Listen to your new starters. They’re asking about your workplace culture.

“The answers seemed obvious.”

Early in my career, I remember rolling my eyes at interns who asked questions that felt unnecessary. The answers seemed obvious.

What time do we leave the office? It’s in the contract. They should know.

Except contracts don’t tell the whole story.

Yes, it might say 6pm in the handbook. But do people actually leave at 6pm? Everywhere? Without comments. Without raised eyebrows. Without having to justify it.

That gap is where culture sits.

When the “obvious” isn’t obvious anymore

I really understood this once I started working in international teams.

I remember being in Amsterdam when our American colleagues came to visit. We were chatting casually about lunch habits. I asked where and when they usually had lunch, assuming the answer was obvious. In the Netherlands, we sat together and took a proper break.

They looked at me like I was the naive one.

“We eat at our desks.”

Ouch! I wasn’t the experienced professional anymore. I was the one asking the “obvious” question.

And that’s exactly why those questions matter.

What workplace culture actually is

New starters don’t ask because they can’t read policies. They ask because they’re trying to understand how things really work.

Workplace culture is the shared understanding of:

• what is normal

• what is acceptable

• what gets noticed

• what gets rewarded

• what gets tolerated

• what doesn’t need to be said

That’s why the same questions keep coming up:

• Do people actually take a lunch break, or do most eat at their desk?

• Is it acceptable to leave a meeting early if I have another one?

• Do people reply to emails outside working hours?

• If no one says anything, does that mean they agree?

• Do people turn their cameras on in virtual meetings?

• Do people really take all their vacation days?

It's not that they are procedural. They’re attempts to avoid missteps.

The astonishment report

During one of my internships, I was asked to write an astonishment report a few weeks in.

The idea is simple: capture what still feels new. It usually answers 3 questions:

What surprised me in a good way? What surprised me in a bad way? What ideas did that spark?

Why do this?

To be more intentional about culture. To question habits – why do we actually do this? To reinforce what genuinely works and is worth keeping.

New starters see things you no longer notice.

When silence is the signal

That said, if the exercise goes nowhere, it’s worth pausing.

If no one dares mention what surprised them in a bad way, it’s probably not because everything is perfect. It may mean that being honest and constructive doesn’t feel welcome.

And that, in itself, is a cultural signal.

If feedback feels risky, people stay quiet. That’s something worth paying attention to.

If you want practical tips on how to have these conversations with new joiners, feel free to contact me.