Startups are known for their flexible work hours, free food, and jeans-and-sneakers dress code. But what really makes up the culture of a company?
Medium is working hard to develop an organization where our employees’ experiences reinforce some of our core values, such as initiative, collaboration, transparency, and mindfulness.
Holacracy — Distributing authority across the company
One thing that makes working at Medium unique is a system called Holacracy, which assists us in structuring our company. It’s a tool that helps us empower people at Medium to exercise autonomy over his or her areas of expertise. We encourage people to be proactive and talk early and often, some of the things we value greatly here at Medium.
Meetings are run under a clearly defined structure that includes everyone’s input while unearthing actionable next steps for as many as 20 issues. Holacracy helps organizations run more efficiently, keeping them focused on the work that needs to be done rather than the people who are in charge. Check out this collection if you’re interested in learning more!
Building Better Things Together
Medium is an organization that runs on open communication and feedback. The team makes the implicit explicit on a daily basis. Collaboration among cross-functional teams (or “circles” as we call them) is important to build an excellent product, but you can’t achieve these values unless you feel comfortable with the people you work with everyday. This is why Medium makes the effort to grow connections within the team.
One way we do this is with our Birthday Bonus. On our birthdays, we receive a pretty, handwritten card with a cash bonus. In return, we spend the money on whatever makes us happy and then share our story with the group at our Friday Afternoon Meeting (FAM).
FAM is where the team receives updates from our different circles and also learns a little more about one another during the birthday presentations. It’s an opportunity for each of us to come up with creative ways to share the wealth we were just given. So many thoughtful and interesting stories have come from this Friday tradition. Chad used his money to attend a charity golf tournament in honor of the Marines Corps and then shared stories with us from his two tours in Iraq. Luke took his family to Disneyland and presented us with several adorable pictures of his children. Kate traveled to South Korea and shared her trip with Medium here. Jamie had an original idea involving Kiva and started this cool project. It’s not the money that makes this perk so special.
It’s the storytelling, when we gain insight into each other’s lives outside of the office, that makes this such a cool experience.
Reducing Stress, Improving Productivity
Working in a comfortable and effective environment is important to the team at Medium. The People Operations circle strives to help everyone be more present and mindful at work. We’re constantly evaluating and experimenting with ways to help employees reduce stress and increase focus.
Three times a week, we host professionally led meditation sessions. These sessions cultivate mindfulness, which is all about paying closer attention to the world around you and your reactions to it. Meditation is optional, a helpful stress reliever that also helps us work smarter. Meditation assists one of our engineers, Elizabeth, to “let go of distractions” so she can come back to her work with more focus. We also host yoga classes at our office once a week to promote physical health and wellness. It’s a nice break from sitting at our desks all day and we return to work feeling refreshed and energized.
Work life balance is extremely important to our team. People here are passionate about our product and we work hard to constantly improve it. Medium offers plenty of flexibility in our schedules, allowing us the time we need so we can be more present and focused on our work. We value our time with our families and friends; open time off for the entire company and a generous maternity (and paternity!) leave policy are some of the ways Medium supports this balance.
A Not so Typical Start-Up
Medium is a start-up that is a bit unique; everyone is granted stock options, 100% of our employees’ health benefits are covered, we offer competitive salaries, the company is financially stable, and we have our very own Product Scientist!
Above all else, it’s the people here that make Medium such a great place to work. We have fun, laugh a lot, and learn from each other. We do our best to create an atmosphere that not only encourages our team to do our best work individually, but also to work better together. Sharing stories from the birthday gift, the extra time we spend outside of work playing softball or basketball, snacking and drinking together on Friday afternoons — these are nice opportunities for us to bond, but the warmth of the people at Medium is what turns these instances into real friendships. Big things like collaboration and communication are important in a company, but so are the not-so-little things like Jean’s new baby’s name and Charlotte’s new favorite bakery she found in NYC.
We enjoy working together. We enjoy playing together.
We are Team Medium.
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