Rockerbox Unplugged: Why We Do It (and why it will never leave you in the dark)

At Rockerbox, we understand that amazing work can’t happen without rest and recovery. We started Rockerbox Unplugged last year as a thank you to all Rockerboxers for their hard work and dedication during the challenging phase of scaling a company.

As a growth-stage startup, our team members move fast, demonstrate agility and pivot when faced with the unpredictable obstacles that come with scaling a SaaS business–resting is critical to staying sharp and being healthy.

For these reasons, in addition to providing a mandatory day off each month for each Rockerboxer, we give our team members the last week of the year off to disconnect, relax and recharge however they see fit.

But, it’s worth noting that even as we wish 100% of the team could rest 100% of the week, we are responsible for a technology that empowers hundreds of companies to better understand their channel effectiveness. That means that hundreds of people are relying on Rockerbox every day to make critical business decisions.

So, what do we do when we have a cultural call to “rest” but also a responsibility to our customers, partners and teammates to continue to “keep the lights on?”

We use a generator.

Our CEO, Ron Jacobson joked that our on-call system was like a generator—and he’s right. Even during times of energy conservation via voluntary shut down, we rely on our generators to power all of the most critical systems.

Likewise, our Customer Solutions, Engineering and Product teams are our generator. They are engaged in rest from their traditional workdays, but they are all available to help power anything that may come up during the week. Making sure that even as we “unplug” our critical systems stay in place and our customers are still given the utmost amount of attention and care—which means all urgent issues will be seen and taken care of.

Here’s what a few Rockerboxers are looking forward to doing as they “unplug:”

“I’m looking forward to getting some time to work on some at-home projects like building a headboard and getting to catch up on a long backlog of board and video games with some friends of mine.” - Aman Dhawan, Product Manager

“I’ll be doing lots of baking with my mom and skiing!” - Emily Shreero, CSM Team Lead

“I’ve returned home for the holidays and just plan on hanging out with friends and family — and the dog of course!” - Sean Nakamura, Software Engineer

We have big plans on our roadmap for the year ahead, and we hope this full week “unplugged” will help all Rockerboxers kick off 2023 feeling motivated and refreshed.

“See” you next year!