One year after COVID changed our lives, many companies are suddenly championing the virtues of remote-first work lifestyles, but for Kraken, it is a part of our founding culture. We’ve taken notice of the corporate micromanagers who swore, ‘no-how, no-way, never’ would they embrace a remote-first workplace, only to recently pull a “180” as top-tier talent is taking back their freedom.  Kraken has always been a champion of the work from home (WFH) principle since the day we were founded. You know what? We hire first class talent worldwide that enables us to meet and exceed the needs of our wonderful global client base all hours of the day.  Our team was asked to share their thoughts on WFH and the responses were overwhelming. (We’ve respectfully kept all responses anonymous) Most jobs are in the bigger cities — in particular some entire industries.  The cost of living is prohibitively high and that takes a toll on your ability to save. If you want to avoid that, you have to commute one to three hours in most cases. It feels like a never ending race to finally reach “stability.” Being remote has been a saving grace. It has allowed me and my boyfriend to work in low-cost of living countries, both fulfilling our dreams of travel WHILE allowing us to invest and save. It’s ironic, we can save by taking a 6-month holiday in Taiwan, Thailand, Laos or Vietnam.  Another employee shared a similar sentiment noting that he spent a large amount of his work week simply traveling to and from the office. Getting through each week was drudgery between the traffic, chaos and congestion of living in a large city. What little extra money I had, I’d dedicate to a weekend in the woods. On average, I’d drive about 30 to 40 thousand miles in a year. I have lived where I love to be for the last 8 years and don’t have to hold it all in until Friday’s. Working remotely allows me to focus. I get my work done cleanly and efficiently. I get more done in an average day and I’m able to help out with extra work when my team is in a pinch.   Beyond commuting, the benefits to both the company and employees with WFH are: lower administrative & overhead costs, work-family balance, stress reduction, health advantages and improved morale. We will cover these in detail in further articles. There were no how-to guides, blog articles, available IT departments or HR personnel to walk us through setting up WFH. We did it by choice with determination, effort and by learning from mistakes as we moved forward.  We wholeheartedly believed this was in the best interest for Kraken as a company, but also for the employees who recognized the potential of crypto. Fast forward eight years and companies worldwide are looking to us for guidance to continue being remote-friendly. Our hiring process determines if the person is the right fit for our culture and their dedication to the growth of cryptocurrency.  In addition to the onboarding resources, security training, and live instructor tutorials, we provide a stipend shortly after hiring to ensure that everyone has the tools they need to set up a home office to their liking.  At Kraken, we embrace doing things differently. We believe there is always potential to do it in a better way. For every worker that enjoys our rebellious spirit, we think you’ll enjoy this last quote as much as we did. “At Kraken, I get to work when I’m my most productive not when the ‘spreadsheet managers’ think I should be.”  Now, are you a programmer or developer looking for an opportunity to spread your wings? Kraken’s engineering team will aim to hire 202 new employees in 2021. If you specialize in Rust, C++ and/ or React, we want to hear from you! Apply here.Share this: - Twitter - Facebook - Like this:Like Loading...