Our Employee Handbook
This handbook is your go-to resource for understanding our policies, benefits, and a glimpse into our company culture. If you’ve just joined, we’re excited to have you on board. Take some time to review the contents carefully to familiarize yourself with what’s expected from you and what you can count on from us.
Keep in mind that this handbook is a living document and will be updated from time to time.
Manuel de l'employé
Our Employee Handbook
This handbook is your go-to resource for understanding our policies, benefits, and a glimpse into our company culture. If you’ve just joined, we’re excited to have you on board. Take some time to review the contents carefully to familiarize yourself with what’s expected from you and what you can count on from us.
Keep in mind that this handbook is a living document and will be updated from time to time.
Expectations
Give a Shit
This is Rule #1. It is non-negotiable. All the other rules follow from this. Care deeply about what you’re doing.
Take pride in the work you do. The work you do represents and defines you. Make sure that you can sleep comfortably at night knowing that you’ve done a good day’s work. Give a shit!
Take Ownership
You are assumed to take full ownership of your work. This does not mean you must know all the answers, instead, it means you must come and ask the relevant people the relevant questions. It means that the questions you ask should be informed questions where you’ve done your research beforehand. Asking questions on ways to proceed or how to get out of a rut is not a bad thing. Making your problem someone else’s problem is a bad thing.
Question Authority
For better or worse, most of us grew up in a culture where questioning authority is very bad. Unfortunately, if your objective is to make great things, this is a terrible idea.
You will quite often know more about the details of a situation than your boss. If you feel you’re being asked to do something suboptimal/nonsensical, make yourself heard.
Disagree, but Commit
Sometimes though, your boss may have more context than you do. In such cases, if they don’t agree with you, make it clear you disagree, but then commit to moving in the same direction as everyone else.
Make New Mistakes
You make mistakes and learn from them: making mistakes when exploring something new is a good thing! It means you are trying something new. What matters is that you recognize mistakes, admit them, learn from them and try your best to not repeat them. Better yet, you strive to make others not repeat them as well.
Technology Is a Tool, You Are the Weapon
In Season 3 of the show The Arrow, the titular character says: “My bow, my arrows, those are just tools. I am the weapon”. Live by the same ethos.
You are not a Java programmer, or an iOS developer. You are a problem solver. Technology stacks come and go - most of them are fashion of the day. Ability to define & solve problems never goes away.
Of course, you need to be an expert at using your tools. Learn them well. But, keep in mind, they are just tools.
Keep Moving Forward
Do not stagnate: if you only do what is asked of you you will only ever be as good as the problems that come your way. Choose to step out of your way. If you have any experience with physical exercise, you know that your body gets better only when you put it under stress (and then recover). Your career - like other aspects of your life - is the same: Your growth only happens outside your comfort zone.
Invest in Yourself
Understand the concept of compounding (yes, the formula you learnt in middle school). If you plot out a compound interest curve on a graph, you’ll see the first part of the curve is very gradual. The latter part is absurdly steep.
Your life and career work the same way. If you put in the effort early, it compounds. You only get to extract the value in the latter part of the curve.
For folks who ask for “what are our working hours”, there’s a reason we don’t have an answer. Nobody asks an Indian team cricketer “what are your working hours”. Their entire life is dedicated to one major pursuit: playing cricket. They don’t go back to the hotel after end of day’s play, drink 9 beers, eat 4 pizzas, and jump off sofas. They analyze the game, relax, eat well, sleep well, etc.
Robert Downey Jr. and the cast of the Avengers hung out on Saturdays and Sundays to get to know each other better which in turn bettered their chemistry on set.
We operate the same way.
Remember to ask yourself:
Embrace Uncertainty
This is a wonderful quote from Fred Brooks:
This job by its very nature requires you to be unsure of what you are doing. There is rarely a clear path to your destination, and often the destination itself is unknown. It is important that you embrace the uncertainty, and learn to thrive in it.
Set a High Bar
Demand greatness from yourself. Make sure you set your personal bar of expectations very high. Aim for the stars. Be your harshest critic.
Expect the same from people around you. If you set the bar high, it is easy to ask others to do the same.
Be Thorough
Details matter. Even the smallest ones, like how you indent your code, how you name your variables, etc.
For example, before you ask for help, thoroughly consider whether you’ve done your homework before asking.
Before you file a PR and ask for a review, make sure you’ve reviewed it yourself first.
