►
From YouTube: Tips on working while traveling — how trust and autonomy shape GitLab's remote work culture
Description
Darren (Head of Remote, GitLab) and André (Frontend Engineering Manager, GitLab) discuss their top tips for working while traveling/exploring the globe.
They also discuss how giving agency, empowering team members to be managers of one, and working asynchronously contribute to GitLab's culture.
If you're interested in learning more about adding flexibility into your life, and experiencing more of the world without giving up your career, have a listen.
###
‣ Learn more about GitLab's all-remote culture and processes: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/
###
Other topics discussed:
‣ Considerations for working while traveling: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/working-while-traveling/
‣ What's it like to work at GitLab? https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/faq/#whats-it-like-to-work-at-gitlab
‣ People: adopting a remote lifestyle: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/people/
‣ Adopting a self-service and self-learning mentality: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/self-service/
‣ Getting started in a remote role: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/getting-started/
‣ All-remote benefits: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/benefits/
‣ All-remote meetings: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/meetings/
‣ Building and reinforcing a sustainable culture: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/building-culture/
‣ Combating burnout, isolation, and anxiety in the remote workplace: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/mental-health/
###
‣ Submit your own questions for a Pick Your Brain with GitLab: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/pick-your-brain/
A
Hey
this
is
Darren,
heaven
promote
ed
gitlab
and
I'm
chatting
today
with
andre.
Also
I
get
loud,
I'm
in
north
carolina.
He
is
in
portugal
and
that's
the
beauty
of
gitlab
we're
able
to
work
with
people
all
over
the
world.
So
we
were
having
a
coffee
chat.
We
were
talking
about
traveling
and
working.
We
have
some
people
here
that
are
digital
nomads.
They
just
travel
perpetually
and
they
work
while
they
travel
and
Andres
kind
of
in
between
he
likes
to
stay
home
for
a
while.
B
B
A
I've
done
some
trips
similar
to
that
where
I've
left
home
for
two
to
four
weeks,
so
nothing
like
I'm
gonna
go.
You
know
permanently
relocate
somewhere,
but
it's
also
a
little
bit
longer
than
your
typical
vacation
so
long
enough,
where
you
need
to
keep
some
sort
of
work
happening
during
that
trip,
and
you
said
that
you
had
done
this
a
few
times
as
well.
So
if
any
anecdotes
come
to
mind,
tell
me
about
them
and
what
tips
you
have
for
others
that
want
to
do
that.
Well,.
B
So
I
stay
there
for
three
weeks
so
because
I
wanted
to
check
a
few
things
off
my
bucket
list
and
I
hadn't
had
the
opportunity
when
I
was
there
a
couple
years
before
so
one
of
those
were
visiting
the
ice
caves.
So
the
ice
caves
are
ice
caves
that
formed
beneath
the
glaciers,
but
they
are
very
limited
time
spent.
So
if
you
go
there
in
the
summer,
they're,
not
there
anymore,
they've
caved
in.
So
this
also
plays
a
part
of
the
weather
right.
You
can't!
B
B
We
rented
a
van
and
I
prepare
the
work
to
be
unavailable
for
the
morning
of
Monday
and
we
drove
from
Sunday
from
Reykjavik
down
to
Patna
acutal
national
park,
which
is
in
the
south,
east
and
we'd
slept
under
the
mountain
with
I
can't
even
begin
to
tell
how
crazy
over
aurora
at
night
we
had
because
we
were
like
come
on
turn
it
off.
We
need
to
sleep
so
that
was
incredible,
beautiful
beautiful
weather,
not
a
wind
in
sight
and
beautiful,
crazy
or
or,
and
then
we
slept
it
in
under
the
mountain
and
7:00
a.m.
B
or
something
in
the
Monday
morning.
We
just
set
out
over
the
glacier
hiking
for
like
an
hour
or
so
to
get
to
the
ice
caves
before
the
turrets
and
everything
so
long
story
short
by
2:00
p.m.
or
something
we
were
heading
back
to.
The
van
and
I
basically
worked
my
way
back
to
Reykjavik
on
his
lap
on
my
laptop
with
his
hot
spot,
from
the
van,
which
was
honestly
one
of
my
best
trips
in
my
life,
but
I
wouldn't
been
able
to.
B
You
know,
afford
three
weeks
in
Iceland
waiting
for
the
weather
to
allow
to
go
and
see
this
right.
