This might sound odd — but we're not deliberately trying to build a remote culture at Auth0. To me, that term conjures images of Tom Hanks in the movie "Cast Away": His character in ragged underwear stranded on a deserted island with nobody to talk with except Wilson... his inanimate volleyball friend. I mean, who wants to encourage remoteness as a culture?
Instead, our focus is on building a great relationship culture. By building strong bonds of trust and respect, passion and transparency, we've cultivated a culture that empowers remote working. When you have those things in place, then where you physically work from is less important. This has always afforded us the luxury of really focusing on hiring the best talent for the roles we need. Literally, the entire world is our talent pool.
Certainly, there's plenty of great benefits for the remote employees — many listed by our very own staff later in this post — but there's also a huge benefit to Auth0: it exponentially increases the diversity of talent we can hire. On our team today, we have an ex-professional women's tennis player from the USA, a Certified Practicing Accountant turned developer from Canada, a one-time junior figure skating champion from Australia, and hundreds of other people with equally interesting backgrounds and experience from over 30 other countries. In fact, over 50% of our staff work outside of our main office locations.
I don't want to presume a list of all the typical remote working benefits you might often read. So instead, here's what our employees actually told us they find amazing about their experience of working remotely at Auth0.
Benefits of Remote Work As Told By Auth0 Employees
Abigail Sanchez
Program Manager
Field Ops
Washington, United States
"Leaving your desk at 9:45 AM to take your kid their forgotten lunch and making it back in time for your 10:00 AM meeting"
Andreas Christofakis
Customer Advocate Specialist
Marketing
Colorado, United States
"You don’t have to compete with your roommate to do laundry on Sundays. Any day can be a laundry day."
Annybell Villarroel
Security Operations Manager
Security Team
Spain
"Not having to spend hours commuting."
Ashley Nicholson
Customer Success Manager
CS Management
Pennsylvania, United States
"I am thankful for less wasted time. Prior to working remotely, I was stressed about everything from daily traffic to making it home in time to put my daughters to bed. Auth0 recognizes the value of time."
Bárbara Muñoz Cruzado
Visual Designer
Design
Argentina
"Working remotely gives me the chance to wear my pajamas all day long 😜 and I don’t have to wear any makeup.<br /> <br />I can also spend time with my cats and be able to do passive chores that I’m used to doing during the weekend."
Caroline Nealey
Learning Lead
Content & Guidance
Washington, United States
"The flexibility of working remotely allowed my family to adopt a second puppy. I can work remotely when I need to or come home earlier or later when required."
Chris Schultz
Engineer
DevOps
Minneapolis, United States
"Having your baby daughter smile at you when getting her up from a nap."
Dan Arias
R&D Content Engineer
Marketing
Florida, United States
"Being able to eat a freshly made meal from the stove."
Davide Barbato
Security Engineer
Security & Operations
Spain
"Be able to explore and enjoy the city without missing a meeting."
Dirceu Tiegs
Engineer
Site Reliability Engineering Team
Brazil
"Being able to stay close to my loved ones when they are going through difficult times, for example, if my wife is sick in bed.<br /><br />Also, taking a nap in the middle of the day without judgment and then coming back to do more awesome work."
DJ Joyce
Corporate Account Executive
Field Sales
England
"Being able to manage my animal friends..."
Eva Sarafianou
Application Security Engineer
Security & Operations
Washington, United States
"Missing my flight from London to Seattle and deciding to stay and enjoy London for the whole week."
Guillermo Alduncin
IT Support Engineer
Security & Operations
Argentina
"Being able to focus on a particular task for a long period of time even when the music is super loud because you like it that way.<br /><br />Also, I think it's great to just wake up, get a cup of coffee, sit at your desk, and be working already! Saving the stress of commuting is the best!"
Janie Greenwood
Scrum Master
Engineering
Montana, United States
"My boyfriend and I love living in Montana because it keeps us close to remote areas so we can get out in the middle of nowhere doing the things we love: like a 6-day river trip we did two weeks ago on the Smith River.<br /><br />Working 100% remote for Auth0 also means we can take our RV on a month-long road trip to visit family and friends. I feel very lucky to work here!"
Jeana Tahnk
Director, Corporate Communications
Marketing
Massachusetts, United States
"Being home when my two older kids get out of school, and getting my littlest one off the bus!"
Jenny O'Brien
Creative Writer
Marketing
Washington, United States
"The ability to introduce my formerly feral rescue dogs to a wide range of voices sans stress thanks to video meetings!<br /><br />Dance breaks witnessed only by my sarcastic dogs."
Jeremy Meiss
Dev Community Lead
Marketing
Kansas, United States
"No showers needed."
Joan Pepin
CISO/VP Operations
Security & Operations
Oregon, United States
"Cultural diversity! Every day I talk to and work with people from all around the world!"
Karen Port
Developer Support Engineer
Technical Support
Pennsylvania, United States
"No more traffic jams or commuting for over one hour one way, allowing me to spend more time with family and friends."
Katie Horne
Technical Writer
Content & Guidance
California, United States
"I love the flexibility to balance work and family. I am at all of my kids’ events."