Communicate Clearly
No engineer shows up to work saying “Today I’ll make a mess of things”. We all want to do our best. Almost every failure in project execution comes down to miscommunication. As much as stereotypes suggest that programmers work alone in a dark basement, this job is highly collaborative. You need to be able to communicate clearly to people around you to be effective at your job.
For example: if you’re not able to import a project into the IDE, don’t say “I can’t import this” - say what the exact issue is, what you tried, why you think something might be broken, etc.
See Communication for more.
Be Honest
Never, ever try to cover things up. If you’ve made a mistake, own up to it and move on. If you’re behind on a deliverable, say so. Don’t try to hide it.
Yes, you may receive some criticism, and there may be some yelling and screaming, but your team will appreciate your honesty.
No Partial Credit
The biggest difference between real life and school life is that in school life 80% is distinction. In real life, even 99.99% means nothing.
When Hanuman was jumping across the ocean from Dhanushkoti to Lanka, if he was 99% successful, he would be dead.
When you say something is done, it should be done. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Live as a Team, Die as a Team
This is a team sport, not an individual sport. There will be times when you win the game for the team, and there will be times when the team wins the game for you. There will be times you lose the game for the team, and there will be times when the team loses the game for you.
Truly care about the people you work with - they aren’t just “colleagues”.
Be accountable to yourself, and to your team. When shit hits the fan, be around, and be ready to fight.
Communication
Async > Sync
For the most part, we prefer communication asynchronously over synchronously. This means that you should prefer to write longer form paragraphs on tickets (i.e. JIRA/Shortcut), GitHub, etc.
Async communication does not disrupt people as they work, and they are free to respond at their convenience.
However, not all communication benefits from being async. For instance, when a decision has to be made quickly, it is often beneficial to hash out the details synchronously. Use your judgement, and if in doubt, default to async.
Writing/Reading > Talking/Listening
We’ve found that for many of us, we think more clearly when we write. This is why we typically prefer writing and reading to talking and listening. We also find that the % of information absorbed when listening vs reading is a lower.
One exception to this is when the topic is one with nuance, or where lack of being able to transmit/receive body language hurts. Examples include 1-1s, retrospectives, etc.
Public > Private
Prefer communicating in public over communicating in private. Unless there is something sensitive you need to communicate, communicate in public. Private conversations leave people out of the loop and lead to information silos, thereby causing miscommunications/misunderstandings.
This may seem trivial, but as we grow, we’re noticing more issues that occur due to a lack of transparency.
Prefer communicating on tickets/PRs over private emails/DMs. Feel free to send a link to the conversation in Slack privately.
In Slack, prefer communicating in Project Channels and avoid DMs.
1-N > 1-1
Prefer communication that can scale, and avoids repetitive work.
For example, if there a new member on your team, and you need to do a walkthrough the bring them up to speed, avoid spending a lot of time in a meeting. Chances are high that you’ll have to onboard someone again the near future.
Instead, refer them to the relevant documentation to bring themself up to speed. If such documentation does not exist, create it.
Once they have read the documentation, you can do a shorter meeting. Record the meeting, so future team members can benefit from it as well.
Impact > Data
We have a tendency to communicate data, but not the impact/consequences of that data. It is important to understand that just because data is available, not everyone will fully digest it and understand its consequences. Be mindful of this, and communicate the impact, not the data.
For example:
This is data, but the impact of this is not clear.
Better:
Another example:
This is data, but the impact of this is not clear.
Better:
Proactive > Reactive
It is best to communicate (or even over-communicate) proactively about what you are doing. Instead of waiting for people to come and ask you what you’re up to, or waiting for a standup/meeting, push information out frequently to your team. Especially in a remote environment where not all of us are physically working together, this is of paramount importance. Do not worry about over communicating - everyone knows how to turn on Do Not Disturb, and at worst will ignore your message.
Meetings
Without care and thought, meetings can be massive time sucks for large groups of people which achieve nothing. However, they’re also extremely useful when done right.
