4 |
5 | | New Year’s Day |
6 | January 1 |
7 |
8 |
9 | | Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
10 | January 19 |
11 |
12 |
13 | | President’s Day |
14 | February 16 |
15 |
16 |
17 | | Cesar Chavez Day |
18 | March 31 |
19 |
20 |
21 | | Memorial Day |
22 | Last Monday in May |
23 |
24 |
25 | | Independence Day |
26 | July 4 |
27 |
28 |
29 | | Labor Day |
30 | First Monday in September |
31 |
32 |
33 | | Indigenous People’s Day |
34 | Second Monday in October |
35 |
36 |
37 | | Veterans Day |
38 | November 11 |
39 |
40 |
41 | | Thanksgiving Day and Friday |
42 | Fourth Thursday in November and following Friday |
43 |
44 |
45 | | Christmas Eve |
46 | December 24 |
47 |
48 |
49 | | Christmas Day |
50 | December 25 |
51 |
52 |
53 |
54 |
55 | If a holiday falls on a weekend, we’ll let you know when the holiday will be observed. Usually, if a holiday falls on a Saturday, we will observe it on the Friday before. If it falls on a Sunday, it will be observed on the following Monday.
56 |
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/Benefits and Perks/New Parent Leave.md:
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1 | # New Parent Leave
2 |
3 | Clef offers 12 weeks of paid leave for all full time employees, regardless of gender or sexual identity, after the birth or adoption of a child. This time is for the new parent to welcome the newborn or newly adopted child or children into their home and family. The leave should be taken within a year after the birth or adoption of the child.
4 |
5 | Employees should give the rest of the team as much notice as possible before they take new parent leave, though there is no requirement for how far in advance notification needs to be given. Parenthood can be unexpected and sensitive, but the more that a team can anticipate the absence, the easier it will be to handle.
6 |
7 |
8 | Paid time off of any kind, including New Parent Leave, does not accrue additional paid time off in the form of vacation days, sick days, or time towards sabbatical. For instance, an employee who has worked for Clef for 4 years will be eligible to take a sabbatical after 1 more year of work. If they took 12 weeks of new parent leave, when they returned they would still have 1 full year of work before they were eligible for their sabbatical.
9 |
10 | In California, State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave programs will pay part of an employees salary who are unable to work due to pregnancy and childbirth. It is illegal for an employer to overpay an employee while they are using those programs, so Clef will supplement them to maintain the employee's salary instead of paying the full salary on top of them.
11 |
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/Clef Values.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Clef Core Values
2 |
3 | ## Be better today than yesterday.
4 |
5 | Being better is more important than being the "best", because "best" means complacency and better means progress. We are always improving. Improvement requires reflection, so we take ownership of our mistakes and question our habits.
6 |
7 | ## Treat others the way they'd like to be treated.
8 |
9 | Our customers and teammates have different needs from our own, so we must consider their perspectives to communicate effectively. We work best together when we empathize with one another, and we create the best product when we understand the people we are building for.
10 |
11 | ## Fight the default of exclusion.
12 |
13 | Inequality and exclusion are the defaults of our industry. Without intentional effort, we will inherit those failings and worsen the problem. Building a diverse team is a moral imperative and we build a better business and product by bringing different perspectives to the table. We look for voices unlike our own because they are the only ones that help us grow.
14 |
15 | ## We succeed together when we trust each other.
16 |
17 | Trust is the currency that powers every interaction on teams. Only when we trust each other can we share the candid feedback and opinions that let us be creative and successful. We give our coworkers deep visibility into how our decisions are made and easy outlets to help them give input and guide our course. When we build trust through good communication, we create an environment for better communication in the future.
18 |
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/Operations Documents/Sharing Files.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Sharing Files at Clef
2 |
3 | ## Base Directories
4 |
5 | At the base of every member of the Clef team’s directory, there should be 6 directories:
6 |
7 | 1. **[Clef Handbook](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwj0rVaUQUXPNWI3SmlwMXRkTDQ&authuser=0)** -- a collection of documents about how we do things at Clef, which anyone can comment on
8 |
9 | 2. **Active Projects** -- All project folders will be shared globally in this folder
10 |
11 | 3. **Inactive Projects** -- projects which aren’t currently under development
12 |
13 | 4. **Resources** -- common resources which will be shared across projects -- like logo design resources, press clippings, etc.
14 |
15 | 5. **OKRs** -- everyone at Clef’s objectives and key results.
