Netflix updates culture memo, tells employees to ‘spend our members’ money wisely’

Netflix added sections to its culture memo Thursday, telling employees to “spend our members’ money wisely” and clarifying that they may not agree with all of the company’s content.

The entertainment giant changed the name of its culture memo from “Netflix Culture” to “Netflix Culture — Seeking Excellence” and altered its “Real Values” section to be called “Valued Behaviors.”

Under Valued Behaviors, Netflix added an expectation that employees spend the money of the company’s members “wisely,” a change that notably follows Netflix’s first subscriber loss in over a decade last month.

Netflix also introduced a section on Artistic Expression to its culture memo, explaining that the entertainment business can be “a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view.”

“Entertaining the world is an amazing opportunity and also a challenge because viewers have very different tastes and points of view. So we offer a wide variety of TV shows and movies, some of which can be provocative,” the section reads. “To help members make informed choices about what to watch, we offer ratings, content warnings and easy to use parental controls.”

The company added: “Not everyone will like—or agree with—everything on our service. While every title is different, we approach them based on the same set of principles: we support the artistic expression of the creators we choose to work with; we program for a diversity of audiences and tastes; and we let viewers decide what’s appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices.”

Netflix directly stated that the company might not be the right fit for employees whose belief systems hold them back from working on content with which they disagree.

“If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you,” the statement said.