Handbook

As a remote, async-first company, we felt the need for creating a team member’s handbook to allow new and prospective hires to better understand the company culture and processes without being overwhelmed with information; while simultaneously explaining what Spiffing stands for and why we love what we do.

We believe that every new hire makes Spiffing an even better place to work and we feel it is our mission to make you happy & successful. Our core philosophy is people over process. Awesome people will build awesome things.

This handbook will aim to answer questions about remote working, benefits, company events and lots more. If you’re looking for Engineering-specific information, you could find that in the Engineer’s Handbook.

It’s all about you

Everyone working at Spiffing represents & contributes to Spiffing. We believe that a diverse team with diverse experiences contributes to a broader perspective that ultimately leads to an improved product.

This means that everyone’s feedback is welcome and everyone should make the utmost effort to deliver an exceptional experience, both to our customers and also to your colleagues.

As an example, if a customer has reported an issue with a product through our support channels; take the time to document the ticket well—do not take shortcuts. When the product owner will pick up this ticket, they will appreciate your effort and the well-documented ticket. This additional effort might lead to an improved resolution time and a better user experience. The same principles apply for all roles; always strive to be the best version of yourself.

If you are part of the Spiffing team; that means we believe that you can have an invaluable contribution to the product through technical expertise and also have the necessary character traits or personal skills to improve the company culture.

Values

At Spiffing, the below values are used as a guideline to decide who is rewarded and who is let go. Our values could be summarized in four main statements.

Be respectful. Everyone on the team plays an important role. Take time to praise the work of others and do not take criticism personally. The team is united behind the collective goal to improve the product and company.

Listen to others, whether this is your colleague, manager, or a customer. Their point of view is valuable and feedback is key. Feedback doesn’t need to be restricted to the product, but it could be feedback on the process, on a new method, or literally anything else. Most things could always be improved further.

Nowadays, customers are accustomed to the gold standards set by the industry giants. We shouldn’t deliver anything worse. We need our customers to love our product, to tell their friends, family, and colleagues about our product. We want our customers to put our logo on their homepage or social media!

Be optimistic. We believe it is better to trust that things will go well and be disappointed when they do not, rather than constantly expecting the worst. This message should also be imputed through our products.

Remote, Async-First

At Spiffing we are a remote, async-first company, which means that our team members are encouraged to work remotely. It allows us to hire the best people and makes our team more productive.

When working remotely, communication becomes even more crucial. We expect everyone to take the extra mile and reach out to colleagues, welcome new recruits and to encourage personal conversation to be able to build a rapport with your colleagues, not just a strictly professional relationship. You will not be told-off for talking about non-work related items, as long as this conforms with our company values and is within the right communication channels.

Once you are accustomed to making conversation online, documenting meetings becomes part of your everyday process. This allows all interested stakeholders to join a meeting or to understand the conclusions drawn from a meeting that was not attended.

Training

As a manager, team leader, or expert, one of your primary roles is to provide training to your team. At Spiffing we believe that training is the manager’s responsibility and it shouldn’t be delegated to external programs. Knowledge transfer between employees is a core value of the company.

Communication

At Spiffing we value open, concise, asynchronous, and frequent communication. Hiding information, feedback, or motives behind a decision is never welcome as this leaves room for ambiguity and guessing. The same should be expected from your colleagues and managers.

Disagreement

If you disagree on something - even with your manager, it is normal and should be spoken about openly. You are encouraged to both speak & document why you disagree and it is your responsibility to make your position understood. Remember, a disagreement is never personal, but strictly related to the product or process. If you do not speak up about a disagreement then we might be missing out on valuable feedback.

Decision Making

The decision making process should require participation from everyone present in the meeting and everyone’s say should be heard. Junior staff are encouraged to participate. If a senior member is ignoring or overriding feedback from a junior member then they are less likely to participate next time. When taking a decision, the output of the planning process is not only the plan, but the decisions taken in making that plan.

Multi-modal Communication

As a remote-first company, we employ multi-modal communication to broadcast important decisions through different mediums, including video calls, email, Slack, one-on-one meetings…etc.

When doing this, create and link to a single source of truth: a Jira ticket, GitHub issue, or a Markdown file. The email or Slack message/post should not be the source of truth but the communication medium.

Slack

Slack is to be used for informal communication only. Slack activity is ephemeral. Accordingly, Slack should specifically NOT be used for:

• obtaining approvals;
• documenting decisions;
• storing official company records or documents; or
• sharing personal or sensitive information regarding any individuals

Slack communication is inherently asynchronous. This means that after sending a message, you should not expect an immediate answer. Asynchronous communication allows us to respond to queries in our own time, avoid distractions and enable us to be more detailed in our responses. As a result, queries also become more direct and well-explained.