So
this
was
one
of
the
big
moments
of
me
that
I
thought
this
works
like
I
was
able
to
join
like
start
working
when
my
peer
back,
then
I
was
an
engineer
back
then
now
I'm
a
generic
manager,
but
back
then
I
was
doing
development
work
and
though
the
back-end
developer,
that
I
was
pairing
with
was
in
Mexico.
B
B
A
And
there
was
one
day
in
particular,
usually
there's
a
lot
of
fog
covering
the
top
of
the
mountains,
as
visibility
is
not
great
at
the
top,
but
there
was
one
day
in
particular
that
was
just
crystal
clear
was
unbelievable
and
at
the
top
they
were
just,
and
it
was
just
a
flood
of
people
that
were
there
taking
photos
of
the
surrounding
mountains.
It
was,
it
was
incredible.
It
was
like
a
spike
of
people
on
the
day
that
it
was
clear
and
I
thought
how.
How
is
this
possible
like?
A
How
did
people
know
that
on
this
day
it
would
be
super
beautiful,
and
so
the
masses
came
out
and
I've
talked
to
a
few
people
and
kind
of?
Similarly,
they
said
oh
yeah,
it's
like
the
local
is
here.
They
just
keep
an
eye
on
the
webcams
and
then
on
any
day
that
it's
clear
they
just
kind
of
call
out
of
work
and
flood
up
to
the
mouth.
But
if
you
were
a
remote
worker,
you
could
go
Simmi,
relocate
there
for
three
or
four
weeks
and
then
do
the
same
thing.
A
B
A
Actually
went
up
to
in
northern
Alaska
so
almost
to
the
Arctic
Circle
in
Alaska
and
my
wife
and
I
were
there
for
almost
a
week
and
it
was
the
last
night
we
were
there
that
day
or
finally
came
out
and
we
were
able
to
see
it.
But
if
we
weren't
that
fortunate
we
would
have
spent
an
entire
week
there
and
they
missed
it.
So
that's.
B
The
most
common
stories
I
hear
over
or
a-hunting
he's
like
come
on.
I
just
had
some
friends,
they
were
in
Norway
and
they
sent
me
a
picture.
Hey.
Is
this
how
it
should
look
like?
Because
it's
really
faint
but
I
feel
bad
for
telling
them
that
that
was
just
a
week
or
or
like
if
it
goes
really
all
loud?
You
get
like
some
pink
use
and
like
really
crazy
movement
on
this
guy,
but
you
have
to
be
lucky
because
you
wait
for
the
solar
flare,
the
solar
storms.
A
B
Of
those
factors
yeah
and
Darren,
if
I
may
touch
on
a
very
point,
a
very
familiar
point
for
me,
which
is
taking
opportunity
to
enjoy
the
snow.
So
you
mentioned
relocating
there
for
four
weeks.
That's
my
second
anecdote
which
I
took
the
opportunity
this
past
winter,
early
to
2018,
2019
and
I,
relocated
to
Innsbruck
Austria
for
a
month
and
the
what
I
did
was
exactly
what
he
described.
I
would
go
into
the
mountain
in
the
morning
like
I
would
go
there
like
9:00
a.m.
to
1:00
p.m.
B
A
Going
to
again,
it
completely
reshapes
how
you
think
about
travel,
it
allows
you
to
leave
on
off-peak
days.
I
tell
people
this
that
remote
enables
an
off-peak
lifestyle,
so,
whereas
most
people
have
to
leave
on
a
weekend
to
maximize
the
sort
of
the
time
away
from
the
office,
I
will
frequently
fly
on
a
Tuesday
or
Wednesday
where
there
are
lower
business
travel,
so
the
airports
are
less
full
things
are
just
a
little
bit.
Smoother.
Prices
are
usually
a
little
bit
better.
A
It's
a
similar
situation
where
you
can
extend
a
trip
for
longer
or
or
choose
not
to
be
there
during
a
peak
holiday
period
with
peak
crowds
and
peak
prices,
and
things
like
that
and
you're
not
so
stressed
about
I
have
to
do
and
see
all
of
the
things
I
came
to
see
in
a
condensed
time
period,
because
mother
nature
is
gonna,
do
what
it
does
and
the
longer
you
can
stay
there.
You
enhance
your
chances
of
being
able
to
enjoy
it
and
being
able
to
work.
