Atlassian

Working remotely full time enables me to balance my family needs (e.g., school drop-offs and pick-ups). It also means that I can work wherever I want in Australia, so I transferred back to my home state and am closer to my family, especially during the pandemic.

I also like the psychological safety in the company. I'm able to say what is on my mind without having to think whether management would like to hear it or if it's stepping on someone's toes and offending them. It does feel that you are being listened to.

I also like the fact that they really care about their people and would rather postpone releases than work their people to exhaustion.

I do find that things work slower at Atlassian. If there's an initiative, I find that there's a lot more hierarchy that you need to go through first before things get decided.

I am also finding that following OKRs all the way to the little product teams feels more like it's hindering working faster and doing the right thing for the product. The teams are structured based on those OKRs, which means that these teams will step on each other's toes more often than not. I also find that product has a much louder voice than the engineering health of the product, which means that after a few years of not dealing with engineering health, the product suffers and everything gets halted.

Things are changing, though, and I hope they continue to change for the better.