In GitLab Engineering we are serious about concepts like servant leadership, over-communication, and furthering our company value of transparency. You may have joined GitLab from another organization that did not share the same values or techniques. Perhaps you’re accustomed to more corporate politics? You may need to go through a period of “unlearning” to be able to take advantage of our results-focused, people-friendly environment. It takes time to develop trust in a new culture.
    Less common, but even more important, is to make certain you don’t unintentionally bring any mal-adaptive behaviors to GitLab from these other environments.
    We encourage you to read the engineering section of the handbook as part of your onboarding, ask questions of your peers and managers, and reflect on how you can help us better live our culture:

    1.   - [Why handbook first?](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first)
    2.   - [The Engineering Dual Career Track](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/career-development/#individual-contribution-vs-management)
    3.   - Our most challenging core values: [Iteration](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration) and [Transparency](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#transparency)
    4.   - Please keep discussions in public Slack channels (avoid direct messages and private channels)
    5.   - To calibrate, try making yourself uncomfortable every day for 3 months with how transparent and vulnerable you are being with your manager and peers