First, why do we need to talk about our culture? Mostly because that's the reason that Rob T. and Arvind K. want you to drive 90 minutes into the office: to experience our culture.
This is a true story and I wish it wasn't. Undoubtedly, a lot of readers will recall this miscarriage of justice. There continues to exist an internal Slack channel which I will refer to as R. There was a gentleman who was fond of posting on R very benign cartoons culled from the internet. These were generally the level of cartoons you might find in "Family Circus" for those with longer memories. So ... not at all offensive but perhaps also not all the humorous. It was clear that both the gentleman posting and a good deal of subscribers to channel R enjoyed this.
One day, the gentleman in question posted a cartoon that was what can only be described as borderline offensive to one particular European nation. Indeed, there is an internet meme similar to the post in question and considerably more offensive to said European nation.
There was an ambush predator lying in wait. She was clearly determined to stop these rather anodyne posts. Within mere minutes of this "offensive" post going live (after hundreds of posts to which she could not object though she clearly would have liked to) she publicly accused the poster of very grave HR violations and, in addition, accused him of having virtually Na-i tendencies and ambitions for the future of R Slack channel. Naturally, these accusations were made publicly and not through the channels a grown up would use such as talking to her manager.
What happened next was truly astounding. All of the evidence available on the R Slack channel indicates that HR and all of the letter banded executive involved completely backed her assertions as to the wickedness of the gentleman who enjoyed posting these cartoons. He was immediately ordered to completely cease and desist posting any cartoons of any kind on Slack channel R or any other channel. We can only assume that she was given an award from HR for helping to root out Na-is in our midst.
At not time did IBM ever say "look, this guy may have made a minor mistake but there has never been any evidence at all of what he has been accused of." The ambush predator, who happens to live a half a world away, hung a giant stink on this poor man and IBM made sure that there is no detergent that will clear that stink up. IBM, and its culture, left him to hang out and dry. That, friends, is the culture you need to go back to the office to enjoy.
Anticipating what IBM would say.... I am convinced that they would say that they talked to this woman about a possibly better way to deal with this. There are a number of problems with any such claim. First and foremost, IBM is running a social media channel (R) and there is evidence there that the gentleman posting the cartoons was seriously damaged and there is no evidence that the woman doing the complaining didn't get an award for this. Second, does anyone doubt that IBM, IBM HR and letter banded execs would come up with alternate truths if it would make a problem (any problem) go away? (They all sign BGC but we know that they also interpret things advantageously.)
This is IBM culture. Someone you don't know who lives half a world away from you can make execrable accusations about you and IBM and IBM HR and IBM execs will back that person to the hilt because it's easier to do that than it is to defend you. In addition, they will encourage the unwashed hoi polli to use the channel for days to pile on absurd accusations about your character, your intentions and your motivation. (Even though they have never met you.)
Again, I wish this were not a true story. But these events really happened. And I am certain that the woman who complained is considered an HR star. This is the culture that is so important that you need to get back into the office.