Guidelines to run a good meeting:
- Have a set agenda
- Finish the meeting with a clear set of action items & decisions
- Document these decisions and circulate it to all meeting attendees (and if needed to a broader audience)
- Set a time limit
- Stick to the point - do not go off in tangential directions
- Keep emotions in check
Guidelines
A few guidelines to keep in mind when communicating:
- Give the other person the benefit of the doubt (i.e. assume good intention) at all times
- Use inclusive language (i.e. prefer “Hey folks” to “Hey guys”)
- Be aware that what may be funny to you might be hurtful to someone else
- Being concise helps, being terse does not
- Be respectful of other people’s time
Our history teaches us:
प्रियं च नानृतं ब्रूयात् एष धर्मः सनातनः ||
In English script:
priyam cha nanrutam bruyat – esha dharmah sanatanah
Loosely translated:
- Say the truth that is pleasant
- Do not say the truth that is unpleasant
- Do not say that which is untrue, but pleasant
In practice:
- Be truthful to the people around you, but do so in as pleasant a manner possible. Harsh confrontations do not always have the outcome you desire.
- If somebody has done subpar work on PR, your comment should be along the lines of: “Instantiating this object over and over again is very expensive, since it opens up a connection pool. It is best to use a Singleton instead”. It should not be along the lines of “How could you not know that this is an expensive object allocation - it should’ve been a singleton? Rookie mistake!”.
- Do not flatter people with lies to make them feel better.
- If somebody has done subpar work on a PR, you should not say “that is fine, you did great!” just to avoid hurting their feelings.
For a western take on the topic, read How to Win Friends and Influence People and Radical Candor.
Feedback
Giving and receiving constructive feedback is hard to do. Like any skill, it can be practiced and improved upon. Below are guidelines on how to give and receive feedback.
Why
The first step to fixing a problem is knowing that there is a problem. Feedback is a great way to alert each other of problems that we may be creating.
Giving and receiving feedback is one of the fastest ways to improve ourselves.
When
Typically, the ideal time to give feedback is right after an event occurs that requires feedback.
Example:
In a meeting Person A said:
You find that this estimate is too aggressive, as we do not have sufficient information about what the requirement is.
Right after the meeting, find Person A privately, and say:
Some kinds of feedback may be better discussed in a 1-1. Examples of this include repeated trends of a mistake, or larger issues. However, most feedback is best delivered shortly after an event occurs. The reason for this is that context gets lost quickly, and bringing people up to speed on what the context was days/weeks ago in a 1-1 is difficult to impossible.
Giving Feedback
When giving feedback, first ensure the feedback is merited. Ensure you have understood the situation clearly. Confirm by asking questions first, if needed.
Keep in mind that the reason you give feedback is to help the other person improve. This must come from a place of genuine care. If you do not feel this way about the person you are giving feedback to, do not give feedback. Most importantly, this is not a mechanism for you to vent.
Direct the feedback at the action, not the person. For example, it is better to say:
instead of:
Stick to the facts & logic, do not get emotional. This is easier said than done.
Assume the best of intentions. Unless you have reason to believe that the person you are giving feedback to has not tried their best, assume that they have done the best they could have done.
Be careful about criticizing in public. Typically, critical feedback is best delivered privately. Nobody likes being embarrassed in front of other people. However, delivering critical feedback in public is also an effective tool when used sparingly - it can evoke a response that private criticism may not.
Give positive feedback when genuinely merited. Feedback is not just critical in nature. Reinforcing positive events with praise is just as important. Praise frequently, and praise in public. However, do not resort to unmerited flattery - everyone sees through it.
It is highly recommend that you read (and probably re-read) these books:
Also see Communication.
Receiving Feedback
Taking feedback in the right way is extremely important. When done well, it can be a phenomenally effective way to get better.
Assume the best of intentions. In our experience, it is exceptionally rare that someone at Surya provides feedback out of spite, without caring about you. People give feedback because they care enough about you to tell you that you can do better.
Do not get defensive. Easier said than done, but important. Come up an open mind, and not with a mindset of “I was right, goddammit, and no one will prove me wrong”.
Be calm. Also easier said than done, but it is important to keep your calm in the moment and not react hastily. Really listen to what the other person is saying. You can always respond later, after taking some time to digest what has been talked about.
Critical feedback hurts, it’s okay. Know that it’s okay to feel bad when you receive critical feedback - it just shows you’re human. Harness that feeling into becoming better.
Ask questions. If you’re unclear about what specifically it is you’re getting feedback on, ask clarifying questions. Often context is not shared between you and the person giving you feedback.
Keep an even keel. When you receive positive feedback, do not get overjoyed. When you receive negative feedback, do not become dejected.
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Making Decisions
Making good decisions is a key factor to your success at Surya. This page documents our decision making philosophy, and how we improve at making decisions.
