Discourse

How do you maintain flexibility & balance for your team?

At Discourse, we build a platform for civilized discussion on the web. Our company is fully distributed and asynchronous with employees working from 17 different countries and 14 different timezones. Don't like meetings and endless calls? We keep them to an absolute minimum and instead rely on the power of the paragraph to collaborate and coordinate to build Discourse - all powered by Discourse. We don't work weekends, aim for a 40 hour work week, have flexible work schedules, and allow five weeks of vacation each year for every employee, not to mention a generous parental leave policy, too.

How do you ensure autonomy and plan for the future?

At Discourse, any conversation is on the table for improving our software. Have an idea? Share it! Since we use Discourse to make Discourse, the team has an opportunity to chime in on discussions ranging from feature requests and infrastructure approaches to business ideas and marketing strategies. We don’t micromanage (in fact we shudder at the mere mention of the word), as we value giving our employees the autonomy they need to get the work done. Our teams have a weekly video call to catch up and stay connected, but we try to keep meetings and calls to an absolute minimum.

How does your company attempt to hire people from underrepresented groups and improve the diversity of your team?

We hire globally, so we're no stranger to hiring in a diverse manner. We have every candidate we're interested hiring complete a paid trial project with us so we can evaluate their skillset objectively and ensure a work-style fit with the team. As a company, we also regularly support projects like Rails Girls Summer of Code and attempt to hire women and people of color when possible.

How do you support your team to grow and improve?

Our employees are free to pursue growth and learning at their own pace and in their own way. Want to try working on something different or learn something new in our software? Go for it. Interested in training materials or attending a conference? Just ask! Our company moves quickly, so there’s plentiful opportunity to learn and grow for all our employees. We supplement these growth opportunities with yearly reviews where we encourage employees to explore training materials, conferences, and the like to help them down the path they wish to go.

Perks and benefits

• Completely flexible schedule
• $400/month in colocated office expenses, if you prefer not to work from home
• Five weeks of vacation plus major holidays.
• Yearly world meetup
• Competitive salary for skill level
• Cutting edge hardware of your choice
• Official code of conduct
• Paid maternity or paternity leave for parents

Further reading

• About page: Who is Discourse?
• Code of Conduct
• Community guidelines