office life
Life-Work Balance
ddG was founded to ensure that we’re building a big business with even bigger lives (mantra of Her Best Life). We hit our deadlines, communicate clearly, and deliver really strong creative work. We work effectively while we are working and because of that we prioritize enjoyable lives outside of the office. We won’t ask you to work nights or weekends unless we’re traveling or working on a special project that happens to be outside of normal work hours. It’s viewed more as life-work balancing and it takes an active approach to ensure we are strong in all areas.
When We Work
9-3, M-F, and a balance of hours to at the time of your choosing to total roughly 40 hours. We do log hours in Monograph to help us track project progress and profitability, but it’s less important to us what exact hours of the day you are working, and more important that quality work is getting done on-time. We set deadline expectations with our clients, and we pass those expectations onto anyone working on that project. Early-morning or late-afternoon meetings may have to get scheduled from time to time, but we try not to bookend the days with calendar invites.
Professional Development
If there’s a course you want to take or a piece of hardware or software that would make your work more efficient or expand your skillset, just let us know. If you want to learn, we want to help you do it. Each team member has an annual budget for professional development opportunities. Licensed architects have $1,500 allocated to them and non-licensed architectural professionals have $1,000. Examples of covered expenses would be study materials for professional exams, courses in areas of interest, conference attendance including registration, hotel, and travel, AIA lunches and other continuing education opportunities. Send a note to your director letting them know what you’re looking to cover for confirmation and they will keep up with your budget throughout the year.
Each team member receives 40 hours of PD time per year; strive to use this time to further yourself professionally as it is not paid out if unused.
For professional registrations/licensure, exam reimbursements will be made upon passing results. This is outside of the above noted budget. License renewals/professional membership registrations relevant to your in office efforts are reimbursed/paid by ddG and are also outside of the PD budgets above.
Holidays
ddG is closed on the following holidays. If one falls on a weekend, we’ll be closed on the closest business day. These are added annually to our ddG google calendar.
New Year’s Eve+Day
The remainder of the first week back to work in the new year will be remote (slow start back to the New Year)
Martin Luther King Day
President’s Day
Good Friday/Easter Monday
Memorial Day
Juneteenth
Week of Independence Day
Labor Day
Indigenous People’s Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Wednesday-Friday
Christmas Eve+Day
The week between Christmas and New Year’s
Where We Work
We enjoy the technological flexibility of working from home (or wherever), so we extend that to everyone at ddG. We also know that in-person collaboration, idea sharing, and brainstorming is hard to replicate remotely. To that end, we ask that you work in the office 3 days a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-3 (and more if you like). When you’re working remotely, we ask that you stay connected as needed via Asana, Zoom, email, phone, etc.
Team Check-In
Every Friday afternoon at 1:30pm, we have a team check-in where we see images from any of your recent travels, prioritize professional development opportunities, share different things we’ve recently learned, and review active internal and external projects. It’s often where we talk about progress, challenges, timelines, and feedback. We also set schedules and meetings for the following week, so it’s important you’re present.
Around the Office
Please be considerate of your immediate space and any shared space in the office. When it comes to papers and dishes and trash and stuff: clean up after yourself, and help each other out when assistance is beneficial (remember that how you do anything is how you do everything -Martha Beck). Guests in the office are welcome as long as they’re not a disruption or a regularly scheduled occurrence.
Compensation
Team members are paid the 1st and 15th of every month. Raises usually come at the end of the year and are dependent on company performance and outlook, and are at the Principal-in-Charge’s discretion. Compensation levels are based on the AIA Salary Calculator 50th percentile for base pay for the East South-Central region (https://info.aia.org/salary/salary.aspx). A bonus pool is under development and will be dispersed based on exemplary performance once established. Also per the AIA standard, 15% of your base pay will be allocated to your medical insurance premiums and/or your Simple IRA retirement account. ddG will contribute up to 3% of your salary to your Simple IRA as long as you contribute to it, too.
Paid Time Off
those working in the industry for 0-5 years earn 10 days of PTO throughout the year, those with 5-10 years earn 15 days per year, and those with 10 or more years earn 20 days per year. time in industry is calculated from date of terminal educational experience that prepared the team member for the performed role. 5 days of PTO can roll over to the next calendar year, but you are encouraged to utilize this benefit to recharge throughout the year. upon departure, unused PTO does not hold financial value.
Parental Leave
ddG team members are supported through building their families with new mothers receiving 6 weeks of 100% paid leave. 6 additional weeks of unpaid time off is also available if desired (for unpaid leave, the team member will be responsible for their portion of health insurance premiums, should they be on ddG’s health insurance plan).
New fathers and adoptive parents are eligible for two weeks’ paid leave, and other ways of growing your family will be reviewed on a case by case basis. All parental leave is calculated in alignment with how FMLA leave is applied. The time allotted is applied to days that other team members are expected to be working where holidays do not count towards the leave.
This is designed to where new parents retain their PTO for use throughout the year.
