5 Continents, 14 Cities, 24 People: How We Work As a Distributed Team Spread Across the Planet

Nov 5, 2014 4 min readOpen
Photo of Courtney Seiter
Courtney Seiter

Former Director of People @ Buffer

There are a lot of ways to have a great day at Buffer.

Between our value of positivity, our awesome team, our be-your-own-boss decision maker structure and our pro-naps policy, it’s downright tough to have anything but a good day.

And exactly what that day looks like is totally up to each of us. One of the biggest freedoms of our team is that we’re fully distributed around the world, so we each make our own schedule in the place that makes us happiest.

Buffer value 8


That means there’s no wrong way to work at Buffer. You can work inside or outside, as Mary displays with some sweet shades:

Mary working outside

You can squeeze in some time with family while you work, like Kevan sometimes does with his son:

Kevan and Evan

You can even work on a plane, as Joel and (part of) Leo show off here:

Joel and Leo on a plane

The workspaces of Buffer

As our team grows and changes, I find myself more inspired every day by my teammates as they travel to new destinations and create new habits and routines that help them work smarter, not harder.

Colin lives and works on a boat. Michael likes to break up his day with a surfing session. Åsa hasn’t worked from a real desk in years. Octavio has moved 3 times in the past 3 months and has many more moves planned!

With so many diverse work styles and locations, I thought it might be fun to take a peek inside each Buffer team member’s workspace. With Buffer’s encouragement to travel and explore, this is only a snapshot that will no doubt be out-of-date quite soon. :)

But for now, here’s a look at how each of us works, at our own happiest and most productive spot in the world.

workspaces of Buffer
Joel workspace
4 Leo workspace
6 Carolyn workspace
5 Sunil workspace
8 Åsa workspace
7 Andy workspace
9: Colin workspace
11 Brian workspace
Niel workspace
13-compressor
12-compressor
14 Daniel workspace
15 Steven workspace
16 Courtney workspace
Dan 2 workspace
17 Kevan workspace
18 Patrik workspace
19 Dave workspace
Octa workspace
20 Rodolphe workspace
22 Nicole workspace
Michael workspace
25 Tom workspace
Mike workspace

Want to join us?

Does this kind of (un)workplace sound good to you? If so, we’d love to have you join our fun and hard-working team.

jobs at Buffer

Whether it’s in an office or on your couch in your pajamas (been there!), I’d love to hear how you work best. Let me know in the comments below, or share a photo of your workspace. We can’t wait to see it!

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