“Really now?” “Is it okay if I say this?” “So there won’t be any consequences for me?” For those who have worked in companies where betrayal, competition, and gossip give and take, transitioning to a work environment where openness and honesty thrives and everyone is encouraged to say almost anything that comes to their mind requires a period of adjustment. There will be beans in some pit, they thought at first. Let’s see if it will be some kind of new age, marketing trick, for sure in practice everything will be different. Until one day they realize with relief – office politics is tiring, you know – that a working Neverland is possible.

Back in 2014, when Giorgos Palegheorgiou, Fanis Despotakis, and Panos Siozos decided to create LearnWorlds, a platform that provides online course tools for freelancers, instructors, SMBs, and even schools, they didn’t discuss work culture. what they would accept. “These things are not planned,” CEO Panos Siozos, who lives permanently in Limassol, tells me through a Zoom window (they moved to Cyprus when his wife found a good job there during the brain drain years). “We also had the experience of working in unpleasant conditions. We wanted to create a company that we would like to work for.”

What the three co-founders had in common was their academic background. The two met while studying at AUTH’s computer science department while continuing their graduate studies in educational technology. “The atmosphere at the university was amazing.” Each moved forward by his own labor and talent, perfection was emphasized even before the term acquired any sign. These values ​​then infiltrated their own project. Panos, on the other hand, also served in the European Parliament, meaning he was familiar with a culture of cooperation and internationalism. It is no coincidence that LearnWorlds currently has 135 employees from 17 countries.

The open culture is also aided by the fact that the company has been working remotely from the start. There was no other way. The three co-founders live in three different cities: Limassol, Kavala and Chania. This is how they knew how to work (“we were digital nomads before they came into vogue!”), which they applied to their company long before the coronavirus came and imposed it. In fact, during the pandemic, when we all discovered the value of e-learning, their work has skyrocketed. The staff has more than doubled, the number of clients has reached 4300 (today their number exceeds 7800) in 130 countries, and funding of $32 million was received from the international venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners.

LearnWorlds has worked remotely from the beginning and currently has 135 employees in 17 countries.

However, the remote function itself does not provide immunity to common “office” pathogens. LearnWorlds may not have corridors, but it has Slack channels, it may not have a chat cooler, but there is always Messenger. But why resort to lobbying when you can present your idea without fear and with as much passion as you want? “The company has a culture of transparency,” says Mr. Siozos. “All decisions are explained, everyone becomes a participant. We are a company without structured hierarchies, i.e. we are all in the same boat together (i.e. the company is divided into teams with a flat structure). And, of course, we have an open door policy. We do not encourage or condone politics, but we are not obligated to prohibit it either. Anyone who makes such a statement is out of sorts.”

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There are misunderstandings – the written word sometimes does not help – there may be complaints. “The difference is that everyone feels safe when communicating,” says Eleni Kurmendza, HR manager. “Communication channels are open to conversations without filters. In addition, the co-founders are looking for communication, every day they write to us “what are you doing?” How are you today; “. You feel comfortable saying that you are worried, for example, about your child. At my old jobs, they asked me if I was going to have children, and here they almost beg to have a second one! It is no coincidence that staff turnover (including including the replacement rate) is very low. In software engineers, a department of 50 people, that’s almost zero!” It may have played a role in the culture of LearnWorlds that when it was founded, its founders also started families.“We understand how difficult it is for someone to combine them,” says Mr. Siozos.“That’s why we can be multinational funded by a start-up and I don’t know what else, but we run like a family business. It’s working at the moment. If we reach 1,000 people… it will show!”