Workplace of the future - Page 9
In Buffer’s history we’ve tried many different experiments that have soared – or flopped. Some with our culture . Some with our management structure (or lack thereof!) . Some with launching products . If a belief or philosophy hasn’t been examined recently, we like to take a closer look and perhaps try something new. We feel that one of our biggest
Every employee at Buffer can take a full day or two half-days off each quarter to show gratitude by volunteering or otherwise contributing to their community, wherever they may be. Here’s more detail about the program!
It feels ridiculous for me to write about being an engineering manager. It’s a job I’ve done for not even 30 days yet. But that’s what I want to know from others —how did you start? How did you make it through your first month? No two first rodeos are ever alike. But they’re all rodeos, and falling off is falling off. There’s some kind of pattern. So here I am, writing the post that I want to read. What is this job, anyway? I had a rough idea what I was getting into from the internal job des
It’s one of those mythical and vaunted startup perks, and one of the Buffer perks that tends to entice folks the most: unlimited vacation time. When someone new joins the team, they’re immediately granted as much time away from work as they’d like, no questions asked. Under this non-policy policy, teammates have had some great vacations, including cruises around the world and even a month of sailing the Atlantic. But is it really that simple? Well, yes and no. Buffer’s unlimited vacation po
Heads up! This is an older post that references some outdated processes at Buffer, specifically the “Buffer bootcamp.” Feel free to see the latest information here , including all the reasons why we retired this concept! We’re Retiring The ‘Buffer Bootcamp’ Period For New Teammates – Here’s Why Every new person who joins the Buffer team starts with a 45-day bootcamp trial period [https://buffer.com/resources/starting-
I’ve “leaned back.” And I’m okay with it. Sort of. As the first teammate to have a baby while working at Buffer, I was able to create our initial family leave policy before I used it. Even that wasn’t enough to prepare me for the reality of being a working mom. Going into motherhood , I had a lot of grandiose ideas, preconceived notions and expectations. The biggest of which was that I’d be able to jump back into m
January 3, 2011, was my first day at Buffer as sort of the social media intern. The introductory task that Joel and I came up with was fairly simple: Spend 30 minutes a day on Buffer’s Twitter account and help it grow . We had about 78 followers at the time, and the 100 follower mark was in sight. I had just turned 20 years old, was halfway through my second year in college and I was ready—for anything really. It di
It’s perhaps a daily occurrence for a cat, dog, child or significant other to appear in a meeting between Buffer team members. And we’re okay with that. More than okay. We love these moments and we encourage them. Here is my son, Anthony’s, appearance at his first Buffer all-hands meeting when he was three months old (we’re towards the top left): As a fully distributed team, many of us work from home. For the parents of Buffer, this allows for the opportunity to work from home with their kids
Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post. We’ve shared a bit in the past about what we believe creates a great fit at Buffer , but the hiring process is so much more than these factors alone. How do you create a positive experience for all candidates, regardless of the outcome? How do you avoid bias and view all candidate
Hi there! This is an older post that we’ve kept around for transparency but that means that sometimes the information is no longer accurate. Head to our homepage to view our most recent posts. What combination of strengths help a team thrive? We’ve written before about the “bias toward action” mindset that we believe creates a great fit on the Buffer team, and we’re always experimenting, evolving and fine-tuning the way
If the Buffer team wasn’t fully remote, here’s how I’d picture our office looking: wide-open spaces with big tables for collaborating, children and babies hanging out on their parent’s laps; cats and dogs running around merrily with a scattering of pet toys littering the floor. We believe in bringing our whole selves to work, and that means family and furry friends alike! Thus, we all strive to know and celebrate each other’s pets, kids, signific
Whenever you’re working solo on a project, chances are you’re writing in ‘your’ style – which often makes it easy to make all your code look and feel the same (but not necessarily clean). And when there’s more than one team member contributing to a project, it can be difficult to ensure that code is kept both clean and readable. Chances are that everyone has their own way of doing something, even when it comes down to things such as the way variables are named or the ordering of methods within a
Hometown. Siblings. Childhood memories. High school activities. Travel, spouses, friends. Life goals. These are things you might know about your significant other, close friends. How about your coworkers? At Buffer, we’ve discovered that sharing more of ourselves — our whole selves — is a key component in bringing team members closer together. At our past in-person retreats, we’ve called these exercises “personal stories,” and it’s become one of our favorite ways to connect. Now, we’re scaling
We’d love to share what we’ve learned (so far) through the Twitter Squad experiment!
