The Feeling Duff Goldman’s Been Chasing His Whole Career

If you want to hear a great story, talk to Duff Goldman. The Charm City Cakes founder and Food Fighters/Ace of Cakes star has lived a dozen lives—from bassist in an emo band to stage-show star—but when we spoke for a story on Delish.com back in 2015, one of the things that stood out the most to me was the way he described one of his earliest jobs.

It was his first job in fine dining, at a restaurant called Savannah, where the line cooks played jokes on each other, and he joined a “sludgy desert rock band” with a coworker. When their shifts ended, everybody grabbed beers together, and they’d show up still wearing their chef’s coats, because that’s the sense of camaraderie they had. They weren’t just people who worked at the same place; they were a team.

“I’ve been looking for that kind of feeling every place I’ve worked since then,” Goldman said. “I ask myself, ‘How tight are these cooks? Do they love each other? Is this the kind of environment where people can get along?'”

That last question has been crucial for Goldman as he’s built up Charm City Cakes.

“If everyone’s freaked out and scared of the chef, you’re not going to make good food,” he explained. “I wanted to make Charm City a very fun environment. Everybody who works there is all goofy and colorful.”

It made me wonder: What kind of culture are you contributing to at work? What little things can add joy to your everyday life, where you’re so proud of what you do that you want to rock your uniform (if you have one) outside of the office?

So often, when job searching, we pay close attention to the job description, salary and benefits, but how much do we pay attention to the team?

This post originally ran in August 2015, as part of Life Between Weekends’ Tuesday Takeaway series. Every Tuesday, we shared the most compelling insight we’ve gleaned from a book, movie, tour, documentary or article to inspire you during the workday. It has since been updated to be optimized for SEO.