I would like to take this opportunity to tell a little story. It is a story about suits, clothing, and people's implications and expectations.

A few months ago, I was sitting in our lounge with a new employee. He had just started working for us and I wanted to hear how he was doing and whether he felt comfortable with us after his first few weeks on the job. We sat in a fairly crowded lounge (some of our employees were having informal meetings, others were meeting for a break), drank coffee, and talked about his experiences during his first few weeks at Netstream. At some point, we started talking about the management team because I wanted to know if he had met any of them yet. He responded to my question with a somewhat puzzled look and said that it was very strange because he had never seen anyone from the management team at Netstream. My reaction to this answer was even more puzzled because two members of the management team were sitting in the lounge at the same time. I pointed them out to him and said, "But there they are. Alexis is sitting back there and Dom is at the other table." I had to smile when he said that he had somehow only ever paid attention to whether he saw men in suits...

The moral of the story

There are two things I would like Netstream with this story about Netstream . First, management is lurking everywhere, watching everything and everyone! No, joking aside. Our management is among us; they don't stand out with fancy suits or ostentatious individual offices. They have a role in our company just like any other team member, but that doesn't make them more important than other employees. They are still involved in operations and know what's going on. We all treat each other as equals and share our opinions when we disagree, without fear of negative consequences. Second, we don't have a dress code and probably never will. If someone feels comfortable in a hoodie, we don't force them to wear a shirt every day. The same goes the other way around. Of course, there are certain limits, and we wouldn't be thrilled if one of us greeted a customer in swimming trunks and flip-flops – but we have a lot of faith that everyone has a well-functioning mind and is willing to use it 🙂