On Board: Embracing TSE’s team culture while working remotely

Yes, I was part of the Great Resignation of 2021. In August, I left an industry to join an agency. All of the regular first day of school questions crept up as I waited for my start date. Would I feel isolated as a remote employee states away from southern culture? Could I really contribute to this creative, competitive team? Would my skills translate?

Read: Do you like me? Do you really, really like me?

I’ve been through four onboardings in my career. These training periods ranged from a weeklong trip to corporate HQ to drowning in a virtual one-day flood of information before being handed a stack of work. The ambiguity of each experience left me with a strange pairing of eager beaver meets dazed and confused.

Maybe you’ve had this experience too. The promises made in onboarding end up being aspirational instead of cultural. You get talked at for a few days, and then you’re left to figure out what your job truly is. Sooner or later, you realize the excitement of the first week faded into the mundane, and now you’re wondering where the mission and vision you signed up for went.

What makes me think ThreeSixtyEight is going to be any different?

The short answer: my final interview question. Kenny, our CEO, asked me why I would think I didn’t get the job if I didn’t land the offer. After a transparent response, he said, “That’s integrity. We can work with that.” And that’s the moment (followed by so many others) I knew this was the right team.

Hospitality

It’s one thing to receive a company-branded welcome package on your first day and another thing to feel welcomed.

Yes, I did find a box of goodies in my mailbox, but it went beyond the standard sticky pads and pens. ThreeSixtyEight made me feel a part of the team by sharing aspects of their culture and letting me know they saw me. I unpacked Louisiana hot sauce and TSE t-shirts alongside indications that they’d read my “Favorite Things” survey response (like a Maggie Rogers notebook and cocoa-dusted cashews). I got welcome messages and calendar invites to chat one-on-one from everyone on the leadership team in the first two days.

The overarching sentiment of my first week was generosity—a hallmark of hospitality. Whether you meet this team in person or from 1,100 miles away like me, I’m sure you’ll feel it too.

Cultural Immersion

The ThreeSixtyEight team is fun, and they made my onboarding process fun too. Rather than reading through a manual, I was assigned a quest with two bosses to defeat. First, The Mini-Boss, understanding the company and intentionally getting to know some of my teammates. Second, The Mega-Boss, diving deeper into our work and how my role fits in. Thinking about organizational values and processes can feel overwhelming without practice, so gamifying this task proved the perfect way to carefully notice how they come into play day-to-day.

I also had space to read and practice Radical Candor, a principle that sets the foundation for this agency. Challenge directly. Care personally. This mindset is one I’ve implemented in my personal life over the past couple of years, but I found that this type of feedback was not so welcome in previous workplaces. ThreeSixtyEight, however, craves Radical Candor. We solicit candor from clients and teammates alike, and I can already see its impact on how we work and what we can accomplish together.

Between defeating bosses and practicing radical candor, I now understand the ThreeSixtyEight way—our processes, conversation style, and team—and feel empowered to voice ideas and concerns around our core values no matter what room I’m in.

Tactical Training + Space for Curiosity

Finally, I did actually do some work here in the first couple of weeks on the job. And I’m grateful for that. A lot of my imposter syndrome questions would not have been answered without jumping into some projects.

Thankfully, I started around the same time as another remote teammate, and we dove into exploring campaign strategy together. Leadership guided us with intentional feedback while allowing us to run with new ideas and build processes based on our past experience. My first few project reps exposed me to the majority of the team and helped me learn their individual working styles. I learned some lessons and made some improvements.

And the best part of all is I never stayed overwhelmed for long. There’s no way around a few panic moments when you’re ramping up at a new job, but this team equipped me with opportunities to experiment, seek external training, and contribute. What more can you ask for?

Part of the Team

After only a few months at ThreeSixtyEight, I genuinely don’t feel like a newbie anymore. We are all figuring out how to grow this agency together, and together requires humility. That’s part of the adventure. (Together and adventurous are two of our values, by the way. Nailed it.)

If you’re thinking about applying for a role here or working with ThreeSixtyEight on a project, know that your experience with us will be nothing short of genuine. What you read on the website is really what you get, and the onboarding process confirmed that fact for me. Whether you are a client or colleague, you can expect a team that welcomes you, operates with integrity and candor, and values the unique insight you bring to the table.

And those are principles we all can get on board with.