At Roblox, we’ve always believed teams are most successful when aligned around a shared vision and given the autonomy to tackle big opportunities. This principle has been a guiding force as we’ve navigated the challenges of the pandemic over the past two years—and it will be the cornerstone of our approach as we think about the future of work at Roblox.
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve all had to adjust to new ways of living and working. Over time, what started as a short-term experiment in remote work became the new normal. And while people are now slowly returning to the office, we recognize that the world as we know it has changed. In response, we’ve put together a new work model powered by personal responsibility that gives teams and leaders the flexibility to decide how they work best given their goals.
An Empowered and Flexible Workplace
Our approach to the future of work at Roblox is grounded in two of our company values: Take the Long View and Take Responsibility.
As we focus on our vision to reimagine the way people come together, we recognize we have to be thoughtful about how we enable and empower our employees to deliver on that long-term vision. Over the past year, we’ve listened to our Robloxians through company surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one sessions, and we understand they value flexibility as they think about working remotely or in the office. At the same time, we also recognize there are ideals that are important to us as a company—such as innovation, creativity, and collaboration—that are easier to nurture when we are working together in person, especially as we continue to scale our teams and our business. We feel it’s important for all employees to come back into the office at key points throughout the year and we also want to make sure that our time spent together is purposeful and intentional. Therefore we are encouraging employees to come back, and for those who choose to work remotely, we are ensuring that they can be remote successfully.
We are offering Roblox employees the option to either come to the office regularly a few days a week, or to primarily work remotely and come to the office at various times throughout the year for quarterly get-togethers.
- For people who live locally and who plan to come into a Roblox office three days a week—scheduled Tuesday through Thursday—and spend the other two days wherever they work best, whether it’s at home, a coffee shop, or elsewhere, we will make sure they have a dedicated desk so they can sit near their teammates or other collaborators.
- For people who live locally or remotely, and who plan to work primarily from home, we will provide them with a hoteling desk and support their travel to visit our San Mateo offices at least quarterly for in-person collaboration weeks. Internationally-based employees will come in for at least one week per year. Individual teams will determine the week(s) they come in.
For overall company events where we all come together, we’ll continue with our weekly Town Halls, our monthly AMAs with our CEO David Baszucki, our open lunches with leadership, and we’ll kick off new annual get-togethers like Roblox Week. We will also keep our no-meeting days and core hours.
We will also continue to offer the ability for all employees to work anywhere they legally can for up to two months per year. This is a unique offering that many employees have taken advantage of in the past year.
In designing this new approach, we wanted to offer employees flexibility to gain more control over their work and personal lives while also providing regular touchpoints to connect, share ideas, and build relationships in person. Some teams in engineering have found working in person is critical because it inspires serendipitous collaboration and makes it easier to solve problems together. For new college graduates, we know how important it is to build in-person relationships early in their careers and be mentored by senior colleagues, so all new college graduates will start out in the office with dedicated desks among their team and collaborators. Meanwhile, in my People, Marketing, and Corporate Communications organization, we’ve decided as a group when we want to come into the office. We’ve found a balance between the need for in-person collaboration and the flexibility of working remotely. No matter which mode of work our employees choose, we will provide additional opportunities and support for teams to gather together in person and collaborate throughout the year.
Our goal at Roblox is to build an innovative, creative, world-class organization. This is the beginning of our journey as we embark on our vision for the future of work at Roblox. We’re constantly learning, listening, and iterating—and that will be no different as we roll out this work model. We’re excited to see how this new way of working progresses us down that path.