When you’re a fully remote team , all forms of communication take on much more importance. Since we don’t see each other face-to-face very often at Buffer, we have to think up other ways to express ourselves, so we focus a lot on our written communication , including emojis and lots of exclamation points, and of course, GIFs. The same applies for our wonderful Bu
How many goals have you achieved today? Setting goals is key to making progress in any area. We know that those who write down their goals are 95% more likely to achieve them and that two best practices for goal-setting include making them measurable and giving them a deadline. We’ve even explored a variety of formats for setting goals on the blog before. One format that has particularly intrigued us at Buffer is the practice of OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. A system that
Something really awesome happens when you search for images of an “entrepreneur” in Buffer’s super-simple social media image maker Pablo: We’re so delighted to add the Women of Color in Tech Chat photos into Pablo, to complement our other great photo partners including Pixabay and Unsplash. When you search Pablo using words like “entrepreneur,” “designer,” “developer,” “engineer,” “business,” “founder” and more, you’ll see these high-quality, free-to-use images from Women of Color in Tech Chat
We believe in bringing your whole selves to work. Many times, that might mean stepping away from work for a bit to celebrate and wholly focus on your family. This is a foundational pillar here at Buffer and we’re committed to supporting our team members in many different ways: perks, flexible time off and a fully-paid family leave. In our experiences as a growing startup, no two individual’s experience is quite the same—especially with family leave. So Buffer has a loose policy that recommends
At Buffer, our workplace environment looks a bit different: our “water cooler” is Slack, we utilize transparent emails, we offer free, unlimited Kindle books and host monthly book clubs via Zoom. Customers are starting to care more and more about the company behind the product. And at Buffer, it’s part of our vision to create the most fulfilling place to work. In the past five-and-a-half years, where we’ve gone from 0 to nearly 90 employees, we’ve experimented with many aspects of our company
Accessibility isn’t a topic that just affects some of us. As no less of an innovator than Google puts it , “the accessibility problems of today are the mainstream breakthroughs of tomorrow.” We at Buffer are delighted to have Neil Milliken (@neilmilliken ), Debra Ruh (@debraruh ), Antonio Santos (@akwyz ) of AXSChat
Whenever I’m working on a new challenge and keep getting stuck, there’s one post that I seem to return to again and again. It’s by our CEO, Joel, and it’s called “I Have No Idea What I Am Doing.” We’ve likely uttered that exact sentence 30 times over the course of the last month as we worked to figure out the ins and outs of launching our new podcast today. Despite talking a lot about podcasts at Buffer—sharing the podcasts we love [https://buffer.com/resources/p
At Buffer, our journey has been full of experiments, pivot points, reflection and transitions, and it is our privilege to share them all with you here. Today, we’re excited to update you on a few changes here on the Open blog! For a while now, Courtney has been the incredible shepherd and heart of the Open blog, reporting on the lessons we’re learning at Buffer and sharing insights on happier, more productive, more creative work from all kinds of smart folks
Having a remote job has been a life-changing experience for me. I worked in traditional offices for a few years before I decided to start working remotely . Working from anywhere frees you from commuting; it also requires you to be organized and productive, everyday. There are so many benefits of remote work — it’s hard to name them all. I feel fortunate to have been given the chance to work from where I’m hap
Around 8 weeks after giving birth, I began to panic. It was a rough time for us — our little one wasn’t too keen on sleeping at night and endured colic that left him crying for hours at a time. With my return-to-work date only two weeks away, I wondered how it would even be possible — especially because we hoped for me to continue as the baby’s primary caregiver while working full-time. Doubts crept into my mind: * Would I even be capable in my new role? * The team had functioned so well w