Being for Each Other While Working Remotely
by Brittni Beers-Branco, SVP of People, Puppet
As the SVP of Puppet’s People Team, nothing could make me more thrilled than Puppet’s recent inclusion in Quartz’s top ten large companies to work from home. This recognition is threefold, and let me tell you why:
- Quartz sent out a survey to employees. That means that Puppet’s own employees feel this way. This isn’t some data collected from anecdotes; it’s from our very own staff. I can’t tell you how pleased this makes me.
- Quartz has more than 16 million readers and a reach of more than 33 million social followers. That puts Puppet on a pretty major map! How cool is it to be celebrated by literally millions of people?!
- This one’s personal for me in my role at Puppet. My team put in hundreds of hours of work at the start of the pandemic to optimize our workplace culture for remote working. It has been no easy task! But here we are, in the top ten. This is such a welcome acknowledgment of my team’s amazing work and everything we’ve done to pivot to a remote workforce.
I could go on, but nothing is going to capture what makes Puppet such an incredible place to work as a remote employee like our very own employees. So read on for stories, feelings and even some photos!
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“One of my favorite things about remote work at Puppet is when my elementary school aged kids were distance learning and would interrupt me during calls. (I’m kidding, that was terrible). However, these past months have given me a way to introduce my family to my colleagues, whether it’s my son sharing an art project with a colleague, my daughter taking over my Slack to say hello to my colleagues, or distracting meetings with a cameo of our puppy, Zoey, it’s all offered a way to share our personal lives with the people we spend the majority of our time with (even if it’s just via a screen these days).” — Alexa Sevilla
“My favourite part of working at Puppet is how supportive everyone is! You can reach out to people outside your team and they will make the time to help or teach you or connect you with someone who can.” — Sylvia Ombati
“I started as a remote employee in 2018, way before the pandemic. While many of the employees were adjusting from the office to working remotely, I didn’t really feel a big shift work-wise because I have always felt included in the company. Oddly, my favorite experience is how little of a shift there was because the company had been so inclusive all along, which I think really helped overall at a corporate level. I have been part of companies where the moment you step out of the office, you are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and that has never been the case at Puppet.” — Jesse Brennan
“In May of 2020 I had my first child. I was blown away by my team’s ability to throw me the cutest virtual baby shower, shower me with gifts and make me feel special even though we couldn’t be together (Puppet is a hybrid remote company, so we used to have lots of get-togethers in person even if you were a traditionally remote worker). It’s often those small gestures in a remote working environment that make a big difference, especially when you are going through an emotional and stressful time. You don’t have to be next to someone to show up for them in a big way.” — Zibby Keaton
“One of the CD4PE team’s philosophies is around being able to have fun at work, so of course we said Heck yes! to some Lego-building over Zoom with our teammates that are scattered across the country.” — Eric Putnam
“One thing I love about remote work is the unique glance into each other’s lives that we wouldn’t have if we were all in a ‘controlled setting’ like an office. We’ve all gotten used to hearing babies cry and dogs barking in the background of Zoom meetings, but that took a little while to get used to and I think we are all closer because of it. I’m really grateful that Puppet’s culture has been supportive; our lives have been a little messy throughout this time and there’s no shame in that.” — Claire Papas
“Working from home means I can let my hair down and express myself in ways that are more fun and relaxing — like taking meetings in my backyard. As long as I remember to mute any time a big truck rumbles by or an airplane roars overhead, I can enjoy my little patch of nature in a way I never could in an office.” — Ben Ford
“Social Donut (a Slack plug-in that autogenerates 1:1s between colleagues) has been so great for me! Meeting people across teams like legal, release management, software development in various locations, with time zones and seniority being no barrier. All this has been great to build out contacts, to enjoy social time with colleagues and get a feel for Puppet. [This is] a real shock to the system coming from a bank where building contacts and getting time with people normally took a lot of walking about offices.” — David Sandilands
“Despite the distance, Puppet uses a variety of ways to keep us all connected. The team makes sure everyone has access to the same meetings and content, whether it’s hosting the same meeting in two time zones or offering a recording afterward, having accessible content so everyone is on the same page, utilizing chats and other communication methods to keep people engaged with one another, and encouraging digital group and one-on-one networking opportunities. There’s a strong emphasis on working hard, and the company recognizes that taking breaks to focus on mental and physical health are extremely important for productivity!” — Vilija Jozaitis
“Working remotely at Puppet is the best! The people who work here are so creative, lighthearted, and welcoming. We’ve done Slack giphy wars, guessing games to discover how tall our colleagues are, and have even explored some of our colleagues’ new homes (virtually of course!). Plus, the Puppet Pets are the most adorable!” — Michelle McManus
“My favorite things about working remotely at Puppet: Flexibility, so much time in the morning without the commute, being at home with my pup, having lunch with my family.” — Christine Schmitt
“I am so thankful to be at a company like Puppet under these circumstances. As a parent, the flexibility provided by the company and the understanding and empathy from my team has made the last 18 months not only bearable but actually pretty ok. It took me a while but I’ve created some great routines doing WFH and have more free time to spend with my son and partner on weekends because I can do things like a grocery pickup or meal prep during lunch breaks from work.
If there is a silver lining to this whole thing (and I hate to say that given the trauma and loss of literally millions) I think the acceleration of the evolution of our office workplaces is as solid a silver lining as you’re going to get.” — Morgan Armstrong
