At Panorama Education, caring about people is at the heart of everything we do. Not only do we care for our clients, we care deeply about our employees as well. Whether it’s on Slack, in meetings, or in the details of our work life balance, each of us contribute to and connect with many aspects of this value every day.
For many of us, life at Panorama is a welcome change from the tech companies we came here from. Some of us were stifled with strict hierarchies, experienced burn out, didn’t feel included, or suffered from a lack of support in previous roles.
Personally, I have felt so refreshed with the culture of caring here because it is in stark contrast to my experience at a prior tech company.
It’s 2020, and I’m poorly adjusting to life during a global pandemic. The logistics startup I’m working at is continuing full steam ahead launching two new products. As one of two Senior Engineers on a shrinking team I have far more work than I can complete before our rapidly approaching deadlines. On top of that, I’m struggling with my mental and physical health and have frequent doctors appointments. I’m so overwhelmed and yet I’m working overtime to meet these relentless deadlines. I reach out to my manager frequently but I’m not getting the support I need. There is no help coming and no end in sight.
I notice myself feeling bitter towards my co-workers, I’m losing the drive to go the extra mile, the future of my company feels so bleak, and I have no motivation.
I’ve officially burned out.
One recruiter phone call and three days of interviews later: It’s my first week of fully remote work at Panorama, and I’m attending onboarding meetings. My manager tells me to let him know when I’m ready to pick up my first coding task and that there’s no rush to dive in until I’m ready. I’m taken aback by this leeway and, skeptical that it will continue, I make sure to pick up and complete tasks as fast as I can. After all, we have a deadline to land a huge project and that means I’ll be working constantly until it’s done, right?
A week later, in one of our daily standup meetings, one of my co-workers says, “I’m really low on spoons today so I’m gonna take a nap and recharge.” My manager replies, “Don’t feel pressured to work right now if you don’t have the spoons, hopefully you’ll feel more productive later in the week.” Hold on what? Where am I and what happened to the toxic tech culture I’m used to?
I did a quick Google search on “low spoons” and learned about “Spoon Theory” which is a way of describing the mental and physical capacity that an individual has for daily tasks. I can hardly believe it, Panorama is taking into account that we aren’t machines and understands that there will be ebbs and flows in the amount of work that gets done. I unclench my jaw and let my shoulders relax for the first time in years, maybe it really is different here?
Now, I’ve been at Panorama for four months and I no longer feel the need to churn through work like a robot because that’s just not the culture here. I’ve had low spoon days and super productive days, and I’m a valued member of the team no matter which of those days I’m having. I’m never expected to work at the expense of my health. My team is on track to meet our approaching deadline despite everyone taking weeks off for holiday vacation, and each team member having some days where they just weren’t feeling it.
Panorama has realized that by caring about employees as humans first they have created a sustainable work environment that enables all kinds of people to thrive.
Four other Panorama engineers have decided to share their stories below about how they have been positively impacted by Panorama’s culture of caring.
Ean Nugent — Software Engineer — Roster Squad
We each have various identities and roles that overlap to make us who we are. Some of these may be shared with the majority of the individuals in our society and/or workplace. When this is the case, it is easier for us to feel that we are included and even belong in these environments. However, our other identities and roles may render us minorities in our society and/or workplace inhibiting our senses of inclusion and belonging. We may feel the need to suppress major aspects of who we are in exchange for some degree of inclusion while only rarely hoping for belonging.
This is a very difficult issue to address at an organizational level. However, I have personally appreciated the intentional efforts made in this area at Panorama. Currently, Panorama has 12 “affinity groups”, which are informal spaces (mainly private Slack channels) for members of minority identities/roles. I am a member of three of these groups. They provide a protected space to maintain a workplace community where inclusion and belonging can be more easily attained.
A place where who I am is organizationally affirmed, socially endorsed, and emotionally supported.
In addition to the informal affinity groups, Panorama presently has four Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). These more formal groups are composed of employees from underrepresented groups, allies of those groups, or people who share a common purpose of interest. Each ERG has an executive sponsor and serves as a resource for the company in areas such as networking, talent development, diversity and inclusion strategy, employee retention, and employee engagement. I am a member of one of these ERGs and deeply appreciate clear prioritization of the interests of these groups by Panorama. It communicates to me that who I am is respected and valued in the company
James Tubbs — Software Engineer — Data Operations Squad
When you’re getting ready to start a new job, you might wonder how much support will be available. What is onboarding like? How many questions are“too many questions”?
At Panorama Education, they put forth great effort to make sure new employees are supported.
