Jul 18, 2023

Coworking in Greece—An odyssey of the modern workplace

George Tsiolis

One of the great things about remote work at Gitpod is that team members are empowered to live and work where they are most fulfilled. Inspired by our friends at GitLab, over the last few years our team has embraced flexible working hours, a strong bias for asynchronous communication, and non-linear workdays. In essence, how we work is more important than where we work, and just as important as the work we are doing.

Right after our first offsite in Portugal last year, the idea of coworking together days in smaller groups started shaping. Some of us started combining work and travel as nomads across Europe, and the first coworking week took place earlier this year in Naples, Italy.

Last month in June, we organized a three-week coworking in Greece, where four Gitpod team members from cities spanning across four different time zones joined to cowork and travel together for almost 3,000 kilometers in total around Greece.

The Journey

Our trip started at the historical city of Athens, coworking during the day around the city and walking during the night among historical landmarks at the birthplace of democracy. We wrapped up our first week by visiting Delphi, the center of the world according to Greek mythology, and then moved to Thessaly to visit Meteora and work from Trikala, the birthplace and residence of Asclepius. For the third and last week, we took a ferry boat to Crete, the island of Greece where the still undeciphered Phaistos Disc was found.

The Work

Coworking in Greece helped us realize that remote work and remote culture at Gitpod gave us a unique opportunity to combine travel and work, and the tools we use make this even easier.

Remote work is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It usually requires organization and culture changes that include communication guidelines, a set of shared values, and a culture of trust and belonging. Remote culture shapes with the tools we use and how we use them. CDEs, just like any good tool, disappear in use and make it easier to develop on the go when you move between locations.

Conclusion

Upon reflection, coworking in Greece has been one of the highlights of this year for our team and hopefully can inspire others to adopt remote-first principles and asynchronous communication.

Thanks Pauline, Thomas, and Alejandro for joining the coworking, and thanks Gitpod for embracing asynchronous remote work and making all this possible through how we work and carrying a culture that empowers individuals.