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Imagine working with your team for months—or even years—without ever meeting IRL. While you've mastered collaborating across time zones and countries, you've never been able to complain about the office temperatures together or duck out early for happy hour. For the flexibility of remote work, it's a worthy trade-off—but perhaps there's a part of you that always wonders, "what if?"
Us, too. While the Oyster team is happily remote and distributed across 70+ countries, we couldn't be more ecstatic to head to Transform in Las Vegas and meet one another—to participate in actual watercooler conversations, compare complicated Starbucks orders, and really get to know each other outside of work.
So, how did it all go down? Follow us to Transform to find out!
37 Oysters, 9 countries, 27 cities
This year, we wanted to make a splash at Transform. So we rallied 37 Oysters to show off our product, brand, and mission with HR folks from around the world.
These Oysters represented not only different areas of the business (from executive leadership to workplace, marketing, and sales) but also multiple corners of the world!
So, who traveled the furthest?
1. Bruno Cunha (Partnerships Lead): Traveled 8,743 miles from Bali, Indonesia
2. Matt McFarlane (Senior Director of People Operations): Traveled 7,400 miles from Brisbane, Australia
3. Victoria Lavalle (Account Manager): Traveled 6,099 miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Were they jetlagged? Absolutely. But that didn't stop them from getting up early for team breakfasts, staying up late to ride the Big Apple Coaster, or even hitting the stage for panel discussions and workshops. (Well done, Matt!)
Booth #411: the place to be
While 37 Oysters went to Transform, many others worked from their home offices to make our presence successful. The booth and all that swag? They were designed remotely by our brand design team. From refreshing Oyster's brand identity to planning photoshoots, this ambitious team of seven was heads down prepping for months.
The results? Pretty darn outstanding. Check. It. Out.
Once we saw the booth at Transform, we had to send a Slack message to Natalie Harris, the mastermind behind it all, and ask her to share the inspiration. This is what she told us (literally):
We’re more than our jobs
If you stopped by our booth, or if you follow us on social, you probably saw the phrase:
"More than a _____. Always a _____." (Yes, it was on the totes!)
At Transform, we encouraged people to introduce themselves beyond their job titles. Instead of asking, "what do you do," we wanted to know, "what do you love to do?"
Here's an example: More than a marketer. Always a foodie.
We'll be honest, we stole that one from the brand team's Ayesha and Hiba. After realizing they had the same taglines, they obviously became fast friends!
Our partners and HR/People pals also stopped by to share some tidbits about themselves. We met mothers, fathers, thrillseekers, travelers, artists, and more. It was awesome to see such enthusiasm around this simple tagline. It really goes to show that people are tired of being labeled by just their job. There's so much more to all of us—and there's a hunger to celebrate this side of ourselves, even in the workplace.
It's time to break down the office walls, Zoom pleasantries, and LinkedIn facades—don't you think? When our teams feel empowered to bring their whole selves, they can bring their best selves. And that's what work should be about.
So, how would you fill in the blanks? Tweet us at @HeyOyster!
About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, engage, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expenses.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
