►
From YouTube: Benefits of small town living at GitLab and how our remote culture supports working parents
Description
Darren and Kyla (GitLab colleagues) discuss several remote work topics, including:
- Benefits of living in a small/rural town
- How all-remote enables tighter family and community connections
- How GitLab's culture supports working parents
- Potential for societal change and reversing rural repopulation with the proliferation of remote work
Learn more about GitLab's values: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/
###
Other topics discussed:
Working while traveling: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/working-while-traveling/
People: adopting a remote lifestyle: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/people/
GitLab Visiting Grant: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/incentives/#visiting-grant
Asynchronous communication: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/management/#asynchronous
Getting started in a remote role: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/getting-started/
Informal Communication: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/informal-communication/
In-person interactions: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/in-person/
Compensation: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/compensation/
Iteration value: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration
All-remote benefits: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/benefits/
GitLab team members share remote stories: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/stories/
###
Learn more about GitLab's all-remote culture and processes: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/
Submit your own questions for a Pick Your Brain with GitLab: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/pick-your-brain/
A
This
is
Darren
and
I'm
joined
today
by
Kyla
we're
both
at
get
lab,
and
a
few
weeks
ago
we
were
in
San
Francisco
together
at
an
event,
and
we
realized
that
both
of
us
live
in
pretty
small
towns.
We
don't
live
in
big
urban
centers,
but
we
work
at
a
cool
place.
That's
in
the
tech
field
that
I
think,
if
it
were
co-located,
would
probably
have
to
be
centered
in
a
large
city,
and
we
both
just
kind
of
rallied
around
the
gratitude
factor
of
not
having
to
live
in
a
major
major
urban
center.
A
We
said
you
know
we
should.
We
should
have
a
chat
on
that
and
unfiltered
channel
on
what
it
means
to
us
to
be
able
to
live
and
work
where
we're
most
fulfilled
and
how
we
hope
to
see
that
proliferate
and
how
we
seek
it
lab
fitting
into
all
of
that.
So,
first
of
all,
kala
thanks
for
joining
me.
Thanks.
A
B
That's
a
great
question,
so
I
started
at
gitlab
over
three
years
ago
and
my
background
is
I.
Come
I
came
from
a
small
small
town
in
North
Dakota.
That
only
has
1,200
people
live
in
it.
So
growing
up,
I
had
33
kids
in
my
class
and
the
same
people
who
had
graduated
high
school
with
I
went
to
the
first
grade.
So
I
come
from
a
very
small
background
and
after
graduating,
high
school
I
went
and
lived
in
Fargo
North,
Dakota
and
I
went
to
university
there
and
I've
stayed
in
North
Dakota
ever
since.
B
So
that's
my
background
in
very,
very
small
small
town
USA,
you
know
I
think
it's
been
transformational
coming
to
get
love
in
and
being
exposed
to
the
deaf
city
that
we
have.
We
have
you
know
employees
in
60,
different
countries
right
now
and
I.
Think
just
working
alongside
them
has
really
transformed
my
perspective
on
life
and
also
you
know
the
growth
that
I've
had
in
my
career,
I.
A
B
A
It's
one
of
those
things
that
I'm
just
so
grateful
to
kind
of
get
the
best
of
both
worlds,
where
I'm
able
to
work
in
an
awesome
professional
setting
that
one
would
assume
would
have
to
be
rooted
in
a
large
urban
center,
but
I
get
to
live
in
small-town
America
and
it's
near
my
family,
so
I'm
about
45
minutes
drive
from
my
family
as
well
as
my
wife's
family.
We
have
a
huge
community
around
us.
We
just
adopted
a
newborn
last
year
and
having
that
village
and
that
tribe
nearby
has
been
completely
transformational.
A
If
you
have
to
take
on
the
the
opportunity
of
parenting
alone,
it's
a
very
different
vibe
than
if
you
are
able
to
stay
in
near
family.
So
that's
been
huge
for
us
and
it's
one
of
those
things
that
I
wake
up
every
day,
appreciative
of
get
labs
all
remote
culture
such
that
I'm
able
to
stay
near
the
people
that
mean
the
most
to
me
without
guilt
or
fear,
or
anything
like
that.
That
comes
along
with
it
and
I
just
think.
A
It's
there's
an
impact
on
the
economy
locally,
so
if
I
had
to
move
to
San,
Francisco
or
Singapore
or
London
to
work
in
this
job,
the
economic
tax
base
of
where
I'm
at
degrades
a
little
bit
further
and
a
little
bit
further,
but
think
about.
