1.7. MALAISE

Unlike their aggressive competitors, Yip employees almost never felt compelled to stay at the office into the evening or come in on weekends, and they didn't talk much about work outside the walls of the company. Among rank-and-file employees, competitive information or industry news rarely found its way into hallway discussions, seemingly nudged out by more relevant topics, like television, youth soccer, and coastal fog.

Whenever employees ventured away from Monterey to attend a trade show or industry conference, they always came home fascinated by the passion that customers and distributors felt for Yip's products, and how much this contrasted with the attitude of Yip's own employees.