B
A
Makes
the
days
where,
like
if
the
weather
is
a
lot
tamal
but
you're
there
to
work
anyway?
It's
it's
not-it's!
No
harm
done,
really
don't
get
your
workday
in
you
just
wait
for
the
next
day.
It
it
allows
you
to
travel
I,
don't
know
for
me.
It
just
makes
your
calmer
because
you're
not
sort
of
up
against
the
clock
as
soon
as
you
land
absolutely.
B
A
B
I
can
tell
that
I
felt
exactly
the
same
thing.
It's
like
you're,
so
blessed
for
being
able
to
do
that.
That
work
doesn't
feel
like
a
drag
like
you're,
given
the
opportunity
to
explore
it.
The
way
you
want
and
I
usually
have
this
saying
when
I
go
to
panels
and
stuff
I
and
it's
not
I
didn't
coin
it
I
heard
it
somewhere
about
remote.
Work
really
empowers
you
to.
B
Instead
of
designing
your
day
around
your
work,
you
design
your
work
around
your
day
and
I've
had
people
in
my
team
that
had
I
wanted
to
have
three
and
four
hour
lunch
breaks
because
they
wanted
to
play
with
a
kid
in
the
kindergarden
in
in
the
garden
or
something
and
then
work
it
in
the
evenings
when
they
were
asleep.
So
you
were
able
to
design
your
day
in
whichever
way
is
more
productive,
as
for
tips
I,
just
being
very
mindful
of
the
impact
of
that.
B
The
only
complaint
I
had
was
because
I
was
constantly
doing
calls
with
mountains
in
the
back,
and
people
were
jealous
that
we
have
a
thing
in
the
front
end
call.
We
called
themed
calls
that
every
first
call
of
the
month
we
do
a
theme.
Then
we
share
something
on
a
topic
and
on
that
month
it
was
what's
the
best
feature
of
your
co-working
space
or
house
home
office.
I
just
turned
my
camera
to
the
window,
and
there
they
were
the
mountains
and
yeah
I
went
that
month.
A
A
B
A
This
sort
of
background
anxiety,
where
you're
your
background,
needs
to
look
like
a
super
polished,
cleaned
up,
workplace
you've
got
to
make
sure
the
kids
don't
come
in
the
room.
You
got
to
make
sure
that
there's
nothing
like
too
beautiful
behind
you,
because
then
people
get
jealous
I
love
that
here,
like
we
encourage
the
diversity
of
backgrounds
wherever.
A
B
Funny
because
I
had
a
story
that
I
really
appreciate
I
when
I
was
a
front-end
engineer,
but
before
I
manager,
I
was
I,
checked,
something
in
the
background
of
a
friend
of
my
colleague
of
ours,
and
he
had
a
poster
of
metropolis
the
the
movie
from
the
30s.
That's
like
an
old
movie
and
I'm
really
into
old
movies,
and
that
sparked
coffee,
chats,
hey.
You
want
to
talk
about
old
movies.
Man
you'll
seem
to
like
old
movies.
B
Let
me
just
gather
through
that,
and
we
had
like
bi-weekly
calls
for
a
while
and
then
I
became
his
manager
then,
and
we
kept
having
those
calls
for
a
very
long
while
because
he
was
just
like
so
productive
to
have
someone
with
similar
tastes
and
I
was
able
to
pick
that
up
from
something
in
the
background
by
accident
by
hey
I
recognize
that
image.
What
is
it
you're
right,
like
that
personal,
very
just
like
real
authentic
background,
is
just
like
no
worries.
B
A
A
Bond
that
you
can
chat
about,
and
so
a
lot
of
people
will
say
you
know,
isn't
remote
less
personal
than
co-located
and
I
say
like.
In
fact,
it
can
be
more
because
you
invite
people
into
your
home
or
wherever
you're
at
your
co-working
space,
your
vacation,
wherever
you're
at
and
you
don't
get
that
in
an
office.
And
so
you
immediately
have
more
to
talk
about
just
because
the
backgrounds
can
vary
from
day
to
day.
Yep.
A
B
Yeah,
that's
that's
a
bit
hard
to
give
a
straight
answer,
because
I
think
all
values
work
in
tandem
to
allow
all
of
this
I
think
the
results
focused
culture
is
like
it
doesn't
matter
how
many
hours
you're
sitting
in
the
office
right.
