I managed a person who believed that. It was a nightmare. Oh they work all the time, more than they should, because they believe in what the company's doing. But man I completely failed making any sort of connection that allowed us to understand each other (and therefore work well together).

Maybe it depends on the company though. This is a 100 person boot-strapped open source company that has a strong mission. Maybe if you're working for a 10,000 person public entity where everybody's just another cog the whole "culture" thing is just a veiled attempt to make the company your life.

Some people do not want to have a social or personal connection with their colleagues. But they still want a deep connection, and they look for that through the work itself. By doing it together, by talking about it, and by talking about the process behind the work, and the big ideas they have about all that.

But if they get matched with a colleague who wants to build a connection by getting to know the person beyond that, then that doesn't work well.

true

Yes company culture can be gamed and abused, but this isn't always the case. Having a workplace that recognizes important life events (like the birth of a child) is meaningful to the individuals on a human level. We can't write that all off as corporate big brother trying to control us.

Ultimately we are all people working with other people, and a business can do quite a bit to help us recognize each other as humans.