If
we
can
help
reverse
that,
where
more
and
more
people
are
able
to
go
back
to
their
roots
or
live
in
a
place
that
fulfills
them
might
not
be
an
urban
center,
a
couple
of
things
can
happen.
A
One
the
tax
base
and
the
micro
economy
of
the
small
town
rate
rise
up,
so
they're
able
to
have
more
services
that
our
infrastructure
and
actually
support
themselves
better
like
become
thriving
small
towns,
instead
of
seeing
them
degrade.
The
other
thing
is
people
that
are
born
and
raised
in
these
urban
centers,
where
that
is
home.
A
Are
largely
being
priced
out
of
their
own
home
by
people
coming
in
only
to
work
there,
so
if
people
can
leave
those
urban
centers
and
go
back
to
a
place
that
is
more
fulfilling
for
them,
it
actually
opens
more
space
up
for
people
that
are
from
there
that
want
that
to
be
home,
that
that
is
their
community,
so
I
think
it
kind
of
goes
both
ways
and
I.
Guess
I
asked
you
why
why
North
Dakota?
Why
do
you
stay
there?
I
mean?
Obviously
for
me,
it's
all
about
family
and
I
love
being
here.
A
B
B
It's
it's
something
that
we
always
want
to
continue
to
do,
but
we
also
love
to
travel,
and
so,
if
we
can
stay
here
close
to
family
and
still
be
able
to
grow
our
careers
and
and
our
families
here
and
also
have
the
opportunity
to
leave
and
travel
and
go
see,
other
things
I
think
it's.
It's
definitely
the
ideal
balance
that
we
want
to
remain
in
in
our
families
and
I.
Think
it's
it's
comfortable
for
us
to
be
surrounded
by
them
and
we're
very
supported
by
them.
B
You
know
and
I
think
it's
it's
just
something
that,
as
we've
grown
up,
we
just
never
left
and
I.
Think
you'd
go
back
to.
Why
didn't
you
leave
or
why
didn't
you
go
and
move
to
different
cities
across
the
u.s.
or
wherever
you
wanted
to?
You
know
to
move
to
her
explore
and
I.
Think
it
just
always
comes
back
to
wanting
to
stay
around
family
and
I'm,
really
loving,
that
that
aspect
of
your
life,
a
lot
yeah.
A
B
A
For
an
auto
motor
or
a
first
company,
or
should
I
relocate
to
go
somewhere
else,
people
tend
to
look
at
job
offers.
They
look
at
things
like
salary.
They
look
at
things
like
benefits,
job
opportunities,
so
on
and
so
forth.
But
what's
interesting
about
gait
lab
is
that
there's
also
the
location
factor
where
you
can
stay
wherever
you
want
to
stay
or
move
like
you
could
work
in
a
new
place
every
month
or
every
three
months
or
every
year?
A
How
do
you
want
to
do
it
that
if
that
resonates
with
you,
if
that
provides
value
to
you,
it's
like
a
place
like
get
loud?
It's
it's
going
to
treat
you
well
and
I.
Think
what
I've
seen
in
interacting
with
people
years
there's
a
lot
of
gratitude
that
goes
around
when
people
wake
up
every
day
and
they're
like
man.
This
is
kind
of
amazing
that
I
get
to
be
where
I
want
to
be.
A
I
also
have
been
personally
impacted
by
the
diversity
that
I've
seen
when
you
have
people
spread
out
across
the
United
States
and
then
beyond.
Over
60
countries
now
you're
able
to
see
them
live
their
cultural
norms
and
their
cultural
celebrations,
things
that
aren't
normal
for
for
around
me,
it's
totally
normal
for
them
that
it's
just
amazing
to
get
that
perspective,
and
that
reminder
that
the
world
is
much
bigger
than
wherever
you're
currently
at
and
I
think
that's
it's
really
enabled
by
all
remote
I.
B
Going
back
to
I
grew
up
in
a
very
small
town
where,
in
that
town,
specifically,
we
only
had
you
know
two
or
three
families
of
different
ethnic
backgrounds,
other
than
white
Caucasian
and
so
perspectives.
Just
your
mind,
didn't
naturally
go
there.
You
know
like
branching
out
your
perspectives
in
any
kind
of
subject
or
topic.
B
I
think
was
very
close-minded
and
I
think
that
that's
something
that
I
grew
more
and
more
as
I
went
to
university
as
I,
you
know,
grew
into
living
in
a
different
town
and
living
in
a
different
city
and
where
I'm
going
with
that
is
bringing
myself
to
get
lab
working
with.
You
know
employees
over
60
different
countries,
even
talking
about
holidays,
we
don't
all
celebrate
the
same
holidays.