16 |
17 | 6. **[Your Name]** -- every employee should have their personnel folder in the root directory with contracts, offer letters, etc. inside (shared only with you)
18 |
19 | ## Creating New Projects
20 |
21 | When a new project is started, a folder should be created with the format:
22 |
23 | **Project Name**
24 |
25 | in the Active Projects folder so that it will be shared with everyone else on the team.
26 |
27 | When the project is complete or paused, it should be moved to the Inactive Projects folder and labeled with the date when it was archived with the format:
28 |
29 | **YYYY-MM Project Name**
30 |
31 | The current structure doesn’t have a lot of built-in support for teams, since each project is autonomous. This will probably need to be fixed later as we grow and divide our functions into teams.
32 |
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/Benefits and Perks/Sabbatical.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Sabbatical
2 |
3 | After every 5 years of working at Clef, employees are encouraged to take a one-quarter (12 contiguous weeks) paid sabbatical.
4 |
5 | During this sabbatical, they should work on passion projects -- something outside the scope of their normal work that is interesting and exciting to them. This could be researching a topic of interest, working for the US Digital Service, helping a nonprofit, or something else altogether.
6 |
7 | The sabbatical should be a time of self-improvement and exploration with a central activity or theme. At the end of the sabbatical, the employee should put together a presentation about their sabbatical and present it to the team when they get back to the office.
8 |
9 | The sabbatical is meant to help further our core value of improvement by letting the employee explore and learn about another area of interest. It may also help some employees avoid burnout from working on one thing for too long.
10 |
11 | To make sure that sabbatical is not overly disruptive to their team, employees should have taken fewer than twelve weeks of paid time off in the year before a sabbatical. They should also notify the team that they will be taking the sabbatical at least 4 weeks in advance.
12 |
13 | There is an expectation that employees return to work at Clef after their sabbatical, and not use it as a soft exit from the company. We may set some policy to enforce this later.
14 |
15 | Paid time off of any kind, including Sabbatical, does not accrue additional paid time off in the form of vacation days, sick days, or time towards sabbatical. For instance, an employee who has accrued 3 sick days before taking a 12 week sabbatical will still have 3 available sick days when they return.
16 |
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/Benefits and Perks/Other Protected Absences.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Other Protected Absences
2 |
3 | ## Pregnancy Disability Leave
4 |
5 | California law entitles a childbearing employee to take Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) if they are disabled because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, including prenatal care and severe morning sickness. The length of leave will be up to 4 months or the equivalent number of days the employee would normally work within the 4-month period. Intermittent leave or a reduced work schedule may be taken. Employees should give notice to the founder to whom they report.
6 |
7 | ## Bereavement Leave
8 |
9 | An employee who wishes to take time off due to the death of an immediate family member should notify the founder to whom they report. Paid bereavement leave will be granted up to three consecutive days for the death of a family member including the following: spouse, domestic partner, cohabitant, child, stepchild, grandchild, parent, stepparent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandparent, great grandparent, or sibling.
10 |
11 |
12 | ## Jury Duty or Witness Summons
13 |
14 | Employees will be granted up to 3 days paid time to serve on a jury or as a witness. In order to minimize disruption in the office, employees are requested to check in with the founder to whom they report when jury duty or witness testimony lasts less than four hours per day and may be requested to work remotely. A copy of the jury duty or witness summons and all associated documents must be presented to the founder to whom you report as soon as reasonably possible.
15 |
16 | ## Other Leaves of Absence
17 |
18 | Clef will grant leaves of absence for other activities as required by law. Unless otherwise required by law, employees will not be paid for such leaves of absence.
19 |
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/Operations Documents/Effective Meetings.md:
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1 | # Effective meetings and group work
2 |
3 | To increase flexibility in how and where employees at Clef work, we agree on a shared set of constraints for group work and meetings.
4 |
5 | ## Meeting Ettiquette
6 |
7 | ### Meetings start on time
8 |
9 | If you're leading a meeting, it's your responsibility to start the meeting on time. If you're attending a meeting, you are responsible for showing up on time.
10 |
11 | ### Meetings happen in regular hours
12 |
13 | All team members should make themselves available for face-to-face meetings between 10:30am-1:00p Pacific Time, as long as they are scheduled at least 24 hours in advance. If a meeting needs to happen outside of these hours, the meeting organizer should scheduled it a week in advance.
14 |
15 | ### Meetings should have a video option
16 |
17 | If you're hosting a meeting with a remote worker invited, it's your responsibility to provide a video link before the meeting starts for them to join.