Onboarding sessions provide a good amount of information about the product and various features of the software. In the technology department, two onboarding buddies are assigned to every new engineer. Anytime you have questions about the company or your specific team practices, your buddies are there to go above and beyond with providing context.
Each engineering squad works to cultivate an atmosphere where questions are encouraged and embraced instead of frowned upon. Engineers are motivated to empower one another and pair on solving problems. My current squad gives plenty of space at our daily standup meetings to raise questions or concerns about projects I’m working on. The main engineering Slack channel is a great place to gain knowledge on parts of the codebase that I’m not familiar with. Documentation is highly valued, and engineers are always looking for ways to improve current resources.
I’m working thousands of miles away from some of my teammates, but it feels like we’re all in the same office.
Since I’ve started working at Panorama, I’ve felt the support. I’ve seen the impact that teammates can have on one another when everyone is working toward a common goal. I’m able to appreciate the values that the company lives by because I see those values in action on a daily basis. Thanks to the ongoing collaborative effort of the team, the anxiety that comes with starting a new job has been gradually alleviated
Lin Xia — Software Engineer — SEL Squad
I have a non-traditional tech background, and my journey as a developer began right around the time COVID-19 took off. So many businesses and companies were closing or switching to a virtual work environment. In my past remote internships, I found that almost all my interactions were solely centered around work itself, and when it was over, out of the dozens of people I’ve talked to, I connected with only one other person. I have only worked fully remote and never got to experience any “office culture”, so I was worried that working at Panorama Education could be “just another job” where we simply discuss our work and that would be the extent of interactions and knowing my co-workers. Being thought of as just “some co-worker that has silly questions” was not what I wanted. What I wanted was to be able to think of my co-workers as people I would be excited to talk to each morning in stand-up.
In Panorama, I have seen that here we do care about people. We have automated randomized 1-on-1 short get-to-know-you social meetings with peers of any department. Panorama also encourages teams to establish custom practices that works best for them, and in my team we decided that it would be great to have recurring social times to just hang out, catch up, or play some games, retrospective meetings to share our thoughts and concerns on our past 2 weeks work-wise and, if comfortable, personal matters, and Diversity Equity & Inclusion discussions to talk and learn about sensitive social/personal topics. I believe that these reserved meetings have been a great space in truly getting to know my teammates better. It helps us connect, think of each other as friends, and really just see each other as a person with a whole life story. We learn about each other’s likes, dislikes, life milestones, and weird quirks. We are aware and understand when someone is not feeling well, if they’re under distress, or if they’ve had a bad day. We’re happy to share our successes, silly moments, and interesting things we’ve learned that day.
To me, the stand-ups and meetings are more than just work and pleasantries. They can be nice moments to be human and connect with the people we share roughly 8 hours a day with.
I don’t feel like I’m just another cog in the machine who’s judged only by their output. It feels easy to reach out and talk to anyone here. I feel comfortable to be myself at Panorama.
Toni Carlson — Software Engineer — Accessibility Squad
I am the kind of person who naturally enjoys leading, and I can tend to step outside the bounds of my designated position’s roles and duties to fulfill any needs I see that might need to be met.
I’ve received comments at some prior jobs such as “who does this person think they are”, “that’s not your place”, and “you ask too many questions”. I have taken this feedback and tried to tone my natural leadership qualities down in order to fit in the box, but I’ve felt restricted from being myself. I have felt like I am “too much” for most workplaces because of these qualities.
When coming to Panorama Education, I naturally tried to filter my thinking into understanding my role and its boundaries. I began to ask my manager what the expectations of me were, and I kept receiving vague answers with lots of leeway for me to do things as they made sense to me. This obviously triggered immense fear and shame in me as I could not find the boundaries I have learned to so tightly live within. I was overly paranoid and nervous about how I might overstep my bounds.
Then through scheduled new engineer retro meetings, I began sharing these fears with others, and I realized that many others felt the way I felt. I finally talked to my manager in our weekly one-on-one meeting about this in order to gain a little more clarity and to help my mind be at peace. My manager then assured me that the boundaries were intentionally not clearly defined because we want a collaborative working environment that has a minimal hierarchy structure. My manager assured me that if I felt like it was right to do something, then I should feel empowered to do it and no one is going to criticize me because it’s not in my job description to do so. My mind was blown.
It took some getting used to, but I am gaining more comfort in this freedom. Panorama as a company actually has some routines in place to specifically let everyone engage in leadership here!
Managers are more like facilitators than bosses. Managers empower all of us to take ownership and lead anything we feel compelled to.
