An Introvert Experiment: What I learned when I met (some of) my team

Here is a fun experiment — let’s take the most introverted remote employee we have, fly her 8,000 miles from home, and stick her with 30 coworkers for 3 weeks.

But really. We did. And I survived. Below are the thoughts that were running through my head on the flight home last April.

I am currently on the last leg of a 33 hour travel travel day, heading in the direction of home. 21 days ago I flew 8,797 miles to meet my India-based team members.

While there was a lot to learn going from small-town-USA (population 20 thousand) to Bangalore, India (population 4.3 million), once I got over the 100 degree heat and learned how to bob and weave while crossing the street, it was on to meet the India team.

Prior to this trip, I had never (in person) met another member of the Recruiterbox Team. Every second was exhilarating, awesome, exhausting, exciting and overwhelming — all rolled in to one.

Here are some of the top thoughts that stand out:

We’re all fighting the same fight.

Customer Happiness at Recruiterbox is just that — happiness. We get the amazing opportunity to make our customers happy — every single day. We also receive a unique look at our customer’s needs — we’re on the front lines fighting for what they need and want to make their hiring easier.

Unlike a lot of Customer Happiness roles, I always knew the other teams had our backs. Over the past few months we’ve tightened our connections with our Blackops team (which squashes bugs) and developed our Customer Delight team (their sole responsibility is to deliver small enhancements to delight our customers).

Even with these tight team connections, during my first week in office I found myself fascinated as I listened to conversations. Every conversation happening was about the exact things our customers are asking for, needing, or wanting.

I also had many long conversations with numerous teammates. We talked about why we joined, what we love about our jobs, and how excited we are for the future. Working for a company and with co-workers that are this aligned and this sure of its vision is incredibly exhilarating.

Seeing behind the curtain was exciting. If not a bit terrifying.

Working in a timezone opposite of our technical team, and remotely, most of the time system enhancements and fixes almost seem like magic. We report a request or a bug, and when we wake up the next morning — the fix is in place. Magic.

The first time something needed fixing while I was in office I was fascinated to watch the process of identification, debugging and fix-pushing in real time. For about the first 5 minutes. After that I decided I was perhaps more content just knowing in the end that all was okay, without seeing everything else in between.

There is some magic that’s better left unseen.

Spending some time in the office actually mattered

There were certainly moments before I left the comfort of my introverted work-from-home daily routine that I questioned why it was a good idea fly almost 9,000 miles to sit somewhere else and work for 3 weeks.

While I am the biggest remote work fan in the world, nothing can replace the deletion of timezones, being there to hear every day sidebar conversations, and forming the friendships that are created while sitting side by side one another.

In addition to crossing off a long to-do list that I’d accumulated over the months leading up to the trip, being in the office for the first time allowed me to observe and absorb the thought processes of different teams as they were happening — instead of simply digesting the end result of the conversations when a decision or change was deployed. Having this insight of how the teams work helps shape my interactions with them moving forward, even after I’m back home.

So, was it worth it?

One-Thousand percent. And that’s not just the jet-lag talking.

Being on site for a short stint helped me grow as a contributor to my team, and to my company. I formed relationships with my teammates, and ironed out processes to help us run more efficiently in the future. Totally worth it.

With that said, my sights are currently set on home, my familiar remote working routine, and daily temperatures hovering around 60 degrees F.

~ Chelsea — Recruiterbox Customer Happiness

P.S. Huge kudos to my US team members who held down the fort while I ventured away, and to the India team — for adopting me as one of their own during my stay!

Originally published at inside.recruiterbox.com on May 4, 2016.