►
Description
Darren (Head of Remote, GitLab) and Will (founder and Co-CEO at Arbolus) discuss compensation, hiring, and building/scaling culture in a remote team.
➔ Learn more about Arbolus: https://www.arbolus.com/
➔ Learn more about GitLab's all-remote culture: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/
Other topics covered in the discussion are below.
➔ Learn more about compensation in global remote teams: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/compensation/
➔ Hiring global remote teams: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/hiring/
➔ Learn more about building and sustaining culture: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/building-culture/
A
B
A
B
A
A
Yeah
yeah
I've
spoken
with
some
companies
that
are
essentially
small
enough,
that
they
could
still
kind
of
unwind
the
office
and
yep
completely
and
I
do
advise
if
that's
at
all
possible
to
do
it
from
the
standpoint
of
it,
puts
every
employee
on
a
level
playing
field.
So
number
one
has
this
sense
of
potentially
missing
out
on
something
that's
happening
in
an
office.
It
may
seem
like
something:
that's
subtle:
it's
not
very
important
to
the
people
that
go
into
the
office,
but
for
someone
that's
6,000
miles
away
and
can't
easily
step
foot
in
these
offices.
A
There's
always
that
lingering
thought
of
what
conversation
am
I
missing,
that's
not
being
documented.
Is
there
some
amount
of
information
or
project
development?
That's
going
on.
That
would
be
useful
to
my
work,
seeing
or
hearing
because
I'm
not
in
the
office
and
the
secondary
side
effect
of
that
is
wherever
you
have
offices.
A
It
creates
sort
of
this
epicenter
of
power
from
a
decision-making
standpoint
from
a
time
zone,
importance,
standpoint
and
so
as
many
of
those
walls
as
you
can
break
down
the
better,
the
the
stronger
the
fabric,
the
cultural
fabric
of
your
entire
team,
not
just
the
remote
team,
but
but
even
people
that
prefer
to
go
into
an
office
or
go
into
a
co-working
space
or
something
like
that.
That
being
said,
that's
definitely
easier
said
than
done,
but
I
think
you're
still
at
a
small
enough
scale
where
you
can
implement
or
promote
first
practices.
A
At
this
point,
even
with
those
offices-
and
you
have
to
be
intentional
about
it,
but
you
can
you
can
make
it
work
so
yep
eager
to
hear
what
specific
questions
you
have
on
that
I've
worked
in
hyper
remote
settings
get
lab
as
an
all
remote
setting.
So
hopefully
I
can
give
you
some
expertise
and
advice
from
both
sides
of
the
fence.
Yeah.
B
How
does
one
actually
go
about
engaging
with
someone
in
Korea
as
an
employee
without
maybe
occurring
you
know
having
to
unless
I
incorporate
in
those
markets
and
stuff
like
that
and
I
was
as
well?
If
that
was
anything
you
I
mean
you
mentioned
that
you
have
people
not
just
in
the
States.
So
imagine
you
have
had
to
tackle
that
problem
too.
For.
A
Sure
this
is
a
question
we
get
very
frequently
so
get
lab
has
has
people
spread
out
across
over
65
countries,
so
we
pay
people
in
a
lot
of
country,
I'll,
say
first
and
foremost,
remote
comm
is
founded
by
a
former
get
lab
team
member
yo
and
they
are
specifically
working
to
solve
this
problem.
So
remote
comm
wants
to
make
it
accessible
for
any
founder
to
hire
anyone
in
any
country
in
the
globe
without
having
to
go
and
individually
incorporate
in
every
country.
So
they
want
to
do
the
legwork
and
then
operate
as
a
local
system.
A
A
Team
can
help
with
because
he's
coming
from
a
place
that
get
lab
where
we've
tackled
the
same
issue,
so
he
has
a
very
fundamental
understanding
of
what
what
it
takes
to
solve
it.
Here's
how
to
get
lab
deals
with
it
from
about
0
to
5
people,
oh,
and
by
the
way,
this
isn't
a
handbook
pace.
You
all
link
this
in
the
show
notes
for
any
other.
A
A
There's
a
lot
of
upkeep
there's
a
lot
of
legal
policy
that
you
have
to
grapple
with
so
from
about
0
to
5,
we'll
bring
this
person
on
as
a
contractor,
and
we
will
pay
17%
more
than
an
equivalent
full-time
salary,
because
they'll
have
to
take
care
of
some
things
that
you
would
get
by
default
as
a
full-timer
and
for
the
most
part
that
works
out
great.