18 |
19 | If you're attending a meeting remotely, you should join the video call before a meeting starts. It's your responsibility to ensure this is possible — this means being in a quiet place with a fast internet connection before the meeting starts. Calling into a meeting via phone or from a public place is unacceptable.
20 |
21 | For some meetings, voice calls will be sufficient - this decision is up to the meeting organizer when they create the meeting.
22 |
23 | ### Prerequisites for successful meetings
24 |
25 | The following things are pre-requisites for successful group work:
26 |
27 | * A fast, reliable internet connection. Remote employees should make all efforts to mitigate video call lag.
28 | * A quiet place to take meetings
29 |
30 | If you're planning to work with another person on the team (i.e. for a meeting during meeting hours or to pair program), you should make sure these are available.
31 |
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/Benefits and Perks/Referral Bonuses.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Referral Bonuses
2 |
3 | Referrals from people who already work at Clef are one of the best signals we can get about whether or not a candidate will be successful at Clef. Clef employees understand Clef’s needs and what it’s like to work at Clef, and their relationship with the candidate means they know a lot more than we can learn during an interview process.
4 |
5 | In order to get good referrals, everyone needs to know which positions are open, know how to start the recruiting process, have time to search their network, and feel aligned with the company incentives. Open positions should be posted on getclef.com/about and also in the #hiring channel so that everyone sees who we’re trying to hire. We’ll host a company lunch with food on the second Tuesday of every month where we talk about which positions are open and go through everyone’s online networks looking for and thinking about candidates. Employees will do initial outreach to interesting connection, which will give us a good space to talk about how we start the recruiting process.
6 |
7 | **We offer a $5,000 referral bonus for any new hire that comes from an employee referral to help align company incentives with individual incentives.** All employees (except the founders) are eligible for the referral bonus. The referral date can’t be earlier than the date the job is posted and the hiring of the referred employee has to happen within 180 days (six months) of the initial referral. The referral must represent the candidate’s first contact with Clef, and only the first employee to refer a candidate can get the bonus. The referrer should send the candidate’s information to Brennen, should make an introduction to the candidate, and should expect to be engaged during the recruiting and interview process. The referring employee must still be employed by Clef during the hired candidate’s first 30 days of employment, and will be paid within 90 days of the referred employee’s first day. Any disputes or interpretations of this program should be sent to B.
8 |
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/Employment Policies/Code of Conduct in the Community.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Code of Conduct
2 |
3 | This code of conduct applies to community members and Clef team members in all Clef communities online (including but not limited to IRC, support chat, the Clef Community Slack group, Twitter, and Facebook), in the Clef office, and at all events hosted by Clef.
4 |
5 | Our community is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, color, sex (with or without sexual conduct and including pregnancy and sexual orientation involving transgender status/gender identity, and sex-stereotyping), national origin, age, disability (physical or mental), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, parental status, marital status, and political affiliation as well as gender expression, mental illness, socioeconomic status or background, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, computing experience, or clothing. Consider that calling attention to differences can feel alienating.
6 |
7 | We do not tolerate harassment of community members in any form. Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to the protected classes above, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, photography or audio/video recording against reasonable consent, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Harassment does not need to be recognized as unwanted or unwelcome by anyone other than the person being harassed.
8 |
9 | Be careful in the words that you choose. Remember that sexist, racist, and other exclusionary jokes can be offensive to those around you. Offensive jokes are not appropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstance.
10 |
11 | Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Community members violating these rules may be sanctioned or removed from community spaces. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact B (b@getclef.com) or one of the other founders immediately.
12 |
13 | Adapted from the [Hack Code of Conduct](http://hackcodeofconduct.org/).
14 |
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/Employment Policies/Complaint Policy.md:
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1 | # Complaint Policy
2 |
3 | Clef is committed to creating a safe work environment that is free of threats to the health, safety, and wellbeing of the people who work here. That includes (but isn’t limited to) harassment, discrimination, violation of health and safety rules, and violence.
4 |
5 | Clef has an open-door policy, so employees are encouraged to report work-related concerns. If something about your job is bothering you, or if you have a question, concern, idea, or problem related to your work, please discuss it with the founder you report to as soon as possible. If for any reason you don’t feel comfortable discussing it with them, feel free to raise the issue with any founder.
6 |
7 | Any employee who witnesses or is subject to inappropriate conduct in the workplace can report it to B (b@getclef.com) or any of the Clef founders. We encourage employees to come forward with any workplace complaint, even if it’s not about something that’s explicitly covered in our written policies.