Luke Oliff
R&D Content Engineer
Marketing
England
"Getting to concentrate when your little boy is asleep because now your S/O also needs to tiptoe around.😂<br /><br />Taking Zoom meetings on my mobile while walking/feeding/watering the dog/baby/plants.<br /><br />Getting through cold and flu season without being sneezed on by a co-worker — just your child."
Matt Machuga
Engineering Lead
Engineering R&D
Pennsylvania, United States
"I enjoy being able to utilize my outdoor office... err, patio furniture."
Maria Paktiti
Instructional Designer
Content & Guidance
Greece
"Being able to make a 3-month trip through Latin America while working."
Marius Mogyorosi
Application Security Engineer
Security & Operations
Ohio, United States
"As a new dad, it's priceless for me to be able to spend much more time with my son!<br /><br />Also, blasting music when no one's home. 🤘"
Megan Gleason
Director, Product Management
Product Management
Washington, United States
"Being able to volunteer at my son’s school during my lunch break.<br /><br />Hopping on the rowing machine for 20 minutes between meetings.<br /><br />And... not being judged for covering the walls of my office with crazy sticky notes."
Mike Kusold
Engineer
Engineering R&D
Colorado, United States
"Being able to shower a brand new puppy with attention all day.<br /><br />I got a puppy back in February, a few months after I joined Auth0 because it was finally feasible since I wouldn’t be away from home for 10 hours a day. <br /><br />Now, I also love being able to walk my dog for a lunchtime break."
Peter Filias
Customer Success Manager
CS Management
Michigan, United States
"Being able to sleep in a little while longer while the kids are home for the summer! This tragically ends come Fall and 5:30 AM wake-ups - <strong>here we come!</strong>"
Prashant Trivedy
Sr. Developer Support Engineer
Technical Support
New Zealand
"Getting an extra hour sleep and waking up when the rest of the household has to leave for work."
Rachel Khoriander
Technical Writer
Content & Guidance
Texas, United States
"When your car engine throws a rod and you instantly need a new car, you can take your time and find a good deal rather than panicking about how to get to work!"
Ramiro Nunez Dosio
Social Media Manager
Marketing
Argentina
"Working from a Panamanian beach while eating a lobster caught on the same beach."
Robin Bijlani
Software Engineer
Engineering R&D
Florida, United States
"Not feeling guilty about leaving your furry companions at home alone all day."
Sam Bellen
Developer Evangelist
Marketing
Belgium
"Getting my cat’s “work harder while I take a nap” look, day in day out."
Scott Mathson
SEO and Web Developer
Marketing
Montana, United States
"More time and breaks with loved ones, pets, kids (if you have them), etc.<br /><br />Monetary savings by eating lunch at home and not doing morning commute drive-thru coffee.<br /><br />The ability to create a personalized office setup that you are most productive working in."
Shili Li
UX Researcher
Design
New York, United States
"No makeup. No more worrying about what to wear. Flip flops and active shorts every day in the summer."
Siddharth Kshethrapal
Engineer
Design R&D
India
"Surprising your wife/kids at their work to pick them up."
Stacy Taylor
Web UX Designer
Content & Guidance
Oregon, United States
"I just like being able to walk my dog at lunch and to do passive chores (laundry, running dishwasher, Roomba, etc.) during work so I don't have to do them on the weekend."
Steve Hobbs
R&D Content Engineer
Marketing
England
"Being able to take some time out to do noisy DIY while your kid is in daycare! I managed to lay a whole floor today!"
Sumana Malkapuram
Solutions Architect
Professional Services
North Carolina, United States
"Being able to get peaceful ‘me’ time and pursue my passion of playing guitar again."
Tim Ferrell
Engineer
Engineering R&D
Florida, United States
"Watching your toddler nap on the couch while waiting on the kettle."
Yvonne Wilson
Director
Strategic Operations and Technical Field Enablement
California, United States
"I worked remotely while my children were growing up, which enabled me to be home when they came home from school and invited friends over. In addition, the increased reach of the internet and the ability to hire remote workers has enabled me to hire and work with very talented people from all over the world. It has been a privilege to get to know so many interesting people from different cultures, all working toward the same goal — secure identity management."
Work is a Thing You Do, Not a Place You Go
I often push the sentiment that, for modern employees and organizations, work is a thing you do and not a place you go. Over the next few years, with the advancement of technology and the adaptation of our modern lifestyles, this will continue to be a strong guiding principle in the way we craft how work happens at Auth0.
Although we're investing in Offices around the world (we have offices in London, Bellevue, Buenos Aires, and Sydney) our vision is less about traditional offices and more about hubs to build relationships — places for people to work from or to come and go, to learn and network... be they Auth0 employees, customers, or industry community friends. The offices are only additive to the great relationship culture we have that empowers us to work from anywhere.
Now, someone just needs to send that message to Tom Hanks... and Wilson.
Auth0 by Okta takes a modern approach to customer identity and enables organizations to provide secure access to any application, for any user. Auth0 is a highly customizable platform that is as simple as development teams want, and as flexible as they need. Safeguarding billions of login transactions each month, Auth0 delivers convenience, privacy, and security so customers can focus on innovation. For more information, visit https://auth0.com.