B
We
don't
all
you
know
celebrate
you
know
even
the
same
I
guess
I
could
say
backgrounds
in
terms
of
you
know
politics
or
even
not
that
we
talk
about
politics
in
the
workplace,
but
even
backgrounds
of
religion
and
faith,
and
things
like
that
and
I
think
it's
just
to
see
the
diversity
in
get
lab
itself.
There's
so
much
and
there's
there's
so
much
to
learn
from
that.
B
You
might
not
actually
find
yourself
we're
going
to
Australia
in
visiting
one
of
my
coworkers
are
going
to
Europe
and
get
lab
offers
a
travel
stipend
to
go
and
visit
different
places,
and
so
it
kind
of
you
know
offers
the
opportunity
to
branch
out
in
areas
that
you
may
not
have
originally
found
yourself.
If
you
would
have,
you
know,
worked
locally
in
a
small
town
of
1,200
or
even
a
hundred
thousand.
It's.
A
So
true,
it's
it's
cool
to
be
rooted
in
a
small
town,
low
cost
of
living,
local
community,
a
lot
less
stress,
less
frenetic
pace,
but
having
a
visiting
grant
which
encourages
you
to
go,
travel
the
world
and
meet
co-workers
all
over
the
world
is
a
spectacular
arrangement.
It's
it's!
It's
very
cool
yeah.
B
A
Were
talking
earlier
about
you've,
you've
been
a
give
up
a
bit
longer
and
have
seen
it
scale
massively,
and
so
part
of
this
we've
been
talking
about
how
it
impacts
us,
but
from
the
management
and
16-point
I'm
thinking
about
you
said
earlier,
people
thought
it's
60
or
100.
This
could
work
like
he
could
have
people
scattered
here
there
and
everywhere
a
few
small
towns
whatever,
but
at
scale.
A
You
know
how
is
it
how's
it
gonna
work
like
the
cuteness
is
gonna
wear
off
and
we're
at
over
a
thousand
people
now
and
we're
working
to
continue
scaling
that
culture.
We
see
the
more
people
that
join
from
around
the
world,
the
tighter
the
micro
communities
get.
It
actually
reinforces
it
versus
tears
it
down.
So
so
far
they
don't
see
yeah.
Do
you
see
going
forward?
If,
if
other
companies
embrace
this
and
even
get
lab,
do
you
see
people
that
maybe
came
to
get
lab
in
a
large
urban
center?
A
Because
that's
where
their
last
job
was?
Do
they
take
the
opportunity
to
move
somewhere
else
to
move
back
home
to
try
a
new
place
or
are
they
gonna
stay
rooted?
I?
Think
about
this
all
the
time
like.
Are
we
going
to
encourage
more
people
to
move
to
lower
cost
of
living
places
for
more
rural
places,
or
are
they
just
going
to
stay
where
they're
at
yeah.
B
B
Think
that
living
in
a
lower-cost
city
gives
you
more
opportunities
to
experience
more
and
not
just
read
it
in
your
specific
city,
so
more
money
to
travel
and
more
money
to
put
towards
you
know,
maybe
building
a
house
or
buying
a
house
or
you
know
growing
a
family
things
like
that.
I
think
it
just
depends
on
your
circumstances,
but
I
think
that
it
encourages
that
right.
It
encourages
you
to
look
from
a
different
perspective,
how
your
life
could
change
and
you
could
meet.
A
Think
remote
has
the
the
opportunity
to
reverse
the
trends
of
rural
depopulation
that
we've
seen.
So
there
are
quite
a
few
studies
around
the
globe,
really
how
small
town
have
been
eroded
to
some
degree,
because
largely
people
feel
like
they
have
no
choice
but
to
move
to
a
big
urban
center
for
employment.
So
what
happens?
There
is
like
that's
how
ghost
towns
happen
and
you
lose
a
fabric
of
that
community,
and
then
it
actually
puts
an
extreme
burden
on
the
infrastructure
of
the
larger
metropolitan
areas.
So.
B
A
Feel
like
remote,
has
the
chance
to
to
shift
that
up
and
kind
of
change
the
mentality
on
instead
of
instead
of
there
being
a
stigma
on
well.
Why
did
you
you
know
stay
in
the
small
town
that
you
were
asked
that
I
go
to
the
big
city?
That's
all
rooted
in
go
to
the
big
city
means
get
a
certain
type
of
job,
so
I
feel
like
remote.
Has
the
the
opportunity
to
remove
that
stigma,
and
it's
like
man,
you
were
able
to
stay
rooted
in
that
community.
