Pros
I love coming into work every day. Between our product's unicorns and beautiful color gradients, it's actual rainbows and unicorns around here... —I'm surrounded by very intelligent, hilarious, quirky, inspiring people. You know that jerk in upper management that knows more than you? They don't work here. And that person that you don't even trust to run the copy machine? They don't work here either. I admire and respect my colleagues and despite the fact that we are growing like crazy, but the quality bar hasn't lowered one bit. Additionally, what Asanas do outside of work is impressive. —We're maybe even beyond work/life balance...working is a part of life, life creeps into your work. They aren't separate things. Asana has deep love and respect for its employees by way of benefits and the attitude it takes towards keeping people happy, supported, and healthy. I do yoga on site (and could every day, twice a day if I wanted); I meditate in small corners of the office; if I feel sick, I can work from home or take time to rest; the medical benefits are amazing; artwork and cool office design abound; I go for lunch runs; I get to share the healthiest meals made by culinary artists with colleagues; my wage is extremely livable so I can enjoy living in one of the most expensive but fun cities in the world; our work events are better than some parties I've been to; I'm writing this review from a treadmill desk; if I need to step away from work, I can organize a coffee walk with anybody; we work hard but also get to celebrate our efforts together...you get to come in and be your human self instead of stuffing everything into a box and then letting go when you leave the building. I'm sure there are moments where we get jaded, but we're still a pretty humble, grateful bunch. —I feel safe and accepted for who I am, and am encouraged to bring even more of myself to work. We want that to extend to the product too, by way of hiring a diverse array of people, and making our product geared towards all kinds of teams. We support and host tons of events emphasizing diversity in tech and San Francisco. We also have learning talks to stay informed about issues in the community and country at large, and have a director of diversity to make sure these things stay at the forefront instead of being tacked on in last-ditch efforts. —You're encouraged to explore, try, and create (in your own role, team, and across teams). We take failure seriously so we can learn from it and not be afraid of it, but we're open about it. Despite some goofs here and there, I really love and believe in our product. We use it ourselves and I really don't know how I would work without it. There's so much transparency into what we've done, what we're doing, and what we will do. That's by way of our product, as well as management's philosophy. Most Fridays, there's an all-company event or meeting so we can stay in the know about what's going on, have time to bond and interact with different teams, or to discuss serious topics for our company or in the world at large. —My day to day job is actually fun. And if it's not, I'm empowered to make it something else. My boss isn't here to manage me by way of telling me what to do, but by supporting me to achieve what is challenging and interesting to me. I'm entrusted with all kinds of work, and can exercise control over my realm of work. Whatever I want to learn, colleagues are happy to teach me, or provide resources to learn it myself. I'm not relegated to one task, nor am I spread thin. If I'm over or underwhelmed, I can be real about it. My day-to-day is always an adventure.
Cons
—We are reaching the stage of startup growth where we are rapidly expanding, so there is a clearer distinction between who is new and who's been around and "how it used to be." It will be interesting to see how our culture and retention maps to continued rapid growth. So far, so good, though. —In the general tech world, a lot of companies get caught up in how they're changing the world, but then sometimes you have to stop and embrace that you are also enterprise software. Yes, we're revolutionizing the concept of work and the workplace and making huge impacts, but there are teams out there changing the world in other ways.
