One of my work mottos is "support the hell out of each other": helping
your friends grow and succeed is far more rewarding than chasing after
the next gold star for yourself. While I was at Reify
Health I was lucky enough to work with
other devs who had a similar ethos. There were no rock stars, and
everyone looked out for each other. I'm happy to have gotten to work
somewhere where I made real, honest-to-god friends :)

During my final weeks there I collaborated with coworkers on an
experimental framework for supporting each other in a formal
context. This framework would let us explore how to be there for each
other in more meaningful ways while maintaining boundaries. This
seemed particularly valuable in Reify's mostly-remote
environment. With their permission, I'm sharing the initial framework
proposal below:

The Buddy System

This doc outlines a proposal for a buddy system. The main idea behind the buddy system is for us to support each other by regularly spending time chatting with each other about things beyond whatever story is at hand. Exactly what that looks like will be up to you; this doc includes suggestions for how to have rewarding conversations. First, here are some ground rules:

Ground Rules


It’s confidential. Whatever you talk about remains between you and your buddy unless you say otherwise. This is meant to provide each other with time and space to speak about what’s going on :D
It’s completely voluntary. You don’t have to participate, and if you do participate you can shape it however you want to: the frequency and content of chats is up to you.
You can opt out or change buddies whenever you want. If you decide to drop out of the buddy system, it’s totally up to you if you want to explain why, or not. The buddy system is meant to consciously cultivate a space where we can be vulnerable with each other; part of making that safe is setting the expectation that people can opt out without having to explain why.
By the same token, in joining the buddy system you accept that your buddy may at some point wish to opt or change buddies, and you commit to try to not take that personally if it happens