We
had
this
joy
used
to
work
in
a
company
that
was
very
old,
my
corporate
world
here
in
Lisbon,
where
you
would
clock
in
you
would
punch
a
card
when
you
go
in
punch
a
card
when
you
go
out
and
I
like
it
was
common.
B
Joy
like
it
was
a
joke
that
around
the
office
they're
like
people
are
clocking
in
and
going
to
the
coffee
shop
near
next
door.
It's
like
people
find
a
way
to
defeat.
The
system
and
I
was
reading
a
book
from
Seth
Godin
in
talks
about
this
systems
being
from
the
Industrial
Revolution
like
when
you're
in
the
factory.
That
makes
sense,
because,
if
you're
at
your
place,
you're
not
doing
your
work,
the
factory
breaks
down
like
it
stops
in
an
office.
I
can
spend
the
whole
day
playing
solitaire.
B
So
the
results-focused
culture
is
the
one
that
I
think
is
the
most
important
one
for
to
allow
me
to
shape
my
day
in
whichever
way
I
want
and
then
as
long
as
I
produce
the
results.
I'm
good,
I'm,
I,
didn't
I
didn't
feel
like
the
the
moves
that
I
did
during
those
temporary
months.
That
I
was
out.
It
didn't
affect
my
time.
They
didn't
affect
my
productivity.
Quite
the
contrary.
B
I
was
much
more
motivated
to
to
ship
into
it
to
help
out
the
team
and
everything
so
I
think
results
is
probably
one
of
the
the
most
important
ones,
because
it
really
helps
shipping,
then,
as
for
doing
it
better
I
it's
hard
cuz,
it's
murky,
P
II
would
keep
it
iterative
in
every
parts
of
the
way.
So
I
don't
know.
I,
don't
have
anything
right
now,
but
if
I
do
you
can
expect
anymore
from
me.
A
A
The
answer
to
this
question
is
the
most
important
thing
on
whether
or
not
that
I
want
to
come
and
get
left,
and
the
hiring
manager
was
like,
of
course,
like.
We
would
love
that
that
actually
would
be
a
shining
example
to
everyone
out
of
of
how
to
actually
take
advantage
of
this
and
optimize
this
and
it
and
a
lot
of
companies.
A
The
answer
to
that
would
be,
let
me
ask
I
need
to
you
know:
we
got
some
papers,
we
need
to
sign,
there's
some
bureaucracy
that
goes
into
this
and
all
of
that,
and
and
here
it
was
like
Oh
encouraged.
This
is
exactly
what
we're
about,
but
it
comes
down
to
just
trusting
people
and
if
you
just
allow
them
to
to
do
their
day,
the
way
they
want
to
do
it,
and
you
trust
him
to
do
that
and
you
hire
people
that
can
be
trusted.
A
B
B
Another
constant
is
that,
okay,
as
if
he
was
saying,
is
this
a
problem,
and
we
managers
see
that
oh
man,
that's
a
great
story
to
tell
like
we're
just
so
welcoming
to
those
kind
of
different
aspects
of
in
ways
of
working,
because
that's
just
it
I'm
now
I
work
out
of
my
house,
but
I've
worked
for
out
of
a
co-working
space
for
a
couple
of
months.
I
felt
it
wasn't
for
me,
I've
adapted
throughout
the
phases
and
I've
been
blowing
the
coffee,
shops
and
stuff.
But
all
the
people
really
enjoy
coffee
coffee
co-working
spaces.
B
So
you
get
to
personalize
your
way
of
working
whatever
suits
you
best
and
I
was
just
at
a
panel
two
weeks
ago,
and
somebody
was
saying
they
worked
in
a
non
remote
company
and
they
were
saying
that
I
really
enjoyed
having
a
fixed
schedule,
because
it
helps
me
creating
the
divide
and
having
a
much
better
personal
and
professional
life.
Balance
and
I
thought
I
kind
of
feel.
That's
the
worst
part.
But
that's
for
me.
You
would
still
be
able
to
do
that.
B
A
A
Like
that,
but
when
life
throws
you
a
curveball
and
you
need
to
get
out
of
that
rhythm
for
whatever
reason,
at
least
here,
the
environment
is
welcoming
of
that,
an
understanding
of
that.
So,
even
if
you
choose
to
orient
your
day
very
differently-
or
maybe
life
chooses
it
for
you,
it's
amazing
to
be
in
a
place
where
you
don't
have
to
get
people
to
sign
off
on
it.
Yeah.