Guide to Working Remotely at Glitch
Whether you’ve worked remotely before or this is your first remote position, this guide will help you prepare to be remote and outline our remote benefits and expectations. We strive to create a “remote-centric” culture, meaning we default to remote best practices and want our remote employees to feel just as much a part of the company as those working in the New York office.
If you’re an HQ employee we recommend reading to 1) gain some insight and understanding into the remote work experience and unique challenges of your remote colleagues and 2) clarify expectations if you need to work from home for any measure of time. If you’re an office employee considering going fully remote (aka you’re permanently leaving the NYC area) come and talk to us!
What you'll need:
We ask that you have a consistent work space for your office, ideally with a door that closes. This can be a room in your home or a coworking space. It’s important to have a space that’s distraction free where you can get your work done.
A reliable internet connection! You should be able to easily participate in video calls wherever you’re working. If you’re not sure if your internet connection will be sufficient please talk to us so we can work it out!
If your office space is in your home, it’s important that any domestic responsibilities occur outside your working hours. It’s impossible to do your best work when you’re the primary caretaker for the day, repainting the bedroom, or catching up on 6 months of laundry.
In order for your team to work efficiently, it’s important that you set working and available hours and communicate them to your team. We’re always happy to be flexible, and in those cases advance notice and communication are key.
What we will provide:
Glitch will outfit your entire office. This is including, but not limited to: a comfortable and adjustable chair, height-adjustable desk, computer, additional monitors, headset, softphone, keyboard, mouse, laptop stand, USB hub, and additional cables. If you find you’re in need of anything else, you can request it on our equipment board 
and we’ll send it to you directly.
and we’ll send it to you directly.
A $100/month stipend to cover the expense of your office.
Communication & Culture:
We ask everyone to read through our values and ask questions when they start at Glitch to make explicit certain expectations we have for communication within the company. These expectations boil down to “treat each other with respect” and “give your co-workers the benefit of the doubt.” This is even more important as a remote company that communicates primarily through Slack.
Since we’re not all physically in the same place, we consider Slack our office. We have our conversations, both formal and informal here. When there are meetings with more than three people or with external partners, notes are promptly posted in the #notes channel. Anyone is welcome to pop into any channel at any time to see what’s going on or ask a question. If you’re new to Glitch, don’t be shy about asking questions in Slack or DMing anyone to get information. This is why we have Slack!
When you’re working remotely you won’t ever just run into one of your coworkers walking down the hallway and have a conversation. That’s why we have different times dedicated to getting to know your co-workers. (more info below).
Getting to know your coworkers
As a distributed team it's even more important to make time to get to know your coworkers. As a new employee especially, we encourage you to take advantage of Coffeetime (1:1 or small groups) and Kiwi Cooler!
Coffeetime- each week you'll receive an email that assigns you a random person for CoffeeTime- which just means you can grab a beverage and get to know each other. Coffeetime is usually about half and hour and can happen whenever its convenient for both parties!
On Friday afternoon at 4:30pm ET we have Kiwi Cooler. This is a place for anyone to hang out and continue working or just catch up with your coworkers!
All of these are tools we use to facilitate friendship and communication across the company. You're welcome to participate in one or both, whatever works best for you and your schedule! We'll always encourage you to get to know your amazing coworkers.
Remote tips! Some great advice from remote folks...
Setting aside some time to get fresh air and a bit of exercise can go a long way
Take advantage of coffeetime and other activities created to help you get to know your co-workers
Establish a door code, especially if there are other people at home while you’re working