I am a product designer and Front-End Developer at Expensify and we do expense reports that don’t suck! One of our many perks is the annual offshore (almost all expenses paid). While the San Francisco chronicle called it “lavish” it’s really anything but that. Every year we head out of the country to work remotely for month. We still work 50+ hour weeks, the only difference being that we do it on the beach or from local cafes.
This year we headed to Cambodia and Thailand. 80 of us flew from the US to different parts of Asia to begin our journey. I headed to Hong Kong for a few days with friends before meeting everyone in Cambodia with only a 30 liter backpack! Cambodia really opened our eyes to see how a developing country operated. It was a humbling experience to say the least. We made stops in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. And of course, we paid a visit to Angkor Wat! We actually rented out a temple for a company meeting filled with traditional dances by local tribes.
After about 14 days of Cambodia we headed to Thailand for the remainder of the trip. The dream for our offshore is to find a beach. Railay beach (Krabi) is beautiful and that’s where we stayed for just over a week. We worked from our beach houses, took afternoon dips, kayaked before lunch, and had company meetings in what we called “Meeting Room Sea” (the ocean). The sunsets were unreal, the beach looked fake, and the water was crystal clear. We even had a company dinner on a private island! From there we headed to Bangkok where we got a taste of the city and culture, then most of us headed home.
The offshore was amazing. I got to hangout with everyone in my company no matter what team they were on – including my CEO! Looking back at the 200+ hours I worked, I can honestly say it paid off. Finding a job that I love with people I love means the world to me. We are Expensify. We are family.
by Leanne Kawahigashi (’13)