We are not a remote-first company
Although we will be flexible for the rest of the pandemic and will be providing vaccines to our team members and their families, Even will be a company with core offices based in Bangalore.
While we think there are many benefits to a fully remote team, we think there are significant drawbacks too, particularly for the rapid iterations needed for an early-stage company. As a team, we value the back and forth that is only currently possible in an in-person environment. And that is how we intend on operating for the foreseeable future.
If digital tools improve enough to fully replicate the benefits of an in-person office, we will be open to change, especially as we scale up. Until then, we expect to be a co-located team.
We understand that everyone’s body clocks work differently. Some people are at their best early in the morning and others are most productive later in the day. We want you to be able to work at your best, while making sure we get the benefits of being able to bounce ideas off each other, particularly in such a cross-functional business like Even.
We have core working hours of 10.30 am to 4.30 pm, during which we need you to be available for any meetings and one-on-ones. We encourage you to, not only step into work on time but leave on time to spend time with your family and friends.
Having said that, we still value the benefits of flexible working. Some days you may need to stay at home and wait for the post, and that's okay.
It may seem that our office hours are pretty chill. But we can assure you Even is a fairly intense place to work and expectations of output are high. We just don't feel the number of hours correlates particularly well to the work people can produce. We don’t want you to “time” your hours or waste your time sitting in the office staring at your computer. Do an honest day’s work and head out to spend the day how you want it.
Important to note:
Some roles at Even require you to work on the weekends. We understand that is not ideal but we will do everything to make it suck less by giving additional pay plus days off on weekdays.
We want to avoid long and inactionable meetings at all cost. Even if this means slightly more work before or after the meeting.
The fundamental principle is: every meeting should have a tangible output. Something beyond the docs that were prepared for the meeting and the words exchanged during it. This can be as simple as a couple of bullet points on what was discussed along with some action items, or as elaborate as a pull request or a new content strategy doc.
This helps you and us retain not only the contents of the meeting but also think forward. People and the point both feel lost after a long meeting and we don’t want that to happen.