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Welcome to the Tidepool team! We’re so excited to have you with us. We’re hoping you’re going to learn a lot working here and that we’ll learn a lot from you. This Employee Handbook is aimed to give you a sense of what to expect at Tidepool and how we work together.

At Tidepool, we’re trying to build an inclusive, mission- and values-driven organization, so you’ll find that a lot of our policies differ from the norm at other companies. If you have any questions about why we do things a certain way or have a suggestion about how we can do anything better, please let us know by leaving a comment.

Onboarding at Tidepool

When your first day rolls around, you will have filled out most of the paperwork needed, and you should have your computer in front of you. To help get you situated, on your first day you will join the VP of People, along with anyone else that might be joining the same day, for a 1-hour long onboarding session via Zoom to go over:

• Tidepool history: name, logo, milestones.

• Tidepoolers: who we are, where are we.

• Our culture, including how we live by our Mission Statement and Core Values.

• https://tidepool.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TPR/pages/3440663 (internal-only): ZOOM, Slack, G-Suite, Confluence, Jira, and more. You can read about the ways we use our tools in this blog post.

• How we get paid: We figured you’d like to know about that too.

• Your personalized Onboarding Checklist, with the daily activities you need to complete in terms of tools setup, basic training, getting your computer and software set up for security and privacy, and role-specific training.

  • Along with tasks to complete, each new hire has their own Buddy (often their hiring manager), as a designated point person to introduce them to the team, connect them with others, and answer a fair number of questions they might have.

• Two documents that you are likely to bookmark:

  • Our (internal-only) list of https://tidepool.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TPR/pages/360677550

  • Our (internal-only) https://tidepool.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TPR/pages/360448180: where you are likely to find the answers to all questions regarding Tidepool benefits, policies, etc.

About Tidepool

Tidepool is a mission- and values-driven company. Hopefully, you heard about this a lot during your interview process, but we take our mission and values really seriously at Tidepool and they guide the decisions we make here. You can read more about our Mission Statement and Core Values.

Tidepool isn’t a normal medical software company. Medical device and software companies are traditionally closed and inaccessible. At Tidepool, we're working to make software that helps people living with diabetes, and to do so in a way that is open and free (in every sense of the word).

Tidepool is a non-profit. Simply put, this means we aren't in this for the money. We're doing this because we want the technology we create to be freely available and to catalyze further innovation. You can read more about why Tidepool is open source and non-profit.

Even as a small organization, we've already had a tremendous impact on the diabetes community.

• We've convinced device companies that people with diabetes own their own data.

• We've shown the power of great design to help people with diabetes and caregivers gain great insights into that data.

• We've given people with diabetes a way to donate their data to help catalyze research and innovation.

• We've even been recognized by the White House for being a "Champion of Change."

Despite our success, our work has just begun. In addition to Tidepool for Web, Tidepool Uploader, and the Tidepool Platform, we’ve added Tidepool Loop to the suite of offerings to help make life a little easier for people living with diabetes.

Working at Tidepool

As of July 2022, there are more than 25 Tidepoolers working in Product, Design, Engineering, Marketing, Quality Assurance, Customer Support, Regulatory, Fundraising, and People (HR). You can see everyone’s faces on our Team page, and get to read more about each of our stories in the (internal-only) Team Introductions section.

We are a 100% remote team (distributed across the United States and other countries), and we work very hard to make remote work meaningful and productive for everyone. This takes extra effort, but we find that it's worth it so we can hire and keep the best people no matter where they live. To get a feel of how we make it work, read our Working Remotely page.

The Future

Before 2018, all of Tidepool could fit in a van. Today, we have a larger team and we continue to grow and adapt our culture as we do. You can be sure that Tidepool in the future will look different than Tidepool today, much like we now need a large bus to fit all of us. But you can be sure that we will remain true to our roots and values. We are delighted that you are joining us for the journey!