Luck vs Skill
In life, few things are purely a function of skill. This makes it tricky to figure out whether the decisions we take are good or bad.
It is quite common for a decision to be seen as “good”, if things “worked out” in the end, or for a decision to be seen as “bad” if things did not work out in the end.
However, this is a poor way to improve at decision making because you should only be focused on the skill part, not the luck part (by definition, you cannot improve luck). As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
When evaluating a decision you took in the past, look at it purely from the perspective of “given the data I had when I took the decision”, should I have made a different choice instead?
Further reading:
Speed vs Accuracy
We often take decisions without having all the data we need to make an accurate decision. It is imperative that we do not spend too much time taking decisions.
The way we think about this is to ask the question:
If the answer to this question is “not much”, then it is better to be quick in deciding, even if it means you may be wrong. Example: “Should this private variable in my class be called icon, or iconImageSource?”.
If the answer to this question is “a lot”, then take the time to gather more data, and then take the decision. Example: “Should I use ReactJS or Angular to build this application?”
Most importantly, ensure that you never take a decision by not deciding (i.e. by not explicitly deciding on a path, you have chosen a path implicitly). Example: “should I write a new CI check for this common error”? By not deciding explicitly, you have implicitly decided that the answer is “no”.
Regret Minimization
This is a great way to make big decisions. It’s hard to put this better than Jeff Bezos, give it a watch:
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Leadership
Leaders are forged, not born. Yes some people are born with more “natural” leadership abilities, but anyone can become a good leader. Leadership like any skill, can be learned, practiced, and improved upon.
Leadership is a contact sport - you only learn by playing it yourself. However, an effective way to improve is to leverage 1-1s with your boss to get coached on how to get better as a leader.
At Surya, we encourage folks to develop their own leadership style and not simply ape their boss. See Be Authentic. However, do we have a few core leadership principles that we expect all leaders at Surya to live by.
Core Leadership Principles
Lead by example
We do not accept “do as I say, but not as I do.”
Never ask your team to do something you wouldn’t do
This doesn’t mean you have to do it every time, it just means you would be willing to do it if needed.
Genuinely give a shit about the people you’re leading
This cannot be faked - people see through it. You should care deeply about developing the people you’re leading into the best version of themself. You should take responsibility for their lives & careers.
When you win, your team gets the credit; when you lose, you take the blame
This is the price of leadership. Make peace with it.
Default to Action
It is important to act, and to act fast. If in doubt, default to taking action. See Making Decisions for more. This does not mean don’t think before you act - doing that typically ends in failure.
Trust, but Verify
Trust the people around you. Trust is earned, but it is also given. Do not hesitate to trust the people around you. You (and them) won’t know what someone is capable of until you push them past their limits.
However, verify that they have successfully done what you have entrusted them with. Entrusting a task to someone does not mean that it is no longer your responsibility.
As Mr. Narayana Murthy says:
Be Curious
As people rise into positions of leadership it is common for them to stagnate - do not allow this to happen. Keep learning, keep improving yourself. Remember what got you to this level, do not give up on it.
The best people want to work for someone they feel they can learn something from. If you fall behind, the best people won’t want to work for you.
This is why we do not have “only managers” at Surya - all leaders get their hands dirty every day.
Be Honest
Goes without saying, but is important. Create a culture of honesty, even if it’s not always easy.
Be Straightforward
Do not play games with people around you. Say what you mean. Mean what you say.
Be Fair
Do not play favorites. Always look to ensure you are being fair to all parties involved. Bias is real, and unavoidable. Instead of pretending it does not exist, be aware of your biases, and keep them in the front of your mind when making decisions.
Be Authentic
Develop your own leadership style. Do not ape folks you see around you.
If you are not authentic to yourself, when things get tough (they definitely well), your authentic nature emerges, and people see through your facades.
Be Right
Good leaders are frequently right.
The best way to be right all the time is to quickly admit when you got something wrong, and fix it.
Be Frugal
We value doing more with less. Constraints require resourcefulness and creativity.
Do not however, be frupid (i.e frugal to the point of it being stupid).
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1-1s
1-1s are regularly reoccurring meetings with your manager. They happen roughly once a month, but may be more or less frequent. 1-1s are either 30 minutes, or an hour.
1-1s are a safe time & place for you to have open and honest conversations with your manager without any distractions. You set the agenda for a 1-1, not your manager.
Some people may also have less frequent 1-1s with the management team.