That
Delta
and
salary
is
enough
for
them
to
say,
that's
fine!
You
know
I
want
to
join
your
company.
I
want
to
join
your
culture.
This
is
the
team.
A
I
want
to
be
with
I
appreciate
that
I
get
to
work
remotely
from
anywhere
in
the
world,
so
I'll
take
the
extra
money
and
deal
with
all
of
the
other
ancillary
things
myself.
Once
we
cut
about
5
to
20,
we
usually
look
at.
Is
there
a
PEO
or
a
third-party
entity
that
operates
in
that
country?
Then
we
could
hire
this
person
as
a
full-time
employee,
pay
them
through
this
organization.
So.
A
Through
that,
but
they
get
them,
they
get
a
slightly
more
connected
experience,
but
I'll
caution.
You
you
have
to
really
watch
out
for
these
and
vet
them
thoroughly,
because
a
lot
of
these
PEO
will
say
they
function
in
a
country,
but
then
behind
the
scenes,
essentially
they'll
just
get
another
contractor
and
the
process
can
kind
of
break
down
and
you
don't
want
a
negative
user
variance
from
a
payment
perspective,
reimbursement
perspective
than
all
of
that.
A
So
watch
out
with
that,
once
we
had
about
20
plus
it
usually
makes
sense
to
put
an
entity
in
the
country.
It's
usually
worth
the
time
and
expense
to
do
that
so
I
think
right
now,
good
lab
is
up
to
about
10
entities
around
the
world,
but
there's
no
easy
way
to
do
it.
If
you're
starting
now,
you're,
probably
gonna,
have
to
bring
in
your
first
five
on
the
as
a
contractor.
Now
just
be
open
and
transparent
and
honest
with
them.
It's
like
listen.
A
This
is
what
we're
up
against
trying
to
build
an
entity
in
this
country.
We
want
you
to
be
the
first
person
in
this
country.
We
believe
in
you,
your
you're,
a
great
fit
for
the
team.
This
is
how
we
can
hire
you.
Is
this
a
minimal
or
not
and
I'll
say
if
you're
hiring
if
remote
is
a
top
priority
for
this
person?
So
I've
said
that
remote
is
one
of
the
last
remaining
competitive
advantages
for
a
company
to
offer
it's
the
last
remaining
perk.
That
is
just
not
everywhere.
A
You
know,
there's
foosball
tables
or
free
food
or
salary,
Taito
ego,
but
the
one
thing
that
a
remote
company
can
give
that
supersedes.
All
of
that,
for
some
people
is
ultimate
autonomy,
freedom
and
flexibility
to
live
where
they
want.
So
that's
how
I
would
approach
it
and
I
would
just
be
open
and
honest
you're,
a
growing
company.
You
know
and
years
you'll
look
back
and
laugh
at
this,
because
you'll
have
40
people
there
and
it's
obvious.
Until
then
contractor
is
probably
your
best
route.
Yeah.
B
A
So
the
the
broadest
way
to
do
that
is
take
inventory,
of
which
country
offers
the
most
generous,
mandatory
maternity
and
paternity
leave
and
vacation
and
things
like
that
and
just
meet
or
exceed
the
greatest
amongst
all
countries,
so
that,
like
you,
are,
is
higher
than
any
bar
that
could
be
hit
from
any
country.
That
way,
it's
not
solves
two
things,
one.
You
don't
have
to
worry
about
entering
into
a
country
where
you
offer
something
less
and
then
you're
gonna
find
for
it.
B
B
That
that's,
that
was
the
the
sort
of
the
main
challenge.
I
think
we
were
looking
at
professional
employment
organizations,
I
mean
they
sample
and
and
they're
they're
quite
expensive
as
well.
Right
I
mean
it
depends
on
how
much
you're
paying
these
guys,
but
I
think
we
were
quoted.
Anything
I
think
the
cheapest
was
pretty
much
a
thousand
bucks,
but
I
guess
that's
because
we
were
looking
at
one
one:
employee,
I!
Imagine
when
you
maybe
hire
five
or
six.
It
gets
cheaper
and
stuff
for
that
biz.
