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From YouTube: Dan Smolen Podcast EXTRA 1 12 2021 w/ Darren Murph
Description
About this episode: "Unleash the Remote Workforce." Meet Darren Murph. As GitLab's Director of Remote Work, he helps his team members live and work wherever they choose. Darren discusses his remote work journey--he's been remote more than 15 years--and the human and societal benefits of living and working where you please. GitLab is a 100 percent remote distributed workforce operating in 65 countries.
About our guest: Quite possibly, Darren Murph is the world’s first Director of Remote Work. He received a Bachelor of Science in Logistics, Materials, and Supply Chain Management from NC State and an MBA from Campbell University. He lives and works remotely in North Carolina.
EPISODE DATE: January 8, 2021
A
B
Yeah
so
get
lab
is
a
1300
person.
Software
development
company
spread
across
more
than
65
countries
and
we
have
been
all
remote
since
inceptions.
We
have
no
company-owned
offices
anywhere
in
the
world,
which
is
a
fascinating
place
to
work.
In
fact,
we
have
a
lot
of
scholarly
research
on
the
organizational
design
element
of
our
company
and
as
someone
who
has
worked
across
the
spectrum
of
remote
for
over
15
years,
it
has
been
fascinating
to
end
up
at
get
lab.
B
They
are
pioneering
many
of
the
best
practices
and
ways
of
working
that
so
much
of
the
world
is
looking
for
and
embracing
now,
so
the
head
of
remote
or
director
of
remote
work
role
get
lab,
figured
out
that
they
needed
this
before
the
covet
19
pandemic.
It's
becoming
a
surging
role.
I
think
you'll
see
a
lot.
A
B
Companies
embrace
this
they're,
realizing
that
this
is
a
sea
change
in
the
way
they
work.
You
can't
just
add
a
line
item
to
someone's
job
description.
You
have
to
put
a
lot
of
intentionality
around
remote
work.
So
what
do
I
do?
It's
a
very
cross-functional
role,
I'm
essentially
the
remote
voice
in
the
room,
the
internal
strategy
advisor
and
consultant
for
all
things
remote.
B
I
work
with
onboarding
make
sure
our
onboarding
is
top
class
with
our
learning
and
development
team
to
make
sure
our
manager
training
is
as
best
in
class
and
also,
if
you
know
anything
about,
get
lab,
we're
an
open
core
company
and
we
open
source
all
of
our
knowledge,
and
that
includes
remote.
So
I'm
responsible
for
writing.
B
What
are
we
up
to
over
50
guides
now
on
how
we
do
all
things
remote
and
we've
packaged
that
up
into
something
called
the
remote
playbook
that
we
shipped
out
earlier
this
year
and
to
date
over
80
000
people
have
viewed
or
downloaded
that
which
is
pretty
amazing.
That
means
git
labs
fingerprints
are
on
the
remote
transitions
of
countless
other
teams
and
companies
around
the
world.
It's
a
it's
an
exciting
thing
to
be
a
part
of.
B
B
B
It
was
much
better
to
spend
that
money
on
people
and
technology
instead
of
really
expensive
real
estate
and
forced
people
to
commute
for
hours
just
to
do
work
on
a
computer,
the
founding
team,
they
they
had
a
vision
for
remote
being
not
a
challenge
to
overcome,
but
a
strategic
and
competitive
advantage,
and
that
opportunistic
mindset,
as
opposed
to
the
scarcity,
mindset
the
fear-driven
mindset.
This
has
never
been
done
before.
There's
no
playbook
for
this.
How
are
we
going
to
do
this?
How
are
we
going
to
prove
it
to
people?
B
We
now
have
what
I
think
is
the
world's
most
geographically
diverse
team.
We
have
an
amazing
array
of
perspectives,
that's
poured
into
our
product
as
well
as
our
culture,
because,
instead
of
hiring
great
people
and
then
forcing
them
to
relocate
and
acclimate
to
a
new
area,
you
hire
great
people
and
let
them
stay
in
a
place
that
matters
to
them
and
they
can
pour
all
of
that
culture
into
their
work.
A
B
Lab
find
you,
this
is
a
great
question
this.
Actually,
this
digs
into
a
really
a
deep
and
important
point,
which
is
life,
is
really
long
and
everybody
matters.