Objective
We do 1-1s with the following objectives in mind:
- Build trust and mutual understanding between you and your manager.
- Create a private and safe forum for you to give feedback to your manager (could be about yourself, your team mates, your manager, the company, etc.) Anything you say in a 1-1 is between you and your manager, unless you ask for your manager to take specific action.
- Make your manager aware of what is happening in your life (note: not just work related stuff). Our intention is not to be nosy, but it is very helpful for your manager to know about significant events in your life.
Topics
The agenda for 1-1s are set by you, not your manager. Your manager may occasionally have some feedback, but you should drive the conversation.
Below are some of the topics that normally come up in 1-1s, but do not restrict yourself to these:
- Things that you’re enjoying in your day to day work
- Things that are resulting in you not enjoying your day to day work. These could be:
- Blockers
- Issues/concerns
- Trouble with team mates
- What your manager is doing or not doing that is helping you (so they can do more of it)
- What your manager is doing or not doing that is preventing you from being as successful as you can be (so they can do less of it)
- Things that are happening in your day to day life that make you happy
- A trek you went on
- You adopted a puppy
- Things that are happening in your day to day life that are making you unhappy
- Plumbing issues in my house and plumber won’t show up
- Unable to get a good night’s sleep because my dog keeps waking me up
Recommendations
Here are some recommendations to make the most of your 1-1s
- Keep a list of topics you want to discuss in 1-1s. If something happens during your day to day that you want to discuss in 1-1, add it to the list of topics right away, so you don’t forget it.
- Avoid topics that can be discussed outside of a 1-1. For example, if it’s something that does not require a private conversation, and can be dealt with in a standup, PR review, etc. it likely does not belong in a 1-1.
- Take notes before, during, and after the 1-1. This will enable you to keep track of 1-1 conversations. It is your responsibility to note down the points that were discussed, not your managers.
Warning Signs
Below are some warning signs that indicate that you’re not using your 1-1s most effectively.
- You only talk about positive things. Let's be real - there are always things that can get better.
- Lack of critical feedback for your manager - there’re always things your manager can be doing better.
- No agenda, or a too-short agenda. Probably means you are not preparing well enough for 1-1s.
- Repetitive conversations. You talk about the same things each time - this means no progress is being made by you and your manager, and is a cause for concern.
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Yearly Retrospective
Compensation for every Suryan is revisited once a year. This is accompanied by an in-depth retrospective that takes stock of the individual’s performance over the past year.
The review covers:
- Employee’s self reflection (i.e. your perspective, go chronologically)
- Highlights for you for the last year
- What could have gone better
- Reviewer’s perspective of your year
- Highlights for you for the last year
- What could have gone better
- Reviewer’s overall observations & feedback
- What changes you want to make in the near future
- What direction you want to take your career going forward
- Reviewer’s recommendations of what you should be doing going forward
- Employee’s evaluation of reviewer(s)
- What did they do to enable you that they should continue doing?
- What could they have done better to enable you to be even better?
- Any other feedback you may have
It is highly recommended that all employees come prepared for the review, so as to avoid surprises.
The reviewer will do their absolute best to avoid “recency bias” (i.e. over focusing on work that has happened in last couple of months), and look holistically at the entire year.
Evaluation Philosophy
We want to be a high performance team. A high performance team is one that produces results consistently, at a high level over a long period of time.
In order to be a high performance team, we need to constantly evaluate how we're doing, and keep improving. Here's the framework with which we evaluate ourselves at Surya.
When evaluating an individual or team's performance, we can look at 3 factors:
- Input
- Output
- Outcome
Input
Input is the effort that you put in.
Output
This is what your input produced.
Examples:
- Pushed up a PR
- Built a feature
- Implemented a API
Outcome
What happened as a consequence of the output.
Examples:
- Customer appreciated out work
- Customer did not like our work
- Customer extended a contract
- Customer terminated a contract
- Customer agreed to pay us more
- Customer asked for a discount
As a business we are collectively evaluated by outcomes. If we have better outcomes, the business makes more money, which in turn is spread amongst all of us.
However, we do not evaluate ourselves based on outcomes. The primary reason for this is that luck is a large part of what outcomes we see, and by definition we cannot improve luck. For instance:
- We may have done great work, but a customer ran out of funds, and therefore the project did not get finished.
- We may have done a shoddy job, but the customer does not care since their users don’t use that feature.
