How We Work

Fully Remote

Sevenview Studios is a fully remote company. Our team works from across Newfoundland and Labrador. We don't have a physical office — everyone works from home. If your living situation changes, just let Steve know, particularly if you're moving across provincial or national borders as it may affect payroll and tax obligations.

Working Rhythm

We work in two-week sprints, tracked in Outport. Your sprint board shows all your work for the current cycle, regardless of which project it's for. See the Workflow Handbook for details on how sprints and project tracking work.

Communication

We use Slack as our primary communication tool. Most day-to-day conversation happens there — questions, updates, sharing work, and general team chat.

Daily Standups: Every workday at 9:15 AM Newfoundland time, the team hops on a ~15-minute Slack huddle. Each person talks through what they worked on, what they're working on next, and any blockers. It's a real conversation, not a written post — we talk to each other.

Video Calls: We use Slack huddles or Google Meet when a conversation is easier spoken than typed. Don't hesitate to hop on a quick call when it makes sense, but default to async when you can.

Email: Rarely used internally. Email is mostly for external communication with clients.

Asynchronous by Default

Most of the work you do at Sevenview shouldn't require you to be in constant communication throughout the entire day. Post your question or update in Slack, and trust that someone will get back to you. Don't expect an immediate reply unless it's genuinely urgent.

When you do need real-time collaboration — debugging together, design reviews, planning discussions — just ask for a quick call.

Self-Direction

We're a small team and everyone wears multiple hats. We rely on you to manage your own time and priorities. If you're unsure what to work on next, ask. If you see something that needs doing, do it. If you're stuck, say so early — don't spin your wheels for hours before asking for help.

Work-Life Balance

We work a standard 40-hour week. We don't expect or want you working evenings and weekends. If a deadline is tight, we'd rather adjust the scope than burn people out.

There are rare occasions where something urgent needs attention outside normal hours (a production issue, a client emergency). Handle it, then take equivalent time off afterward. This should be the exception, not the norm.

Breaks and Screen Time

We all spend the day at a screen. Breaks are part of the work, not time taken away from it. This isn't a set of rules and nobody is watching your breaks. It's how we look after ourselves.

Use the Break Timer

Outport has a Break Timer under Settings. Turn it on. It counts about half an hour of work, then prompts a two-minute break. Change the timing to suit you. Your settings are your own, and nobody else can see whether you took a break.

On a break

• Get away from the screen. Stand up, look out a window, get some water.
• Your phone doesn't count. Your eyes need the rest.
• Every 20 minutes or so, look at something far away for 20 seconds.
• Take lunch away from your desk.

Long meetings and long sessions

• Any meeting over an hour gets a 5-minute break around the hour mark. Whoever is running it calls the break, and anyone can ask for one.
• In a long working session, follow the timer. Every couple of hours, take 10 to 15 minutes away from your desk.
• Snoozing once to finish a thought is fine. Snoozing again and again means it's time to stop.

Your desk

• Top of your screen at or just below eye level, about an arm's length away.
• Feet flat on the floor, lower back supported.
• Keyboard and mouse close, shoulders relaxed, wrists straight.

Time Tracking

We track all of our working time in Outport. It's very important that we track our time on every project, so we always know where our time is going.

• Track everything you work on, every working day.
• Start a timer when you start the work. Filling in your day afterwards is the backup, not the plan.
• Track against the project the work belongs to, and against the card if there is one.
• Have your week complete by the end of Friday.

Ways to track

• Working on a card: click the timer button on the card.
• No card: use "Start a timer" in the top bar and pick the project.
• Meeting in a Rec Room: use "Log time" to turn the meeting into an entry.
• Forgot to start: open Time Tracking, switch to Calendar, and drag to add the time.
• Doing several things at once: you can run more than one timer.

Work that isn't for a client

• Meetings and admin go under Admin.
• Learning goes under General.
• Research and experimental work goes under Research and Development.

Not sure which project? Ask Stacey.

Using Claude to run your timers

If you work with Claude Code, it can start and stop your timers for you through the out command-line tool. Set up out with your own Outport token, install the out skill, and tell Claude to start the card's timer when you begin a card and stop it when you're done. Claude should tell you every time it starts or stops one. Your time is still yours to check.