Netflix has never been shy about doing things differently. No formal vacation policy. No traditional expense rules. And a management philosophy called the Keeper Test that’s been part of their culture for years — and is getting fresh attention in 2026.
The idea is simple, and a little uncomfortable. Netflix asks its managers to consider one question about each person on their team: “If this person told me they were leaving tomorrow, would I fight to keep them?”
If the answer is no, Netflix’s position is straightforward. It’s better to part ways sooner rather than later — for the company, and honestly, for the employee too.
They’ve recently added a second version of the question to make it even more pointed: “Knowing everything I know today, would I hire this person again?”
Netflix frames it as a kindness. Their argument is that keeping someone in a role where they’re not truly valued — where a manager wouldn’t fight for them — isn’t doing that person any favors. It just delays the inevitable while everyone’s time is wasted.
It sounds harsh, and by conventional workplace standards, it is. Most companies don’t operate anywhere near this way, and plenty of people have pushed back on the philosophy for being cold or anxiety-inducing for staff.
But there’s something worth sitting with here, even if the Netflix version feels too extreme for most workplaces.
The question itself — would I fight to keep this person — is actually a pretty revealing one for any manager to ask quietly, privately, and honestly. Not as a mechanism for letting people go, but as a way of checking in with yourself about how well you actually know the people on your team. Whether you’re paying attention. Whether you’d even notice if they started looking elsewhere.
Most managers, if they’re being honest, haven’t thought about it that way.
The Keeper Test probably isn’t for everyone. Netflix or at least parts of it have been operating around this question from 2009 so they are comfortable with it. Dropping it into a traditional workplace cold would likely cause more anxiety than insight.
But the question underneath it? That the one worth asking.