8 |
9 | Once a complaint has been made, the founders will meet and determine how to handle it. If one or more of the founders is the subject of the complaint, the remaining founder(s) will determine how to handle it. Any reports of a founder engaging in harassment or gross misconduct will trigger an outside investigator. With the employee’s permission, we will conduct a complete and impartial investigation, which may involve an outside investigator in serious cases. All complaints will be handled as confidentially as possible. When the investigation is complete, the company will take corrective action if appropriate.
10 |
11 | We will not engage in or allow retaliation against any employee who makes a good faith complaint or participates in an investigation. If you believe that you are being subjected to any kind of negative treatment because you made or were questioned about a complaint, report the conduct immediately to the founders.
12 |
13 | Currently, Clef is too small to have an internal group or department that can independently respond to complaints, so if the founders are named in complaints, they will do their best to hold one another accountable. Where appropriate, the founders will engage a third party to conduct a thorough investigation and recommend corrective action, where necessary.
14 |
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/Benefits and Perks/Continuing Education.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Continuing Education
2 |
3 | One of Clef’s core values is “Be better today than yesterday,” so it’s important that we support our employees’ efforts to learn, grow, and improve. These are some of the key benefits of working at Clef, and are central to our company culture.
4 |
5 | ## Learning Budget
6 |
7 | Every employee has a company budget to support any learning activity that they want to pursue related to the work they do at Clef. This doesn’t need to be a class explicitly linked to their current role, but it should help them improve a skill that will be useful for them at Clef. Each employee has an annual budget of $4,000 which can be spent towards program fees/tuition, tickets, flights, and hotels for industry conferences, classes, mentorship programs, books, programs, videos, or other places that they feel will provide valuable learning experiences. These expenses should be discussed in one-on-ones and approved by the founder to whom the employee reports. This budget resets at the beginning of every calendar year and does not roll over. The learning budget will be limited to $2,000 during the first year of implementation and for employees joining the company after the month of May in the calendar year.
8 |
9 | Employees can also use work hours to work on learning projects, though this should be limited to four hours a week.
10 |
11 | ## Mentorship
12 |
13 | Clef understands the value of mentorship. We will work with every employee to make sure they have a mentor in their field outside of the company who they can regularly meet with and get advice. Mentorship goals will be discussed in one-on-ones, possible mentors from our industry or networks will be chosen, and everyone on the team will help make and support the connection with the mentor. Employees are also encouraged to meet with their mentor during normal work hours. In the future, we will explore a more comprehensive resource or platform for helping employees find mentors.
14 |
15 | ## Speaker Support
16 |
17 | It makes Clef look great when our employees speak at industry conferences, so we love to support Clef employees who are invited to speak to their peers about their area of expertise. For each event, Clef will pay for the flights and hotel up to $1,000 dollars, and employees are each eligible for this benefit 4 times per year (this budget is separate from the learning budget). Employees should get approval from the founder they report to about which conferences are appropriate to speak at, and to make sure that conference dates don’t interfere with important company dates.
18 |
19 | Speaker support will be limited to two event during the first year of implementation and for employees joining the company after the month of May in the calendar year.
20 |
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/Onboarding Documents/One on Ones.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # One on Ones
2 |
3 | Every week, every member of the Clef team meets with their manager in an open ended meeting that lasts at least thirty minutes. The agenda for the one on one is set by the employee and its primary intention is to build a trusting relationship. This is not a status check-up or performance evaluation, it’s dedicated time where the manager is available to hear what each member of their team is excited or frustrated about, what is blocking or scaring them, and what’s going well or could use improvement.
4 |
5 | Trust is the fundamental currency of teams, and these meetings are the easiest place to earn trust. Managers are making time for every direct report, every week, so that they build an individual relationship with each one and establish a reliable channel for communication.
6 |
7 | ## Scheduling
8 |
9 | One on ones should be a recurring calendar event at the same time every week, but the schedule is meant to be regular, not rigid. The meeting can be moved if another event is happening at the same time or if the team member feels like they need more time on a given week. The important thing is that the manager makes it a priority to find time for the meeting.
10 |
11 | Making time for one on ones helps every team member feel like their manager cares about the relationship with them and that their manager is prioritizing their needs.
12 |
13 | ## Agenda
14 |
15 | Agendas for different one on ones can vary widely, but this is the team member’s meeting, so they should have ultimate control. One on ones should be a mix of present problems/resolutions and future goals/plans. What is blocking today and how can it be resolved or worked around? What do you want the future to look like, and what are the concrete steps you’ll take to get there?
16 |
17 | One on ones are also a good place to give and receive feedback. Talk about what’s working well and why it’s particularly effective. Ask what you can be doing better and where the team can improve.
