Vizzuality playbook in progress
This project is maintained by Vizzuality
Team spirit is essential for the close working of our team. Being able to trust each other, speak frankly about difficult topics, support each other through good and bad: all of that needs an investment of time and soul. Having a distributed team - across three offices and many co-working or remote locations - can make it even more difficult to build and maintain that.
This guideline describes and formalises staff ability to move around and visit other offices.
When we hire someone in the Porto or Cambridge office, the starter’s buddy should discuss and assess with the members of the team with whom they will work if it would be useful to arrange a trip to the main office in Madrid. Typical goals of this trip are for the new starter to meet the wider team they will be working with, to introduce them to the way we work, and to start building that trust and shared understanding that will make our work go quickly and efficiently. The accommodation and travel is paid for by the company in this case.
If you are a remote worker starting out at the company, we might ask that you spend your first few months working from one of our offices for the same reasons. When this happens the company pays you a relocation bonus for the duration of your stay. [note: after consenmentisation, we’ll need to update the onboarding guideline to include this]
Every year we will have a two-three day retreat: a time for us all to get together and have some time to talk about the future of Vizzuality. This usually involves traveling to a location just outside Madrid and staying there for 1-2 nights. This is all covered by Vizzuality.
Every year, usually in the second or third week of December, we hold our Christmas Party in Madrid. While the party usually takes place on a Friday night, you’re welcome to come and stay for the whole week prior if you have relevant work to do that will benefit from being all together in Madrid. In previous years we’ve run training workshops, end-of-year retrospectives, reviews and discussions to plan for the next year in this period.
In most cases travel for project work should be covered by a project’s budget. Any team writing a proposal should consider the potential geographic spread of their team and whether a sprint may be necessary; if yes, then make sure these expenses are included in the proposal.
We appreciate that sometimes a need arises organically within a project to arrange a sprint where people from different offices meet in one place. In that case, where there hasn’t necessarily been a budget allocated at the start of the project, follow these steps.
If you want to go and work from Porto, Cambridge, Madrid, or with one of our remote workers, then of course you’re welcome to do that. Vizzuality will not recompense you for any trip you make that isn’t directly related to projects. Before you book, you should check with the staff in the host office that there is a space for you, just in case there is a project workshop or event going on that will make it difficult to receive you in that office. Probably there won’t be!