Here at BambooHR, we like to find any reason to celebrate. And in a world where the average employee stays with a company for just four years, we think it’s a big deal (and an honor) when our employees choose to stick around for the long haul.

Today, we’re celebrating those Bambooligans who have been with us for a decade or more—those employees who have seen us grow from a freestyling team of a few scrappy folks to an established software company over 1,000 employees strong.

We sat down with these seasoned employees (for the record, there’s no actual Ten-Year Club) to talk about their many years at BambooHR, reflecting on:

• Why they’ve chosen to stick with BambooHR
• How the BambooHR values affect their work and everyday life
• Their thoughts on the future of BambooHR

Keara Balls, Engineering Manager

What job position did you start with, and where are you now?

I started out as a Web Developer. I’ve since progressed to a Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Principal Software Engineer, and now Engineering Manager.

Did you picture yourself staying with BambooHR for more than 10 years? Why have you stayed?

When I first started there were, like, eight employees and no benefits. I took the job because it allowed me to work from home and it paid more than my current job. My husband was laid off, we had a small baby, and needed a change. I did NOT expect it to last very long. But I also saw something in [our co-founders] Ben [Peterson] and Ryan [Sanders]. I thought the way they talked about the company was unique. 

I instantly felt cared about as an individual, not just an employee. I’ve stayed because that same thing still exists today. Out of the thousands of things that have changed in the last 10 years, the one thing that stays the same is the foundational vision and culture the company was built on, and how I still feel valued as a person.

What is your favorite BambooHR value? 

BambooHR has helped make me the person I am today. I seriously mean that. The vision and values are something that you can continue to get better at all the time. And I haven’t learned enough yet because I’m still learning every day. I still find new ways to utilize the values in my work life and personal life.

My kids have grown up with BambooHR, and I’ve helped them learn to be better people because I’ve learned to be a better person here. I never thought I would be an engineering manager at a 1000-plus person company, and that I would feel as fulfilled in my career as I do now.

I look forward to coming to work every day. There are hard things I do every day, but I know that what I do matters, makes a difference to customers, and most of all—makes a difference to fellow employees. I now get to carry the torch and help others learn the values and the benefits of living those values every day.

My favorite values are to be open and assume the best. I’ve always struggled with being able to give open and honest feedback not only to my co-workers, but also with family and friends. When you’re assuming the best, you have to start with yourself and get your own thoughts in the right mindset first. This then allows you the freedom to go and talk to someone with less fear about how they will take it. Even if it’s a hard conversation, they know it’s coming from a good place.

What was your most memorable paid-paid vacation?

I cried when they announced the paid-paid vacation. My sister had just moved away with her young family to Florida, and I didn’t know how I would be able to visit them. But with our first paid-paid vacation, I was able to take my mom, sister, and niece out to visit my sister and her family!

How do you work to contribute to BambooHR’s mission: “Set people free to do great work”?

Like I mentioned, I’m not perfect at living the values and contributing to this mission. But I feel like I’m now in an area where I get to be an example and mentor others to help them see our vision. I get to talk to candidates in interviews and show how great it is here at BambooHR. I get to mentor people on my team to help them overcome PTSD from other jobs where they’ve been treated poorly and help them see that BambooHR is different. And I get to help shape the careers of newer engineers just starting out on their journey.

What are you most excited about as you look to the future of BambooHR?

I’m excited about where BambooHR is going. To me, BambooHR is one of those rare companies you read about in books—a “10Xer” from Jim Collins’ book Great by Choice. As I learn about the things these great companies do, I see more and more the good decisions BambooHR has made along the way, and I think, “Hey, BambooHR is already doing that!”

We’re not perfect, but we can learn from our mistakes. I feel like we’re just beginning—like everything in the past 10 years has just been leading up to something that’s just starting to take off. I’m so excited to see where that leads and be part of the journey!

Tara Martell, VP of Customer Experience

What job position did you start with, and where are you now?

I started in a position to onboard new customers and then take care of all of their ongoing support questions. We quickly grew into separate functions for onboarding, adding an actual process and a dedicated support group to take care of ongoing customer needs. Today, I watch over all of our customer functions with a variety of motions to take care of customers at every stage of their journey. There are now several teams and an amazing group of Bambooligans doing this work.

Did you picture yourself staying with BambooHR for more than 10 years? Why have you stayed?