18 |
19 | Managers should probe throughout the meeting. Ask follow up questions, dig deeper, and restate complicated ideas to make sure you understand correctly. This is an invaluable time to learn, and you’ll earn more trust by listening than by talking.
20 |
21 | ## Following Up
22 |
23 | It’s useful to take notes during the meeting, so that you can ask about how things have changed in the future. It’s also useful to take notes during the week -- if you notice something that you’d like to talk about, a note will make sure you address it in your next one on one.
24 |
25 | If an employee is having a problem with a coworker, make sure to ask before you intervene. In some cases, intervention will make the complainant’s work situation worse. Always defer to their needs and aim for their goal for resolution.
26 |
27 | When you do act, remember to follow up and talk about the resolution. This gives you a chance to show that you take their problems seriously and also opens the opportunity to talk about the potential causes of the problem and how to avoid them in the future or improve the way they’re handled.
28 |
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/Operations Documents/Interview Process.md:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | # Interview Process
2 |
3 | Every candidate should go through three interviews that help us find the right person for the job.
4 |
5 | Before they are interviewed, the candidate should show some relevant work that will help give us an initial screen and something to talk about in the first coffee interview. They should also get a blurb about Clef, the position, and our values so that they can self-screen if our culture doesn’t match the kind of company they want to work for. **Values in particular should be emphasized here so that they understand how important they are to the Clef team and make sure they align.**
6 |
7 | # Informal/Coffee — 30 Minutes
8 |
9 | A resume or online profile can tell us a lot about what a candidate has done, but the first thing we need to find out is what they want to do next, and whether that matches what we’re looking for at Clef. This interview can happen over the phone, Skype, in the office, or out at a coffee shop.
10 |
11 | The idea is to spend 30 minutes getting to know the candidate and letting them ask questions about Clef and the position. This has screened about 80% of candidates so far, which seems about right. It should be pretty transparent if the candidate’s experience or interests are misaligned for the job.
12 |
13 | This interview should also focus on selling Clef and recruiting promising candidates, as this is their first real contact with Clef and their desire to work here will be formed in this meeting.
14 |
15 | This interview can take place over video chat, though we should work to have it in person when possible.
16 |
17 | # Technical Interview — 2 Hour
18 |
19 | The technical interview is a chance to dive into the candidate’s ability at the job they’re interviewing for. The lead on this hire should prepare two exercises which will each take 45 minutes, one which goes into high level thinking for the position and the other which focuses on more low level implementation.
20 |
21 | The last 30 minutes should be used for questions and answers from both sides. This interview should filter out 50-70% of candidates (of the remaining 20%), and by the end of it, the lead interviewer should have an opinion on whether or not the candidate is the right person for the job.
22 |
23 | This interview can take place over video chat, though we should work to have it in person when possible.
24 |
25 | # Team Fit — Full Day
26 |
27 | Finally, the candidate should come in for a whole day of talking to and working with the team. In the morning they'll drill into a much more challenging problem than they had to deal with in their technical interview. We want to get a sense for how candidates handle something out of their comfort zone, how they ask for help, etc. It’s also important that candidates feel like they’ve earned their offer by the time they get it, so this part of the process should be hard!
28 |
29 | After the morning exercises, candidates go out to lunch with the team before coming back to the office for one on ones with everyone. As we get a little bigger, this might need to be one on twos to fit conversations into a reasonable amount of time.
30 |
31 | This interview should always take place in the office, with all travel expenses covered by Clef.
32 |
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/Employment Policies/Salary and Equity Compensation.md:
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1 | #Salary and Equity Compensation
2 |
3 | The following policy will apply to compensation offers for the first 10 employees at Clef. After we have hired 10 people, we will likely revise the salary rubric and equity amount.
4 |
5 | ##Salary
6 |
7 | Fair compensation is critical to making Clef a desirable place to work and helping our employees lead happy, healthy lives inside and outside of the office. When used as a motivational tool, though, it can incentivize the wrong kind of optimizations. Our goal with salary is that it checks the box of "enough" for folks who are excited about working at Clef (because of the people, product, and opportunity for growth) and then fades into the background.
8 |
9 | Traditional salary negotiations are also heavily biased because they rely on individual gut feelings and negotiation. This favors candidates who come from more privileged backgrounds and are afforded more confidence during the hiring process.
10 |
11 | To avoid that bias, and to better align motivations, we have a standard rubric that determines all employee salaries. Everyone in the company falls into one of four options based on their job description and years of past experience as follows:
12 |
13 |