Expensify’s mastery of autonomous work: a culture of trust and empowerment

Since 2011, Expensify’s unique and autonomous work culture has made our company a model for remote work. Our commitment to providing employees with the freedom to manage their own schedules and workloads has resulted in a reputation for innovation, creativity, and collaboration.

At the core of Expensify’s success is a deep commitment to trusting our employees, which replaces traditional management structures that result in micromanagement and strict oversight. Employees are empowered to work when and where they choose, as long as they follow the company’s “Two Rules”: Get Shit Done & Don’t Ruin it for Everyone Else.  These two rules are built on Expensify core qualities: Talent, Ambition, & Humility, and are identified as the most crucial for the Expensify team to cultivate to ensure its long-term success. 

To foster cross-team collaboration and creativity, we also emphasize open communication and collaboration by being as transparent as possible. Daily chatter is streamlined through Slack and Expensify Chat – unless the room contains material, non-public information (which we’re required to be aware of as a public company), Slack rooms are open to anyone interested in the topic. It’s not uncommon to find marketers in engineering rooms, or people working on product chatting in the strategy or customer success rooms. Project management and collaboration tools like GitHub and Google Suite are used to encourage productivity by ensuring that everyone is on the same platform, using the same tools, which reduces the amount of back and forth or “translation” needed between team functions.

The lack of traditional job titles and hierarchies is another key feature of Expensify’s autonomous work culture. Instead of specific, compartmentalized roles, our team is encouraged to take on projects they feel passionate about, regardless of what they were hired for, creating a culture of generalists that allows anyone to pursue and find an unexpected outcome that makes our product and messaging better. . 

While the culture of autonomy and trust has a core tenet of our culture at Expensify, we also recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. That’s why we offer unlimited vacation time, paid sabbaticals, and wellness programs,  One of our most unique perks that we’re starting to see more and more companies try, is what we call Offshore, where we spend a few weeks working together and living like locals, and bring along our families for the ride (if they want to come!). As a team, part of the adventure is finding a new spot to work from, whether it’s a tea house, hotel rooftop, or video game bar. As long as there’s wifi, we get shit done.

Working together in person on trips like these enhances our online communication while still giving employees the freedom to live wherever and however they prefer. In fact, offshores have worked so well that we’ve also introduced the idea of “minishores”, week-long trips that encourage employees to visit any Expensify office location to work with local peers.

Our emphasis on autonomous work is a testament to the power of trust and empowerment in the workplace. As more companies adopt remote work and flexible schedules, we believe our approach serves as a useful model for the future of work for any company looking to make similar changes to their company’s work culture.
Interested in working for Expensify? Check out our open roles.