| Our startup[1] is 100% distributed and has in-person meet-ups roughly every 4 months. About half our team (including me) have kids and, to your point, when one of us travels it definitely puts an added burden on our partners back at home. So we recognize this fact and try to mitigate it in a few ways: - We structure the offsite week so that Mon - Thu is meetings and Fri is a fun day. This means attendees can leave on Thu night or Fri morning if they'd rather re-join their families sooner. - We actively encourage our team to prioritize their families above their work and make it clear that attendance is preferred but optional. One of our colleagues just had a baby 2 weeks ago and no one would expect him to attend. - We do what we can to make our meetups remote-friendly. If someone can join remotely, we use a Meeting Owl[2] to give them a better remote experience. It's not perfect, nor is it Cisco Telepresence, but it seems a lot better than everyone present jumping on a Zoom. - We try to work around colleagues when possible. We recently held the meet up in my home town when my wife was in her third trimester and really needed me home! For the rest of the year, we enjoy the benefits of being remote, among which flexibility is ranked high. [1] https://gruntwork.io [2] https://www.owllabs.com/meeting-owl |