I couldn’t have imagined the BambooHR that exists today. We have so many more customers and so many more team members. It is so amazing to see what we have built together.

I stay because I love the mission of what we are doing to “set people free to do great work.” I believe that we aren’t just building great software but creating something that is really needed in businesses. HR really needs to take care of their most important asset—their people. I also stay because I love the people I get to work with. They are smart, driven, good people. Those two things make work meaningful and enjoyable as we accomplish hard things together.

What is your favorite BambooHR value? 

The BambooHR values have made me a better human. They make me more reflective of how I want to show up in the world, not just at work but also at home. I am a big believer in “Grow from Good to Great.” 

When I look back 10 years ago, boy have I grown. I am better at believing that a growth mindset is indeed possible for myself and those around me. I have accomplished more in my personal and professional life than I would have ever dreamed to think was possible or worth accomplishing. I believed I could do some things that may not have been realistic and worked hard to get there. I am insanely proud of what that teaches my children to believe in as they start thinking about who they want to be and what is possible for them. 

What was your most memorable paid-paid vacation?

As a newly single mom with three young children, I got to take my family to Kauai. It was magical and a defining moment for our family where we knew we had this next chapter in our lives.

Paid-paid [vacation] is a special thing in our family. Life feels a little full of logistics and just doing what needs to be done with a growing family over the years. We look forward to our vacations and having amazing memories and experiences together. It has allowed me to do more and be willing to live a little.

My kids love to ask to do something that seems a little extravagant while on vacation and say, “Come on, it’s on Bamboo!” From the ATV ride under the midnight sun of Alaska to swimming with dolphins in Florida and snorkeling with turtles in the Virgin Islands, these are experiences we will never forget!

How do you work to contribute to BambooHR’s mission: “Set people free to do great work”?

I really work to connect that mission to our employees. How do we show up for our customers in ways that help to set them free? That is why we show up for our customers. We are always evolving processes to make them more meaningful and deliberate.

What are you most excited about as you look to the future of BambooHR?

I can’t wait to see what we build over the next 10 years. If I couldn’t imagine today, it is wild to imagine 10 years from now. How many more customers can we set free to do great work across the globe? How many more awesome Bambooligans do we get to rub shoulders with? I can’t wait to build this story of what we have been able to accomplish together over the next 10 years!

Michael Sanders, Senior Product Manager

What job position did you start with, and where are you now?

All of them! Product, support, implementation…actor. (You get what you pay for.) I think I was the Assistant Co-founder—wait, I mean the assistant to the Co-founder. Nowadays, I have the privilege of helping to make our software work better and do more for our customers. 

Did you picture yourself staying with BambooHR for more than 10 years? Why have you stayed?

Absolutely not. I wasn’t sure the company would still be in business. I enjoy helping our customers.

What is your favorite BambooHR value? 

“Enjoy Quality of Life.” The value is best reflected in our benefits, but I also love that work doesn’t follow me home.

What was your most memorable paid-paid vacation?

I can’t pick one, but it was very memorable when that benefit was announced in a November meeting.

How do you work to contribute to BambooHR’s mission: “Set people free to do great work”?

When we make changes to the product, we are always considering ways to make it easier to do things. For example, how can we automate the work for HR admins and others?

What are you most excited about as you look to the future of BambooHR?

There are so many good things to choose from! I get excited about the possibilities of what things we can do to help our customers out in a unique way.

Brenton Williamson, Director, Brand Storytelling & New Channels

What job position did you start with, and where are you now?

I started as a marketing intern. Now I’m a director in marketing, over brand story & new channels. 

Did you picture yourself staying with BambooHR for more than 10 years? Why have you stayed?

Nope. I thought I’d be here for six months or so as an intern. When the founders Ben and Ryan offered me a full-time job, I thought I’d be here for two or three years. Instead, I stayed longer because I loved working with them. They consistently trusted me with more and more responsibility and gave me opportunities for growth in both skillset and compensation. I stay now because I believe BambooHR is a great place to work, I have a team I love working with, and we’re doing work that is fun and invigorating. 

What is your favorite BambooHR value? 

“Make It Count” is definitely my favorite value. And it’s actually a late addition, coming several years after the first values had a final stamp of officiality put on them.

