We are, and have been, a fully distributed workforce since 2008. We have no office. Instead, we have time tested and proven systems to make distributed work happen in a highly productive and collaborative manner.
Having said this, distributed work is not for everyone. We have found that the people that thrive best in our environment are self motivated, disciplined, and they prefer a no commute, work from anywhere arrangement more than in-person, collocated, collaboration and social interaction. If you are at the stage in life where you want office ping pong games and foosball tournaments we aren’t a good fit. This is not to say that we are against being social and having in person meetings. We encourage virtual interactions as much as possible during the work week and we fund in-person gatherings at least once a year.
Now to be as productive as possible in a distributed workplace we believe eavesdropping is a positive attribute, not a rude and annoying habit. We want everyone to eavesdrop as time and interest allows so that they understand everything there is to know about what is happening in the company. Knowledge is power and the more everyone has, the better the decisions they can independently make throughout their day.
Therefore we prefer that all conversations happen over Slack in open rooms and video conferences via Google Hangouts and Zoom. It is really important that we are transparent so that everyone has the same information from which to act. So please, don't DM or send private emails unless it is a personal matter. Please share so that we can all learn together.
We have no preference from where you are in the world but we do care about the quality of our communication. It is very important that you have a reliable Internet connection that can consistently support video conferencing and as much as possible a quiet, non-interrupt, environment from which to work.