Assemble’s WFH Policy

Here’s a big idea. Our policy is that employees should work from wherever they feel they are the most productive. We also give our team a lot of flexibility in their hours, to allow for the everyday life events that occur. The result is a much more engaged group that is putting out incredible work while maintaining a healthy work/life balance, which is so often difficult to find.

How did we come up with our policy? 

Before we dive into details, we want to start by saying how amazing our team is. As the pandemic continues to throw curveballs, they've continued to pivot and adapt, doing excellent work all along the way. We've also doubled the size of our team during the pandemic, so we know we can successfully work remotely together.

Like many businesses, our leadership team talked about what our return-to-office policy would look like, or whether we needed one at all. We decided to take the lead from our people, asking them to give feedback via a quick survey. The results were clear: a lot of employees were happy and most productive working from home. That flexibility gave them opportunities to spend more time with family and to pursue hobbies that they were missing out on when they were commuting to and from work.

Our policy

We quickly determined that we weren't interested in asking folks to return to the office unless they really wanted to. Our policy is that employees should work from wherever they feel they are the most productive. We also give our team a lot of flexibility in their hours, to allow for the everyday life events that occur. The result is a much more engaged group that is putting out incredible work while maintaining a healthy work/life balance that is so often difficult to find.

Working remotely for Assemble

As we continue to build our team, we're adding people across the map and continue to have a majority of our Seattle-local staff working from home. It's important to us that we keep finding ways to enjoy time together, remotely. During the full office shutdown, we held 13 virtual events, and we're working on ways to bring people together. Here are some things that we have been trying:

• Creating something that resembles “office hours,” where employees are on an open zoom call so that others can pop in and ask questions of their colleagues, similar to the experience we have previously been accustomed to in an office setting.
• Investing in technology to ensure equity across all communication channels so that everyone can stay involved.
• Hosting virtual events. We know that the one thing that suffers a bit in remote teams is the interpersonal experiences that form tight bonds within teams. We continue to find ways that we can include our entire staff in informal get-togethers, such as Zoom happy hours, cocktail-making classes, cooking classes, remote game nights, and even celebrating one year of closing the office to help us realize how much we accomplished despite the pandemic.

Working from Assemble’s office

While no one is required to come into the office, we have officially opened our Seattle office for those who prefer that setting. Of course, anyone working in the office must follow the latest CDC guidelines to maintain a safe work environment. We have also set up hotel desks for those who only come in occasionally. Those desks are cleaned by the last person to use them, and then again when a new person occupies the desk. We're working on setting up a system so that employees can reserve desks when they want to come into the office. The system will help ensure only the recommended number of people are in the office at one time.

Work with us

Our people mean the world to us, and we work very hard to make this an incredible and fulfilling place to work. And the good news is, we're hiring! If you value collaboration, flexibility, and being a part of a community committed to making others successful, we want to hear from you.