For me it’s the glue that holds the whole thing together. It’s the reason we can accomplish more in a week than most companies and still have plenty of time to live life outside of work. When we’re at work, we work! and when we’re with our loved ones, we make that time count, too. It’s my reminder to be present and make the most of everything I do.

Ben used to talk about an interview where he asked a candidate why he wanted to work at BambooHR, and the candidate replied, “Because I heard it’s super chill.” It wasn’t long after that when this value, Make It Count, was born.

BambooHR is an amazing place to work. It’s friendly, open, honest—a place where you can make mistakes and then be allowed to learn and grow from them. But it’s not “chill.” If any of us are feeling like we can kick our legs up on the desk and chill, then we’re doing it wrong.

What was your most memorable paid-paid vacation?

There have been some really great ones, but my favorite and most memorable was a two-week trip to Alaska. My wife and I made no real plans other than booking a flight and a rental car. We spent two weeks exploring Alaska, from backpacking in Denali to kayaking in Seward Bay. The views were majestic, and the wildlife was so cool to see. My wife caught a 95-pound halibut!

We saw humpback whales bubble feeding, grizzlies, moose, and countless eagles. We did some lake-to-lake canoeing, fishing, hiking, and we camped almost every night. We stayed up late around campfires watching the sun rise and set simultaneously. It was glorious. 

How do you work to contribute to BambooHR’s mission: “Set people free to do great work”?

Well, for us to set anyone free to do great work, they have to know about us first. My job is to increase awareness of our category, our brand, and the many problems we solve—to generate interest and demand for our products.

I also get to help enable [BambooHR employees] with stories and content that reinforce our culture across the organization. We strive to practice what we preach and set our own people free to do great work, so that they, in turn, can set our customers and other workplace leaders free to do their own great work. 

What are you most excited about as you look to the future of BambooHR?

Scale. Everything we’re doing is getting bigger and better. We’ve always been growing, but we’re entering an era where we really get to put our culture-first model to the test. We believe a work culture that prioritizes employee experience will lead an organization to success better than any other method. So far, that has been true, but now we get to see if the model can work at scale as we move from a small to medium-sized business and beyond.

Jeremy Bowers, Senior Systems Engineer

What job position did you start with, and where are you now?

I started at BambooHR a little over 10 years ago with the title of Systems Genius. This basically meant that I did all of the IT tasks for a very small business. I would set up desktop computers for our team and the production infrastructure that our code lives on. I was the Helpdesk for our entire 20-person company. These days, I manage a team of folks who are amazing at running our infrastructure. The problems we solve are so much bigger, but the people I get to work with are brilliant and creative.

Did you picture yourself staying with BambooHR for more than 10 years? Why have you stayed?

Staying at BambooHR has not been a huge surprise for me, as I haven’t moved around much in my career. I find a lot of value and satisfaction in finding a great place to work and continuing to plug away. I have stayed because while BambooHR has certainly changed and matured as a company over the years, our values stay the same. I get to work somewhere where I can “do the right thing” and “make it count.”

What is your favorite BambooHR value? 

My favorite value changes every day. Today, I’ll choose “Lead from Where You Are.” One of the core tenets of this value is that you don’t need a title to lead. We hire great people and expect and encourage them to lead in their position.

What was your most memorable paid-paid vacation?

My favorite vacation was a couple of years ago to Mexico. I had never been out of the country, and I certainly had never gone on a vacation where people just wait on you. It was so fun for my spouse and me to go to an all-inclusive resort and just relax.

I can remember the moment when we were sitting at the edge of one of the pools, and one of the staff asked if we would like a drink. “Sure, can we have a couple of piña coladas?” And to our great surprise, they came back with our drinks. It was the most delicious drink I had ever had! It sounds naive or cheesy, but at that moment, I thought, “Wow, we have actually arrived in paradise.” There are so many memorable moments on that vacation, but I will never forget the taste of that one piña colada.

How do you work to contribute to BambooHR’s mission: “Set people free to do great work”?

My team has two sets of customers that we serve. The first is our internal software engineers. We work very closely with our software teams to ensure they have the infrastructure and platforms that they need to write and run great code! My team’s job is to abstract away the infrastructure so our software engineers can do what they do best: Write great code.

What are you most excited about as you look to the future of BambooHR?

I’m most excited about the growth of our company. It’s so fun to look at all of the problems that we solved as a smaller company size, and at the same time, be able to look at these new challenges that face us as we get larger and can serve more customers.