Here at GitLab, we truly appreciate our amazing support team! They work
tirelessly to provide our users the very best support and achieve the goals we
set for them. Through tickets, calls, issues, MRs, etc., they work each and
every day to not only support GitLab, but also improve it. As a Support Manager,
I truly appreciate each and every thing they do here. I take a lot of pride in
telling people what I do for a living, and it is in large part thanks to the
amazing team I work with.
With everything they have done, the support managers brought up the topic of
showing appreciation. We often thank them, but as of late, we felt we needed to
do something more. But the big question was how?
When I first started working as a manager, it was in an office. Back then,
showing appreciation was relatively easy. We saw one another almost every day
after all! I could easily address my team, thank them wholeheartedly for their
amazing work, and see they knew they were truly appreciated. If I wanted to
think outside the box, I very well could. We were all working together in a
physical place, so it wasn't too difficult to get inventive.
One of my all-time favorite ways of showing appreciation for my team
was having a pizza party (yes I know, this isn't that inventive)! We would eat
greasy pizza, see different topping choices, and overall, grow as a team. Once I
started working fully remote, I had pretty much convinced myself the days of
pizza parties were a thing of the past. That was, until the Support Managers
floated the idea of doing one asynchronously. It was taking the idea of
social calls
and adding pizza to it!
I instantly fell in love with the idea, so I had no objections when we decided
to go through with the concept. We encouraged the team to order pizza (any food
really) on Friday and post the pictures. What came of this was, in my opinion,
amazing. We got to see pizza and food from all over the globe. It started
discussions of different ways to make pizza, different topping choices, and
inspired many of us to one day travel outside of our respective regions, all in
hopes of trying some delicious pizza! I personally had never thought of eating
gas station pizza, but after seeing the pictures of it, I now long for the day
I travel to Nebraska to try (what I am told) is the best gas station pizza you
can find!
"Our global Support team has worked very hard and focused on reaching our
lofty targets for our customer service objectives, and this virtual party is
in recognition, and appreciation, of their collective efforts!" - Tom
Cooney, Director of Support
The entire event reminded me of a very important piece of information I had read
in the All Remote
section of the GitLab Handbook:
"Remote is not a challenge to overcome."
I had seen the concept of showing appreciation to an all-remote team as a
challenge I had to overcome. Simply put, it isn't. It wasn't the environment
that needed a change, it was merely my way of thinking!
I truly feel honored that I get to work for such an amazing company and a
fantastic team. I continue to look forward to working more and more with the
amazing GitLab Support team!
Cover image by Alan Hardman on Unsplash
