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What is Offy Handbook

A practical guidebook to a more fulfilling Offy life!

Welcome to Officience! Whether you’re a new member of our tribe, someone hoping to join us or a long time Offy, you’ll find everything you need to understand our why in this Handbook. More importantly you’ll also discover how we do what we do. From performance management to leave requests, and going through our internal social network, this how life happens at Officience!

Last but not least, this is a continuous work in progress, we adjust our way of working to better fit our purpose every day. Should you have questions, comment or concerns, we’re here to help.

Content

The Offy Life

Officience - Offsharing in Vietnam

Our purpose is to make sure that Vietnam skips the age of mass consumerism and leapfrogs to the new global sharing and connection economy.

Our culture, causes and values you shall understand, live by and promote

First things first. That should come as obvious, but if you decided to join us, and if we identified you as a member of our tribe, it means you fit the following portrait:
You embrace our causes
You live by our values.

Commitment: Do what you Say
No action is engaged without a definition of the expected final results. We only have one word and managing the proper expectation from our interlocutors is a daily concern.
Open & Sincere: Say what you Think
We believe that the world is better when we can openly and constructively share our feelings, thoughts, and doubts. It implies an environment of trust where constructive criticisms are encouraged.
Merit: Lead by Example
Justice is important to us, and we strive to maintain a permanent state of awareness so that each of us gives and receives its fair share of returns.
Innovation: Think out of the Box
We encourage creativity and innovation and are willing to accept the risks that come with it. This attitude is at the root of the continuous improvement that is part of our promise.
Caring: I Know therefore I Care
We empathize with the men and women we interact with daily, living in their shoes and caring with passion about solving the problems that prevents them to be happy. We get our satisfaction from seeing them smiling.

The right attitude you shall have

Functioning without managers requires self-responsibility from each Offy, that translates into the following attitude. Keep in mind these are not simply best practices. It’s part of your responsibility as an Offy.

Self-Managing
You are the actor of your life. Note that we did not use the word “career” here. Your life happens within Officience, but also outside of Officience. And our objective as an organization is not to drive you through the ladder of success. It is simply to accompany you in whatever life goal you have, whether they are within the organization, or outside.
As you will read in this handbook, we put in place a few processes such as salary reviews, performance evaluation, or identifying influencers. Don’t consider these as “processes” that you “have to” apply. They are simply guidelines to help you better manage your life. And you should maximize any opportunity to exchange with your influencers about your life.

Knowing when you don’t know
Letting anyone in the organization make any kind of decision has its side effect: It can lead to “bad” decisions for the organization.
There are two ways to ensure this does not happen:
- The first one, that you will discover a bit later, is the advice process. You cannot make any decision without having followed this advice process.
- The second one is related: you need to know when you don’t know. You have to understand which are the situations where you are a bit short, and should look for advice.

Acting as a sensor
A very common question of the organization is: If I don’t have a manager, who makes sure I gets things done and bring value to the company? The answer is simple: every single one of your peers.
As a consequence, it is part of your responsibility to address any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable through one-on-one, open talks. Here are a few pieces of advice to raise this type of concerns. Acting as a sensor is not a way to “create troubles”. It is simply to ensure fairness, balance and that everyone is working towards the same goal.
If you read the above carefully, you also understood that there is a kind of attitude that we should absolutely avoid: complaining about a situation, and doing nothing to address it.

As a sensor you shall act

“Be the change you want to see in the world” - Gandhi

Wait, we just covered that part… Why do we need to talk about it again?
The reason is simple: it is the most critical attitude that will make our organization thrive. It is the glue that will ensure we are moving forward every single day.

Now, one interesting thing about “acting as a sensor” is that its principles go against the "natural" culture that we can often notice here in Vietnam. Yes, it is a blunt statement. Most people don’t want to be seen as troublemaker. They will prefer to avoid addressing a sensitive point rather than taking it as a chance to improve the organization.
If you tend to complain about things without taking action, don’t even think about working at Officience. It is the most unproductive attitude: it creates bad feelings, not only for you but for everyone around you.

So, how to act as a sensor? “Be the change you want to see at Officience”.
Keep that motto in mind, and everything will be fine.

No complaining

Complaining is not productive. It creates bad feelings. So how to turn a complaint into a positive action?
Two solutions:
- If you start complaining about something, stop and think: “What can I do to address that?”
- If you hear someone complain about something, tell him/her: “Ok, enough complaining! What can you do to change that?”

Sharing bad feelings is natural. We all do this. The trick is to be aware when you (or someone around you) start doing it, and turning it into an opportunity to change things.
What kind of concerns should you share? As soon as it becomes too hard to keep for yourself, share it. By practicing it, you will notice that the question is less WHAT to share, and more HOW to share it. We all have things that annoy us on a daily basis. What we need to learn is how to make the most of these small annoying things.

You may think that constantly sharing concerns and annoying things makes for a very stressful working environment. It doesn’t. Sharing (and more important, solving) these small daily issues is what makes Officience a better place to work day after day.

Google+ you shall use

“By changing the way we communicate, we change society” - Clay Shirky

The Offy Communities

A few books you may want to read

See Also

• Influencers
• Influencer Graph
• OffySpace Community

References

• Offy Handbook on GDrive