At Surya, Input is a non-negotiable. If you are not doing the absolute best you can, it is unacceptable. We pride ourselves on being a high performance team, that deeply cares about what we do it. It is disrespectful to your coworkers to not bring 100% every day.
Assuming that one has done the absolute best they can, we evaluate ourselves on our output. Is it of acceptable quality? Was it done on time? Were there issues that were avoidable? Were the right decisions taken at the right time?
People/teams that produce higher output are graded higher.
When evaluating people/teams we ignore outcomes.
Our history teaches us:
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||
In English script:
Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani
Loosely translated:
Compensation
We do our absolute best to be fair and straightforward in our compensation at Surya. Surya is a 100% employee owned, self-sustained business. We have no external investors, and operate on a traditional business model: we provide a service, customers pay us for it.
A part of the profits that we earn at the end of every financial year are retained in the company as retained earnings. The rest is used to invest in the business, and distributed amongst key employees. The details are decided by the board.
Compensation at Surya is decided once a year for every employee. We do not make mid-cycle adjustments, except in truly exceptional cases.
We do not intend in any way for compensation to serve as motivation for anyone at Surya. We want to work with folks who want to be at Surya for the people around us, the way we work, and what we work on. For those people, our objective is to provide compensation that checks the box of “I don’t have to think about it”. Once decided, compensation goes into the background, and our work is in the foreground.
Note that there may be slight discrepancies from time to time since we are a growing business operating in an industry that is constantly shifting. If this is the case, we will ensure that any corrections required are done as part of Variable Pay / Bonus.
Compensation at Surya is of 2 types:
Fixed Pay
A portion of your CTC is paid to you month-to-month as salary. Your appointment letter or salary revision letter will have the details.
Variable Pay
A portion of your CTC is variable pay. At the time of your Yearly Retrospective , your manager will decide on what % of the communicated variable pay you will receive. The percentage can be anywhere between 0 and 100%.
If your performance has met expectations, you will receive 100% of your variable pay.
If however, you have had periods of poor performance, you may not receive all your compensation
Please read your offer letter, appointment letter, and salary revision letter carefully - the terms outlined in those are what will apply for you.
We bucket people into one of two compensation categories:
Management
This is typically a small group of people that are critical to the running of the company. If you are in this group, you will be notified by your manager.
For these folks, fixed pay is evaluated every year in June.
There is no variable pay. Instead, in March of every year, a bonus is decided upon by the board, based on the financial situation of the company, and the individual’s performance.
Everyone Else
Everyone at Surya starts off in this cycle. Your compensation is evaluated once a year, in the month of your joining date. If your joining date is after the payroll cut-off date of the month (changes month to month), you will be shifted into the next month.
ESOP
This is still being worked out, details will be published when ready.
At a high level, our ESOP program (and our compensation in general) is intended to benefit people who build impactful (i.e., drive the business forward), long (i.e., 10+ years) careers at Surya.
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PIPs
If your performance is falling below expectations, you may be put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). A PIP is only initiated if your manager is confident that there is a set of steps that can be taken to bring your performance to expected levels.
Process
Your manager will send you an email detailing the shortcomings seen in your performance, what was expected instead, and what is going to be expected out of you in the next 1-3 weeks. Along the way, your manager and/or a teammate will check in with you regularly to see if you are meeting the objectives outlined in the PIP.
After the stipulated time frame, your manager will do one of three things.
- End of PIP if you met expectations (back to normal)
- Extend PIP if it was borderline
- Part ways, if performance on PIP was below expectations.
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Office/Remote Work
Philosophy
It is a common misconception that work is either “in office” or “remote”. There are two axes which classify our mode of work:
- Synchronous vs Asynchronous (how you communicate)
- Colocated vs Distributed (where you are located)
This means that teams can fit into one of the following 4 modes of work:
- Synchronous & Colocated
- Asynchronous & Colocated
- Synchronous & Distributed
- Asynchronous & Distributed
At Surya we strive to be Asynchronous & Colocated.
We are asynchronous by necessity. In the past when we were synchronous, the speed of decision making slowed down dramatically since we had to wait for the right people to be available at the same time for a decision to get made. Hence we are asynchronous by default, and become synchronous only when absolutely needed.
We are colocated by choice. We’ve tried it both ways, and found that it is extremely challenging for relationships to form between folks on the team when they are not colocated. Given we spend the vast majority of our life at work, it’s extremely important that we form deep relationships with the people we work with that extend beyond the transactional nature of relationships that would otherwise get formed.
