Work from Anywhere 🏄🏽‍♀️

Here at Simply Wall St, we know that everyone is unique

We want you to work where and when you’re most effective. Maybe you’re an early bird, or a night owl. Maybe you prefer the office, or working from a van.
To support you both professionally and personally, we believe flexibility is fundamental to our ways of working

The initiatives that help us focus on outcomes over output

Bueller (Personal) days: 4 extra paid days off per year of your choice;
Work overseas: We offer all employees the opportunity to work overseas for up to 3 months;
No meeting Mondays: More time for deep work;
Simply Stop afternoons: On Fridays we finish at 2:30pm to enjoy a long weekend;
Flexible hours: Set your own schedule within reason, while meeting some core hours

Flexibility: A double-edged sword ⚔️

Working this way can be incredible. You can go for a long lunch on a sunny day, you can meet your children after school, you can wake up later or log off earlier. It allows you to have the flexibility that suits your life best.

BUT, when everyone is flexible, it means that compromises will have to be made. And sometimes those compromises can be at odds with our personal preferences.

For instance, if you prefer to wake up at 10am every day, but the rest of the team wants to do a weekly meeting at 9am, this means you will have to be flexible and open to ways to make that work.

This doesn't mean you should work unsustainable hours.
It does mean that you may need to sacrifice some of your flexibility to allow others to exercise theirs.

But for this to truly work successfully, you need to:

Be mindful: As a remote worker, you have a responsibility to think of others around the world when you book your meetings. Don't book meetings at 8am just because you’re an early-riser, ask others what may work and find a solution that is respectful to the needs of the group.
Be consistent: To the best of your ability, try to maintain a somewhat regular schedule, or become very good at communicating your fluctuations.

Here’s what some of them have to say about the flexibility:

Al — Founder and CEO:

Letting our team work how and where they want to changes everything, whether it’s flexibility around family or the freedom to live where you want. Traditionally people always had to make trade-offs with work and life, we want the opposite to be true!

Al making the most of van life!

Jessie — Product Manager:

SWS truly understands that we all have families and lives outside of work. I love the flexibility of being able to work the hours where I’m the most productive, it gives me the chance to balance work with family, life admin and what’s important to me. I love that I can bring my puppy, Otto, to work, so that I don’t have to leave him at home by himself. He also loves coming in and playing with the other office dogs

Mario — Senior Software Engineer:

My son has been wearing his snorkeling gear since 5:30 am this morning, knowing that we can go snorkeling early because daddy has half a day off. What Simply Wall St offers is very unique. The freedom the company gives and the motivation it produces are rarely seen in other companies.

Sam — Product Manager:

The ability to know I can work from anywhere judgment-free makes a huge difference when making pro lifestyle choices. Living on the doorstep of the ocean and dog-friendly beaches is awesome for both me and Jet.

Michael — Equity Analyst:

Simply Wall St has enabled me to live in my dream location in New Zealand, all while still being able to retain the job that I love doing. It’s the best of both worlds: working in a role for a company with a mission that I’m truly inspired by, while living in my favourite location and doing all my favourite activities like Mountain biking, hiking etc. It’s a work-life balance that keeps me fulfilled and healthy, I couldn’t be more grateful for the company being so accommodating.

We have other initiatives that try to encourage this same approach. We do this not only because it allows our people to produce their best work, but more importantly, it allows them to thrive both inside and out of the workplace.

All of this is to say that while “flexible working” can be a term thrown around loosely, here at Simply Wall St we take it very seriously because we have already seen the results of how beneficial it can be when implemented well, and from the top down.

We’re constantly fine-tuning our approach and listening to feedback from our employees. While our company is growing incredibly quickly, the principles we follow and our attitude towards flexible working will remain the same because we know, from experience, that it’s a win-win for everyone involved.