Every interview, you tell candidates about your "amazing company culture." You talk about how you're a family, how there's unlimited PTO, how everyone is passionate and collaborative and innovative.

Then candidates show up on day one and realize:

• "Family" means guilt-tripping people into working late
• "Unlimited PTO" means nobody actually takes time off
• "Passionate" means understaffed and overworked

Here's how to talk about culture honestly without either lying or scaring candidates away.

The Problem With Culture Overselling

When you oversell culture in interviews, one of two things happens:

Good candidates spot the BS and decline your offer. They've heard "we're a family" before and know it's code for "we expect you to sacrifice work-life balance."

Candidates believe you, accept the offer, and quit within six months when reality doesn't match. Now you're back to recruiting and you've wasted everyone's time.

Either way, you lose.

The Red Flag Phrases That Make Candidates Run

These phrases sound positive to you. They sound like warning sirens to experienced candidates:

"We're like a family here" Translation: Unclear boundaries, guilt-based management, emotional manipulation instead of professional relationships.

"We work hard and play hard" Translation: Expect 60-hour weeks but we have beer in the office, so it's fine!

"Fast-paced environment" Translation: Chaotic, understaffed, constantly putting out fires.

"Wear many hats" Translation: Your job description is fiction. You'll do whatever needs doing because we don't want to hire enough people.

"Startup mentality" Translation: We want you to work startup hours for established-company compensation.

"We're all passionate about the mission" Translation: We pay below market and expect passion to compensate for that.

Stop using these phrases. Candidates hear them constantly and they trigger immediate skepticism.

How To Talk About Culture Honestly

Instead of vague corporate platitudes, be specific and honest:

Instead of: "We have great work-life balance"

Say this: "Most people work 9-6 and rarely work weekends. We've had two all-hands crunches in the past year during major releases, but those are the exception. The team typically disconnects evenings and weekends."

Why it works: Specific, honest, acknowledges reality without pretending problems don't exist.

Instead of: "We're collaborative and innovative"

Say this: "We do weekly team syncs where people share what they're working on. Most decisions involve input from 3-4 people. That can slow things down sometimes, but it means we don't build things in silos."

Why it works: Describes actual processes instead of vague adjectives. Acknowledges trade-offs.

Instead of: "We have unlimited PTO"

Say this: "We have unlimited PTO, and the team averages about 18 days per year. Our manager actively encourages taking time off and tries to model that—he took three weeks last year. It's not perfect, but we're working on making people actually use it."

Why it works: Candidates know unlimited PTO is often fake. Giving actual numbers and acknowledging the challenge shows honesty.

Instead of: "Everyone here is passionate"

Say this: "People here care about doing good work, but we're not asking you to be passionate about [company product] 24/7. It's a job. Some people love the mission, some people like the work, some people are here for the paycheck and good insurance. All of that is fine."

Why it works: Permission to not be passionate is actually refreshing and builds trust.

What To Do When Culture Actually Has Problems

Your culture isn't perfect. No company's is. The question is: do you acknowledge problems or pretend everything is great?

Bad approach: Ignore problems, hope candidates don't notice until after they've accepted.

Good approach: Acknowledge challenges while highlighting what's being done about them.

Example: Your company has a remote work problem

Don't say: "We're fully remote and it's amazing! Everyone loves it!"

Do say: "We're fully remote, which has pros and cons. Some people love the flexibility. Others miss in-person collaboration. We're trying to address that with quarterly team meetups and better async communication tools, but it's still a work in progress."

Example: Your company has a long hours problem

Don't say: "We have great work-life balance!" (while knowing people regularly work 50+ hours)

Do say: "I'm going to be honest—some weeks are long, especially during [specific time/project type]. We're working on better planning to reduce that, but if you need strict 40-hour weeks, this might not be the right fit right now."

What happens: Candidates who can't do long hours self-select out. Candidates who can handle it appreciate your honesty. You don't have a surprise quit three months in.

The Permission To Be Honest

Here's a secret: candidates prefer honest culture descriptions—even if the culture isn't perfect—over BS that turns out to be lies.

A candidate who knows upfront that your company has chaotic moments but interesting problems? They might still join.

A candidate who's told everything is perfect, then discovers chaos on day one? They're gone in three months and telling everyone you lied in interviews.

How To Answer "What's The Culture Like?"

When candidates ask about culture, resist the urge to give a marketing pitch. Try this structure:

1. Give a specific, honest description: "We're a pretty heads-down team. Not a lot of socializing during the day, but people are friendly and helpful when you need something."

2. Acknowledge what this means: "If you're looking for a place where you're constantly collaborating or going to social events, this might feel quiet. If you like focusing on work and having clear boundaries, you'll fit in well."

3. Provide an example: "For instance, last week [specific real thing that happened that illustrates culture]."

Real answer beats generic hype every time.

What Strong Candidates Actually Want To Know

Stop telling candidates your culture is amazing. Answer these questions instead:

• What's the actual work schedule? (Not "flexible"—what do people actually work?)
• How are decisions made? (Not "collaborative"—who actually decides?)
• What happens when there's conflict? (Not "we're all friends"—how is disagreement handled?)
• What do people complain about? (Every company has complaints. What are yours?)
• Why do people leave? (They do leave. Why?)

Answer these honestly and candidates will trust you. Dodge them with corporate speak and they'll assume the worst.

The Test: Would Current Employees Agree?

Before you describe your culture in an interview, ask yourself: Would your current team agree with this description?

If you say "we have great work-life balance" and three people on your team are working weekends right now, that's a lie.

If you say "we're extremely collaborative" and your team mostly works in silos, that's a lie.

If current employees wouldn't recognize your culture description, don't say it to candidates. They'll find out the truth and your credibility is gone.

What To Do When Your Culture Actually Sucks

Sometimes your culture genuinely has serious problems. You can't fix them overnight. What do you do in interviews?

Option 1: Be honest about problems and what's being done to improve. Some candidates will appreciate the transparency and join anyway.

Option 2: Don't hire until you fix the problems. If your culture is so bad you can't honestly represent it without scaring everyone away, maybe the problem isn't your interview pitch. It's your culture.

The Bottom Line

Candidates aren't stupid. They've been through bad hiring processes before. They've heard the corporate culture pitch that turned out to be lies.

When you oversell culture, you're not fooling anyone. You're just signaling that you're not trustworthy.

Be honest. Be specific. Acknowledge trade-offs. Describe reality, not fantasy.

You'll lose some candidates who want something different. That's fine—they would've quit anyway once they saw the reality.

You'll gain candidates who appreciate honesty and join with clear expectations. Those are the hires who actually stick around.

Your company culture is what it is. Lying about it doesn't make it better. It just makes you a liar.

The Fast Version:

• Stop using red-flag phrases (we're a family, fast-paced, wear many hats)
• Be specific instead of vague (actual hours instead of "great work-life balance")
• Acknowledge problems while explaining what's being done about them
• Test whether current employees would agree with your culture description
• Honest culture descriptions build trust even if culture isn't perfect
• Candidates who join with accurate expectations stay longer