Direct Messages

When using Slack for work-related purposes, please avoid direct messages. Direct messages discourage collaboration. If someone sends you a work-related direct message, ask them to take the conversation to a public channel.

Don’t say “Hi”

If you really must send a work-related direct message, avoid just sending “Hi” or “Hey” as that interrupts their work without communicating anything. Ask a question or request a video call directly, and the person will respond asynchronously.

Respect each other’s time

You are not expected to reply to Slack messages when you are not working and we encourage you to use the “Do not disturb” feature during your free time. Take your time configuring your notifications (email, push, digests…etc) to find the best setup for you.

Avoid tagging @here, @channel unless you need the channel’s urgent & immediate attention. Tag persons if you need them to be notified, but do not tag them if you are simply referring to them.

We suggest setting up a video call if you need to discuss something in greater detail.

Video Calls

Google Meet is the preferred medium for video calls. Each team member has a cal.com connected to their calendar. This allows everyone to see your availability and book a meeting with you without the need for back-and-forth emails or messages to schedule the meeting.

When scheduling a meeting, please provide a clear agenda and expected outcomes. This helps everyone prepare for the meeting and ensures that it is productive.

Try to have your video enabled in all calls as this is much more engaging. Your appearance or location are not important. Having family members, pets, children or friends visible during a call is also not an issue. However, please mute your mic when you are not speaking if this is disturbing others.

Do not hesitate to interrupt someone while they are speaking during a video call. The tendency is to allow a single person to complete a monologue before collecting feedback or questions. However, this is not natural and questions, context, or feedback while the speaker is speaking helps create a healthy discussion.

Please use a decent quality headset or video conferencing speaker & mic.

Most importantly, please start and finish on time. This allows everyone to efficiently manage their time and not be late to their next meeting.

One-on-One Meetings

Every manager should regularly schedule one-on-one meetings with each team member. These meetings should take place at least once every three months. A one-on-one is the team member’s opportunity to share feedback, raise concerns, and discuss their development. The team member is encouraged to lead the conversation and should send an agenda in advance.

Jira, Obsidian, and Documentation

Use Jira to document work that is being done and only use Markdown for long-form supporting documentation.

Use Markdown (through Obsidian) to create documentation to support an issue, feature, product, process, or anything else which requires further detail.

When writing long-form documentation read your work and ask for feedback. Writing clearly about a complex topic can lead to a better understanding of the topic—even for the author. Assume that the audience doesn’t know your thoughts so be clear and detailed in your writings.

Mark deprecated documents by including “(DEPRECATED)” in the document title and a comment at the start of the document explaining why it was deprecated and what document future audiences should refer to.

Contracts

All team members at Spiffing are hired through a third-party that has an agreement with our Malta-based entity, Spiffing Ltd. The reason for this is to provide you with employee’s protections and advantageous tax rates when compared to hiring you directly as a non-resident employee with Spiffing.

Office

Currently we do not have an in-person office. The company’s official address is based in Malta, E.U.

Meetups

Each team is encouraged to organize their own meetups and a yearly budget for such meetups will be assigned. In addition, a company-wide meetup is organised once a year, bringing all the different teams together. The scope of such meetups is a casual setting in which colleagues can get to better know each other.

Salaries & Benefits

At Spiffing we pay global salaries—every person of the same seniority and title gets paid the same regardless of location—based on your experience and role. All employee salaries are documented and accessible within the organization.

All roles are grouped into three levels of seniority.

Salaries are paid on a monthly basis on the last day of the month.

Salary Reviews

There are no salary reviews based on performance. If a team member’s role is changed or they have been promoted to a more senior role, then their salary is adjusted immediately without waiting for a scheduled review.

Additionally, at the end of each calendar year each role’s salary will be reviewed to update it according to any changes in market data.

Relocation

Relocation refers to changing your residential living arrangement to elsewhere and requires your manager’s prior approval. It is the company’s discretion to offer you a new contract in your new location. Your salary will remain unaffected.

Bonuses

Whenever the company’s or a team’s performance exceeds expectations or a predetermined target has been met and approved by the Board of Directors, the team members will receive a bonus up to 10% of the person’s current base salary.

Bonuses are payable on a semi-annual basis.

Bonuses are not granted on an individual basis, but on a team or company-wide level.

Government bonuses are paid out inline with the country’s law.

Additional benefits

• Minimum of 25 vacation days per year.
• Minimum of 10 fully paid sick days per year.
• Minimum of 10 sick days at half pay per year.
• Parental leave.
• Equipment.

Exceptions

Unfortunately, due to legal circumstances, we might be unable to recruit remote workers from the following countries:

• American Samoa
• Anguilla
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Bahamas
• Belize
• British Virgin Islands
• Costa Rica
• Fiji
• Guam
• Marshall Islands
• Palau
• Panama
• Russian Federation
• Samoa
• Seychelles
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• US Virgin Islands
• Vanuatu