I joined Inner Management in March 2022, the week Second Voice 1.0 went to its first customer pilots. There were nineteen of us, and we all fitted around one long table under the rose window. People often ask me what it's like to work here now. This is my answer.
The chapel
Our headquarters is a red-brick Methodist church built in 1911. The founders signed the lease because it was cheap, quiet and big enough for eleven desks. We stayed because it turned out to be the right building for the work.
- The nave is our open-plan floor. We took out the pews and kept the light.
- One pew is still at the back, for anyone who needs to sit with a decision. It is mostly used for photos.
- The confessional is our most popular phone booth. The little sliding screen still slides, and people book it for one-on-ones. There isn't much to confess these days, so most people leave the screen open.
- The hymn boards by the door show this quarter's mandate. We change the numbers by hand on the first Monday.
- The stained glass is original. In 2024 we had it frosted. The light is softer now, and there is nothing in particular to look at, which people say helps them focus.
- The bell still rings at nine and at five. Most of us no longer need it.
Four offices, one heartbeat
We've grown into four offices. Each has its own character, and all four run on the same clock.
The chapel
About 140 of us: Product, Engineering and the founding cohort.
The exchange
A former telephone exchange in Clerkenwell. Research, including Conviction.
West Bay
Two quiet floors for Participant Success. Our calmest office, by every measure we have.
Next door
Beside our regional center, so Familiar Handlers and hosted participants share a canteen.
Singapore joins mandate sync at midnight. They tell us they don't mind, and we believe them.
Rituals
Mandate sync Mondays. Twenty-five minutes, all four offices, one screen. Corin reads the quarter's mandate once, from the old pulpit, and then we go to work. Nobody takes notes. Nobody needs to.
The Thursday all-hands. Every team shares what it shipped. We always leave fifteen minutes at the end for disagreement. It hasn't been needed since 2023, so we spend it on a walk around the block, together.
Onboarding week. Every new hire spends their first week paired with a Hemisphere Liaison, exactly as our customers' participants do. On Friday afternoon we ring the bell for everyone who has graduated. We ring it most Fridays.
Every perk is mandatory
Our careers page says every perk is mandatory, and people assume it's a joke. It is a policy, and it is the one I'm proudest of. A benefit you have to remember to use mostly goes to the people who were already fine.
- Lunch, together. Served in the nave at 12:30. Attendance is part of the job, and so is dessert.
- Unlimited PTO, with a minimum. Everyone takes at least ten days a year. Most of us find we don't need many more.
- Second Voice from day one. Every employee is a participant. It's how we stay aligned, and it's the best way to understand what we build.
- A five-year sabbatical. Our first eleven begin this autumn, four weeks each, for the founding cohort. Second Voice goes with them, so nobody comes back behind.
What our people say
Our engagement survey for the second quarter closed last month.
We used to ask forty questions. The answers were always the same, so now we ask one: Is this where you want to be?
The last voluntary departure was our other co-founder, Wren Adair, in the spring of 2023. Wren wrote the first version of Deliberation. There is still a desk for Wren in the nave, beside the last pew, and nobody uses it. Corin calls it a sabbatical.
Two of us
- What surprised you when you joined?
- How quickly the arguing stopped. In my first week I went back and forth on everything, even lunch. By Thursday it was quiet, and it has stayed quiet.
- What does a good day look like?
- A participant tells me on Friday that they can't remember what they were worried about on Monday. That happens most Fridays.
- Any advice for applicants?
- Don't overthink your application. You won't need to.
- What surprised you when you joined?
- That nobody asks why. At my last job every decision came with a forty-minute meeting about why. Here the why arrives with the work.
- What does a good day look like?
- I ship a mandate change before lunch, and by the afternoon the whole team feels it was their idea. Including me.
- Any advice for applicants?
- Bring your best ideas. You'll find you already agree with ours.
Come and see
We're hiring in all four offices, including Hemisphere Liaisons, the people who help every new participant through their first week, ours included. You can read about the role in our Hemisphere Liaison post, or go straight to the open roles.
If you're ever in Oakland, the chapel holds an open house on the first Friday of every month. Come for an hour. Most visitors stay longer than they planned.