You
really
never
know
where
the
connection
points
are
going
to
be
in
your
life
and
where
the
dot
connectors
are
they
come
out
of
nowhere
and
get
lab
found
me
through
a
great
friend
at
a
role
I
had
in
a
past
life
we
had
kept
in
touch.
We
did
not
know
that
we
were
one
degree
of
freedom
away
from
other
people.
B
My
now
manager
had
lunch
with
this
person,
and
she
said
you
know
I
work
at
this.
This
radical
place
called
get
lab.
We
don't
have
any
offices
and
we
need
this
role,
this
person
that
can
tell
our
story,
but
also
help
us
paint
the
vision
for
what
it's
looked
like
what
it
looks
like
to
thrive
in
this
environment,
and
she
said
you
know
what
I
know
this
guy
named
darren.
You
should
really
give
this
guy
a
call
and
she
did
and
the
rest
is
history.
I
remember
getting
that
call
and
I
had
to
sit
down.
B
I
said:
wait
a
minute.
You
have
no
offices
on
purpose,
you're,
all
remote
on
purpose,
there's
actually
intentionality
behind
this.
This
isn't
an
accident,
it
blew
my
mind
and
I
knew
right
away
that
it
was
an
environment
that
I
wanted
to
be
a
part
of.
I
could
tell
they
were
pioneering
something
really
special.
A
You
have
a
job
that
I
think
defies
description
because
you're,
the
first
person
I've
ever
encountered
who's
a
director
of
remote
work.
There's
an
alchemy,
that's
come
about
in
creating
your
phenomenal
role.
It's
part
recruitment.
It's
part,
ambassador
for
a
remote
work
culture
and
I'm
wondering
what
opportunities,
but
also
challenges
present
in
framing
a
remote
work
value
proposition
to
prospective
talent
to
join
git
lab.
B
Yeah,
it's
a
great
question.
It's
funny
about
the
role.
I
have
actually
worked
with
a
number
of
leaders
and
companies
to
help
them
articulate
their
job
descriptions
for
their
director
of
remote
work
or
whatever
they
end
up
calling
it
different
companies
are
calling
it
different
things,
because
no
one
has
written
this
before
it's
being
built
in
real
time.
B
This
the
need
for
this
is
being
invented
in
real
time
and
what's
very
interesting
about
it,
is
there's
an
acute
shortage
of
people
that
are
tenured
that
have
senior
level
experience
doing
remote
work
because
for
a
long
time,
you're
almost
biased
against.
If
you
were
remote,
most
senior
people
acquiesced
at
some
point
and
relocated
to
a
major
city.
You
know
put
their
their
life
on
hold
for
the
sake
of
their
career,
not
many
people
toughed
it
through
for
a
really
long
time.
So
it's
really
interesting
and
wild
to
see
that
dynamic.
B
Prospective
candidates
can
do
all
of
that
vetting
before
they
even
reach
out
before
they
even
enter
into
the
formal
recruiting
pipeline,
so
people
are
able
to
opt
in
and
self-select
and
find
a
culture
that
aligns
with
them,
and
it's
baffling
to
me
that
so
many
companies
withhold
the
real
strategy
and
culture
until
you
get
in
so
they
spend
three
six
nine
months
recruiting
you
relocating
you
getting
you
into
the
the
office
and
then
by
the
third
week.
They're.
Like
oh
surprise,
this
is
this
is
our
strategy.
This
is
our
culture.
B
And
so
you
can
read
all
of
this
stuff
before
you
even
show
up.
One
of
the
first
things
I
did
add
to
our
faq
when
I
arrived
at
gitlab
was
a
section
that
is
literally
entitled.
What's
it
like
to
work
at
get
lab,
there's
a
couple
of
paragraphs
and
about
four
links
that
I'm
pretty
confident.
If
you
dig
into
you,
get
a
good
understanding
of
what
it's
like
one
of
the
bolded
lines
there
is
it's
not
a
trap
to
work
here.
B
There
really
is
as
much
to
unlearn
as
there
is
to
learn,
and
we
do
things
very
differently.
When
you
tell
people
that
up
front,
some
people
are
going
to
run
directly
toward
that.
Some
people
are
going
to
say.
Maybe
not
my
cup
of
tea,
but
the
world
overall
would
be,
would
be
benefited
by
companies
being
more
transparent
about
who
they
are.
You.