B
A
So
the
time
zones
are
really
problematic,
but
when
you
hit
a
thousand
people,
you've
you've,
probably
hired
so
many
people
in
time
zones
around
the
world
that
it's
much
easier.
The
handover
is
much
easier
and
it
actually
gets
better
at
scale
compared
to
a
co-located
space
where,
if
you
hire
everyone
on
at
the
same
time
zone,
you
have
a
thousand
people
in
the
exact
same
time
zone.
Well
now
you
have
zero
coverage
for
the
rest
of
the
world
for
the
rest
of
the
time.
B
A
Journey
to
getting
there
is
without
its
challenges,
and
it's
essentially
you
just
making
a
bet
on
this
is
this
is
how
we're
going
to
scale
the
company
we're
making
a
bet
that
by
determining
now
that
it's
worth
the
hassle
to
hire
the
best
talent
anywhere
in
the
world,
no
matter
where
they
are
long
term.
That's
going
to
pay
off
for
us,
because
you
could
take
the
quote-unquote
easy
route
and
hire
everyone
locally.
A
Got
to
kind
of
see
into
the
future
and
look
back
and
introspectively
to
get
a
fuller
appreciation
for
that
and
a
lot
of
that's
the
same
can
be
said
about
operating
a
company
handbook.
First,
you
know
when
you're
ten
people
everyone's
close
enough,
that
you're
fairly
on
you're
fairly
you're,
pretty
much
on
the
same
page
all
the
time.
So
you
think
I
don't
need
to
document
processes.
A
I,
don't
need
to
document
what
we're
doing
on
a
day
to
day
basis,
I
don't
need
to
document
the
nuances
of
our
values,
but,
as
you
scale
your
kind
of
repeating
this
to
new
people
all
the
time,
it's
very
inefficient.
You
miss
some
things
or
some
knowledge
gaps.
You
look
back
and
think
man.
It
would
have
been
a
lot
easier
to
start
documenting
that
with
ten
people
we
should
have
just
done
it
then,
before
we
even
needed
it.
This
kind
of
feels
like
the
same
thing
and
for
like
it's
gonna,
be
different
for
every
founder.
A
B
A
B
Yeah
cool
and
the
only
reasons
to
do
it
I'm
sure
you've
done
similar
conversations
on
this
and
put
in
lots
of
stuff
about
it,
but
the
reasons
to
do
them:
it's
not
a
cost.
Based
thing
I
mean
it's
I
get
the
sense
of
oil
into
it.
This
is
not
necessarily
gonna
save
less
money
because
people
are
not
commuting
or
not,
and
all
that
kind
of
stuff,
but
it
would
what
it
will
do,
is
get
us
better
or
more
engaged
or
maybe
more
loyal
or
happy
or
what-have-you,
and
ultimately,
productive
people
yeah.
A
I'll
say
one
thing
like
you're
looking
at
it
from
the
respective
perspective
of
you
have
a
few
offices
already,
but
if
you
were
to
unwind
that
all
together
and
you
delete
all
office
costs,
you
definitely
start
to
see
some
savings.
The
other
thing
you
get
from
that
is,
you
D
risk
the
business
from
epicenters
of
the
world.
So
if
you
have
a
certain
region,
bread's
is
a
great
example
like
who
could
have
saw
that
coming.
So
anyone.
B
B
A
You
don't
have
to
deal
with
that
same
thing
with
San
Francisco,
United
Airlines
built
their
manufacturing
and
repair
hub
at
SFO
in
San
Francisco.
They
could
have
never
foreseen
the
cost
of
living
rise
there,
and
now
they
have
the
most
expensive
airline
manufacturing
plant
in
the
world
because
they
can't
just
pick
it
up
and
put
it
in
another
place.
A
So
there
is
some
cost
savings,
get
that
pays
local
rates,
so
you
may
be
able
to
save
some
cost
they're,
finding
really
talented
people
in
places
where
you
can
pay
them
well,
above
their
local
market
wage.
So
they
have
an
exceptional
quality
of
life
where
they
are,
but
it's
still
much
lower
than
you
would
pay
as
some
of
the
major
urban
centers
like
London
Singapore,
San
Francisco.
So
both
parties
can
win
and
again
at
scale
that
becomes
an
extrapolated
cost-saving
yeah
over
time.