Join us as we share what we’re learning as we build a company that approaches work from a fresh perspective. We write about workplace culture, our finances, and our business decisions and strategies.
Making and communicating decisions across an organization can be a challenge anytime. Making decisions during a pandemic is a whole new level of challenge. When the impact of COVID-19 started to grow, we at Buffer, like many others, needed to move as quickly as possible, gather a lot of information, and make big decisions that would ultimately impact our team, our customers, and our business. This presented a unique challenge. A lot of the decisions spanned the entire company and needed to be
We've been building Buffer for coming up to ten years now. We’re currently a 90-person fully remote team with over 70,000 paying customers and $20M in annual revenue. We’re proud to be a leader in the space of social media management, and to operate long-term as an independent and profitable business. As a company, we’ve rallied around serving small businesses. We’re also passionate about challenging suboptimal approaches to how work happens and how employees are treated. Our current 4-day work
We used to have a system called "transparent email" for all internal communication at Buffer. That stopped working for us, here's what we do now.
We’ve decided to conduct a long-term pilot of the 4-day workweek. See our results so far and what we're adding next.
As April comes to a close, and we look ahead to another month where our global team is living in various forms of lockdown and isolation, I decided that for the month of May, Buffer will operate under a 4-day workweek (at full pay) across the whole 89-person team. We’re in a period of time where there’s a layer of added anxiety and stress in all of our lives. At Buffer, we’ve been encouraging taking time off, and relaxing productivity expectations, in addition to shifting internal deadlines, bu
Many companies have a regular All Hands meeting. Generally, this is a company-wide gathering for all employees (‘all hands on deck’) to hear from the organization’s leaders and discuss the state of the company. At Buffer, the All Hands meeting is a key element of our communication and culture. As we grow, there’s an increased need to hear regularly from our CEO and leadership team and get on the same page about strategy and direction. Every month we alternate between a presentation-based All H
“When spring comes, snow melts first at the periphery, because that is where it is most exposed”Andy Grove This quote comes from Andy Grove , Intel’s former CEO, and which I was reminded of in the most recent book I finished reading, Seeing Around Corners by Rita McGrath. The idea is that snow melts first from the edges, at the periphery. This is where the first c
I have always assumed that a remote company must have a lower carbon footprint, but is that true?
No one knows how to work during a pandemic, and we’re all grappling through it together. So in the spirit of sharing, here are all of the internal messages we’ve shared with our team and shareholders during this time.
Here’s a look at how we’ve evolved the process of onboarding teammates at Buffer -- what we've stopped, started, and are doing next.
For the past few years, we’ve been on a journey to make sure our Buffer swag – the branded merchandise that goes out to teammates, customers and the world – reflects our Buffer values . Branded merchandise has a vast footprint on the environment — in terms of production, shipping, employment practices, and distribution — so we treat these decisions with care, always remembe
Before I worked in a remote team , I was a freelancer and never needed to collaborate with teams very much. The way I used my calendar back then was pretty basic; maybe a birthday here and there. But when I joined Buffer in 2015 that suddenly changed. The more I grew as an engineer and the more I leaned into leadership and ultimately transitioned into management , the more I noticed how essential cal
Editor’s Note: Thanks for checking out this post! We’ve released our updated 2021 pay analysis here. You can’t improve something if you don’t know that it needs to be improved. That was very true for us four years ago when we first started looking into equal pay at Buffer. We have long used a salary formula to determine all of our salaries – the same role in the same part of the world receives the same salary. That m
Transparency is one of our defining values at Buffer. We are excited to debut a new revenue dashboard!
One of the most conversation-provoking perks we’ve ever launched at Buffer is our Dependents Grant. This benefit provides a $3,000 USD stipend to teammates for each person who depends on their salary (including spouses, partners, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.). When it first launched in 2016, the grant was designed to show support for Buffer teammates as they navigated various life situations. “We we want to help our teammates feel taken car
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: March 4, 2020 * Posted by: Courtney Seiter, Director of People * Title: We are postponing our planned June retreat in Athens We are postponing our planned June retreat in Athens Hi team; I have some tough news to share: In light of the COVID-19 situation developing across the world and out of an abundance of cautio
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: April 3, 2020 * Posted by: Joel Gascoigne, Buffer Founder and CEO * Title: Launching the COVID-19 Customer Assistance Program Launching the COVID-19 Customer Assistance Program Hey team, I’m glad to be sharing an update with you on how we’re planning to continue and expand the ways we’re helping customers get throu
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: March 26, 2020 * Posted by: Joel Gascoigne, Founder and CEO * Title: An assortment of thoughts on our approach during COVID-19 An assortment of thoughts on our approach during COVID-19 Hi team, As we come towards the end of another week in this pandemic, and many more places implement stay at home orders, I want t
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: March 18, 2020 * Posted by: Caryn Hubbard, Director of Finance * Title: How we’re positioned to handle this new economic climate How we’re positioned to handle this new economic climate Hi team, The last couple of weeks have been atypical and unprecedented, unfolding in ways none of us could have imagined. Public
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: March 30, 2020 * Posted by: Courtney Seiter, Director of People * Title: A note on COVID-19 sick time and time off A note on COVID-19 sick time and time off Hi team; the People and Finance teams wanted to share a special note with you about time off during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, Buffer’s Flexible Time Off P
Ever since the world got turned upside down by COVID-19, it’s been “business as unusual” for everyone – Buffer included. I sent this update out to Buffer’s investors one week ago. I hesitated on whether to share it more widely, as I know a lot of companies have been impacted more severely in these times. That said, I believe it makes sense to lean into our company value of transparency, since there may be some companies this could help, and it shows Buffer customers that we will be around beyon
One remote work best practice that we live by at Buffer is asynchronous communication. This concept simply means that work doesn’t happen at the same time for everyone. Communication and collaboration are complex issues, especially for remote workers – in our last three years of State of Remote Work reports they have been in the top three struggles for remote workers. Ensuring good asynchronous communication practices is one of the ways that we address this struggle at Buffer. Asynchronous com
This team communication regarding COVID-19 is part of our COVID-19 Response Series. You can see all the messages in the series here . * Shared: March 12, 2020 * Posted by: Courtney Seiter, Director of People * Title: Buffer Guidelines for 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19) * Note: We’re grateful to Human Made for sharing their guidelines openly via their handbook ! Some of this language was borrowed from their
We just released our annual State of Remote Work report, and one of the most consistent responses is that when we ask remote workers if they’d like to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers, 98 percent of them said yes. A further 97 percent of people said they would also recommend remote work to others. So what is it about remote work that makes people want to do it for the rest of their careers and recommend it so stron