Policy
By default, we work out of our office in Jayanagar, Bangalore. However, employees can request to work remotely. Please note that remote work is a privilege that is given occasionally, based on several factors - do not expect that you can work remotely by default.
Team Week
All team members (regardless of where they live) must be in the office for 1 week for team week. Team Week will be organized 2-3 times per year. The week will be announced in advance, giving people enough time to make plans.
One of the weekends around this week will be a short offsite event to get to know each other better. The offsite is not mandatory to attend, but it is highly, highly encouraged that you do attend.
Please note that Surya will not be reimbursing any travel costs. Our compensation is not tied to geography (i.e. where in India you live does not factor into your CTC). We feel it would be unfair to increase CTC for folks who live outside Bangalore alone. It is also logistically very messy to deal with.
TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Leave
Suryans are eligible for several types of leave.
Casual / Sick Leave (CSL)
All employees get 12 days of CSL in a calendar year. 6 days are credited on 1st Jan, 6 days are credited on 1st June. If you join Surya in between those days, your CSL will be prorated.
CSL is restricted to 2 days of leave at a time. That is, you cannot apply for more than 2 days in a row.
However, if you are sick, you can use more than 2 days of CSL provided you produce a medical report and a doctor’s note.
Unused CSL expires on 31st December of each year, and cannot be carried over to the next year.
CSL is intended to be used when:
- You are sick
- You need a short break
- You need to take some time off to run errands, take your pet to the vet, etc.
Earned Leave (EL)
All employees who are not on probation accrue 1.16 days of earned leave each month. This totals up to 14 days per year.
Unlike CSL, you are eligible to take up to 20 days of contiguous EL.
Unlike CSL, unused EL does get carried over across calendar years.
After you accrue more than 20 days of EL, further accruals will be encashed.
It is highly encouraged that you utilize your EL to take larger chunks of time off to go on vacation, and unwind. It is typical for people to take 5-10 days of EL in a chunk. These types of meaningful vacations are great for your mental health, and bring you back enthused and energetic. When you take these breaks, we strongly encourage you to totally disconnect from work.
Note however, the planned leaves of this nature require you to provide at least one month notice, to ensure that your team can plan around it.
Maternity/Paternity Leave
If you are a new parent, you are eligible for maternity/paternity leave. Log on to the HR portal to figure out your eligibility.
Please note that you are expected to inform about maternity/paternity leave at least 3 months (preferably, even more) in advance of availing it, so we can plan around it.
Applying for Leave
If you are going to be taking time off, this should be communicated to the people you work with in advance, and clearly.
For planned events, please communicate this out as soon as possible, so the people you work with can plan to work around your absence. For instance, if you know that you have a family event to attend one month from now, communicate that now, not a week before the event.
For unplanned events (like sickness), communicate as early as possible anyway. That is, if you find out you are sick at 8 AM, don’t report it at 11 AM. Report it at 8:01 AM.
Benefits
Insurance
Our insurance policy is communicated internally to all employees every year.
Conferences & Events
We strongly encourage all Suryans to speak at and attend conferences, meetups, and other such events. Within reason, Surya will cover any costs associated with it. Please get in touch with the People Ops team with specifics to get details.
Learning Resources
If there’re books, courses, etc. that you believe will help you be better at your job, please get in touch with the People Ops team. Within reason, Surya will likely cover the expense.
Certification
If you would like to get obtain certification for some of your skills, and an appropriate authority exists to issue this certification, Surya will likely reimburse the costs of getting the certification.
For example, if you want to take any of the AWS certifications, Surya will reimburse you for this.
Before you proceed, please write to the People Ops team with specifics on what you will be getting certified on. If you have written approval from People Ops team, Surya will reimburse the expense.
Note that the expense will only reimbursed if you successfully get certified. Only the cost of one attempt will be reimbursed.
Hardware
Surya currently issues both PCs and Macs amongst our team depending on what you’re working on. PCs run either Windows or Ubuntu.
We intend to give you the hardware you need to be productive at your job. The hardware should not be a limitation to your productivity. If you’re running into trouble, please reach out to the People Ops team.
Software & Tools
Surya uses various software tools to help us do our jobs. These include GitHub, JIRA, GitLab, Shortcut, Figma, Charles Proxy etc. If there’s a tool that would help you be better at your job, please reach out to the People Ops team.