are you capable of performing at your best without direct feedback about areas where you can improve?"