The choice of when and in what form of coming back to work may look different for each parent. It may include part-time work transitioning back into full-time, a more heavily remote work setting, etc. A leave plan will be documented prior to parental leave in collaboration with the team member and Principal-in-Charge while understanding that plans may evolve and change as the leave time progresses. Plans for leave should begin to be discussed starting when you are aware that you will be needing to take parental leave.
see email signature examples below for leading up to and during paternity leave
code of conduct
Social Code
ddG is an open-minded, respectful, and collaborative place to work. We ask that you be kind, use common sense, and interact with your colleagues with maturity and tact (the Golden Rule is a pretty good one to follow). We don’t tolerate anyone intimidating, pestering, humiliating, victimizing, harassing, or discriminating against any employee, client, or guest of the company. We try our best to minimize what might be perceived as gossip; we do however call attention to happenings that we can learn from by discussion that are based in factual/non-judgmental perspectives. We never truly know what is happening in someone’s life to bring certain behaviors out and we work to respond in a graceful manner.
Dress Code
ddG provides professional services is a casual environment, so wear what is comfortable to you. As long as you’re not actively offending anyone with what you’re wearing, you’re probably good to go. If you’re expected to meet with clients, we just ask that you be presentable and represent the company appropriately. While on active construction sites, approach with close-toed shoes, long pants, and hard hats and safety glasses when the situation permits; stay safe.
Being Present
We’re on our computers and phones all day, so it can be hard to “turn off” at times. But we ask you to be present in meetings and working sessions — especially if a client is there. Try not to answer emails, scroll Instagram, or do other work not pertaining to the project we’re meeting about. If you find yourself no longer being an effective part of the discussion, respectfully excuse yourself from the conversation and move onto something that gets you closer to your project goals (if you are the project lead or have an active role in the discussion, this might not be an option, but you can actively facilitate the conversation to make it as productive as possible). The more we all collectively focus on the task at hand, the sooner we can move on to the next thing to tackle.
Radical Responsibility
We take complete ownership of our thoughts, efforts, and outcomes. This means that once we agree to tackle a project or aspect of a project, that we own the process and the future outcomes. It’s about taking every task to 100% completion. It does not mean that we do everything individually, it’s that we are bringing all aspects of a situation to the team for feedback and collaboration, which then allows you to move forward within a fully supportive environment. We each own our responsibilities, we own that we also don’t have all of the answers, and we respect our team to assist us in moving forward to emulate radical responsibility.
Personal Stuff at Work
We all have lives outside of the office, and it’s not practical to keep them completely separate. If you need to take or make a personal phone call, research a new vet for your dog, or knock out an e-vite for your grandma’s birthday, that’s fine. Just make sure it doesn’t interfere with your responsibilities, deadlines, or meetings.
Computer+Internet Usage
The company's internet connection and your work computer is primarily for business. But, you can use the internet during work hours for personal purposes as long as it doesn't interfere with your responsibilities or deadlines. You may not use ddG internet or your company computer/supplies to do, download, or stream anything offensive or illegal. Any hardware or software purchased by the company for you to use is owned fully by ddG.
Social Media Sharing
We think we get to work on some pretty fun stuff here (and hopefully you think so, too). Sometimes, that work comes with legal restrictions like non-disclosure or non-compete agreements. To this end, we ask that you check with your Project Manager before sharing any in-process or finished work on your personal social media profiles. Sometimes, a client will be working toward a reveal that we don’t want to spoil. Often, it’s no big deal — just check before posting, same as we do with our clients before posting on ddG’s social media platforms.
Inclusion
ddG is an equal opportunity employer. This means that we provide the same opportunities for hiring, advancement, and compensation to everyone without discriminating against protected characteristics like:
Age
Sex or gender
Sexual orientation
Ethnicity or nationality
Religion
Disability
Medical history
We commit to prevent and resolve any kind of harassment against our employees, including sexual harassment. We also work to exclude bias from processes, policies, and day-to-day operations. Do you see biases that we don’t? Tell us so we can fix it immediately.
So, what are you actually doing? Good question. We commit to:
Using inclusive language in all signs, documents, and communication.
Modifying structures and facilities to accommodate people with disabilities.
Providing parental leave and flexible work arrangement policies.
Allowing employees to take religious or national holidays that aren’t included in our company’s official schedule.
Implementing open door practices so employees can report discrimination more easily.
Our open-door policy
If you experience harassment or feel discriminated against while working at ddG, you can come directly to the Principal-in-charge (Kate) to have a private and confidential discussion about your situation. We will never take action against you for reporting harassment or discrimination, nor will it affect your compensation or trajectory at the company. If you feel more comfortable going to your Project Manager, feel free to do so and they can bring the conversation to the Principal-in-Charge.
Disciplinary action: Anyone found guilty of discrimination or harassment will be subject to disciplinary action depending on the severity of their actions. This could range from a verbal warning to termination and will be at the discretion of the Principal-in-Charge.