A
B
A
B
A
Would
be
so
many
remote
first
normo
companies
out
there
that
people
would
have
a
huge
amount
of
options
and
where
to
apply
to
because
the
net
benefit
to
society.
If
remote
goes,
that
global
is
it's
kind
of
like
the
rising
tide
lifts
all
boats,
we
feel
like.
We
would
reap
some
economic
and
other
kind
of
societal
benefits
from
from
having
that
yeah.
B
Now,
I
I,
completely
agree:
I
think
that
you're
totally
spot-on
I
think
that
we've
definitely
set
the
bar
to
be
an
example
of
how
this
can
be
successful,
not
just
for
one
business
but
for
many
other
technology
companies
and
throughout
different
industries
and
functions
to
to
make
this
successful.
If
you,
you
know,
choose
to
structure
it
correctly
and
I
think
that
we've,
you
know,
set
some
really
great
examples,
especially
as
a
mom
I
think
that
you
always
want
that
work-life
balance
and
you're
trying
to
figure
out
should
I
take
a
couple.
B
Many
people
are
in
this
predicament.
Where
should
I
take
a
couple
of
years
off
and
I
take
care
of
my
kids,
but
then,
when
I
come
back
and
I
have
that
gap
in
my
resume?
Does
that
disqualify
me
and
I
think
a
lot
of
things
become
complicated
when
you're
raising
a
family
and
to
take
that
variable
out
and
say
you
don't
have
to
choose?
B
You
can
have
that
work-life
balance,
and
you
know
we
can
start
by
setting
an
example,
and
you
know,
setting
the
bar
high
of
really
giving
you
time
back
to
have
that
work-life
balance.
To
be
a
parent
to
you
know,
be
supportive
for
your
family
and
yet
also
have
time
to
give
to
your
career
and,
and
let
yourself
grow
in
that
area
as
well.
B
I
think
it's
very
fulfilling
I
think
it's
it's
something
that
is
not
a
norm
today
that
you
see
both
for
moms
and
for
dads
you
know,
or
in
your
situation
you
adopt
it,
and
you
wanted
to
take
some
time
off
to
support
your
family
and
not
regard
and
I.
Think
it's
just
humanizing,
it
I
think
just
making
it
something.
That's
very
typical
and
well
respected.
B
I
think
is
something
gitlab
is
definitely
a
lead
component
and
and
in
someone
that
you
know
a
definate
company
in
in
the
market
that
is
setting
itself
apart,
where
it
said,
Oh
we'll
never
be
successful.
Doing
this
we're
a
thousand
person
company
and
every
single
person
takes
responsibility
for
our
values,
which
is
why
we've
been
so
successful
there.
That's.
A
So
powerful,
it's
so
true,
humanizing
her
business
and
treating
people
like
humans.
It's
actually
good
for
business
I,
actually,
don't
know
why
this
is
so
difficult
to
understand,
but
you
might
by
letting
people
work
from
anywhere
small
town,
big
town.
Wherever
you
want
to
work,
it
definitely
enables
you
to
be
a
working
parent
more
easily.
A
If
that's
what
you
want
when
you
get
rid
of
the
commute,
you
just
have
more
time
to
be
there
for
your
family
and
when
you
have
more
time
to
be
there
for
your
family
you're,
going
to
pour
more
of
your
best
effort
into
your
work,
because
that
work
is
enabling
you
to
have
more
time
with
your
fan.
It's
this
positive
virtuous
cycle.
A
It
doesn't
take
a
rocket
scientist
to
see
how
it
works,
but
it
has
been
incredible
to
see
so
many
people
that
appreciate
their
careers
but
recognize
that
family
is
first
and
that
life
is
more
important
than
work.
When
push
comes
to
shove,
those
people
are
drawn
to
a
place
like
gitlab
and
so
we're
able
to
work
with
a
lot
of
people
that
are
very
like-minded
that
embrace
those
values
and
embrace
that
culture.
It's
kind
of
when
you
set
the
bar
of
this
is
this
is
what
we
offer.
A
B
You
know
so
grateful
to
be
a
part
of
the
mission
to
continue
to
grow
this
this
organization
and
to
be
an
example
of
you,
know
the
opportunity
being
so
successful
for
for
me
and
when
it's
given
back,
but
just
wanting
to
continue
to
grow
in
the
right
direction
and
I
know
by
having
someone
the
head
of
remote
and
actually
having
a
specific
person
who's
geared
to
to
just
push
this
mission
even
even
further
and
help
guide
us
in
the
right
direction.
I
think
is
is
wonderful.