I joined a company a decade ago thinking “meh” but discovered a fantastic work env. The mandate changed: make XYZ suck less. That’s it. It was kinda a startup within a stuffy 100-year-old setup. And yeah, we worked like freed slaves. But then, same, the stuffy people wanted to helm the awesome, committed a coup, and installed feckless morons on place of our command team.

Soooo I left, along with about half the staff. It wasnt idealism so much as an environment of respect and support, but it fell apart fast when the good people were tossed.