anchor.diff:  
   [Marcia](https://twitter.com/XMDRamos), who we met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, along with [Douglas](https://twitter.com/dbalexandre) and [Felipe](https://twitter.com/FelipeArtur), writes:
   
  -> After a few months with GitLab, it was very important to me finally meeting people in person, **it made me feel more human in our virtual world**. More exciting yet, was hanging out with such amazing guys, interested in what we have to share, in what we think about our job, how do we feel about working remotely, what is awesome about GitLab and what we feel is missing. **Such openness make us to feel included, touched.**
  +> After a few months with GitLab, it was very important to me finally meeting people in person, **it made me feel more human in our virtual world**. More exciting yet, was hanging out with such amazing guys, interested in what we have to share, in what we think about our job, how do we feel about working remotely, what is awesome about GitLab and what we feel is missing. **Such openness makes us feel included, touched.**
   >
   > For our tech-generation, strengthening our relationships is essential, otherwise everything around us ends up superficial; we won’t ever feel fulfilled. As we usually spend most of our time working, it is so important to be with people, to share our concerns, to help, to collaborate, to participate, and to have moments of joy. **I feel so grateful for having met these folks face-to-face.** Thanks guys, and thanks GitLab for allowing us to do this kinda thing!
   
  
positive.code: 
  About halfway through the trip, GitLab CEO [Sid](https://twitter.com/sytses) realized the tremendous positive impact the trip was having on all of the people visiting, being visited, and following along through our team calls, and the ["the company will cover travel costs to visit colleagues"](/handbook/#travel-to-visit-team-members) policy [was born](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/merge_requests/3735) to encourage more people to make trips like this in the future.
  
  Now that the trip is concluded and that we have had a few weeks to reflect, we'd like to share with you some of the things we've learned during this trip.
  In the near future, we will also publish a followup to ["GitLab in Action"](/2016/08/24/gitlab-in-action/), covering our travels through Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania in more detail.
  
  ## Insight 1: GitLab feels like one big team of friends
  
  One of the first things we realized on this trip relates to one of our core values at GitLab: [Kindness](/handbook/#kindness).
  
  Each and every one of the people we met up with, some of whom didn't even know that we were coming until mere days before we did, welcomed us with open arms, and made us feel at home in these strange cities and countries.
  Many of them invited us into their homes, introduced us to their significant others and/or [pets](/team-pets), and took us into town to show us their favorite places to see, work, eat, or have a drink.
  
  Because of the glimpses we had had into each others lives through the daily company-wide [team call](/handbook/#team-call) and the dozens of Slack channels about interests and hobbies, it immediately felt like we were hanging out with a friend, not just "someone from the internet", or "this person I work with". While early conversations often related to our single biggest shared interest—GitLab and work at GitLab—this quickly became just one of the many things we talked about.
  
  Interestingly, this was true regardless of whether they were in our department and we had already worked with them a lot, or if they did something totally different and we had never conversed before. ["There are no floors in GitLab"](/2016/12/05/how-we-stay-connected-as-a-remote-company/), and even though we have multiple [functional groups](/team/structure), GitLab feels like one big team.
  
  
negative.code: One of the great things about remote work at GitLab is that it doesn't just mean "work your regular 9-to-5 job from home", but rather "work however you like, wherever you like, whenever you like".
  We don't believe in [set working hours]((/handbook/#working-hours)), prefer [asynchronous communication](/handbook/#communication) for most things, and encourage people to take as much [time off](/handbook/#paid-time-off) as they need to run errands or just take a break from work.
  
  On the other hand, we realize that one of the downsides of remote work is that while you may see your colleagues every day on Slack and in video calls, you will likely not have the chance to physically hang out with them more than once or twice a year at a summit or conference.
  
  One of the things we do to help our team members [connect and stay connected](/2016/12/05/how-we-stay-connected-as-a-remote-company/) uses that advantage to combat the downside: we encourage everyone to [travel to visit and work with other team members](/handbook/#travel-to-visit-team-members), wherever they may be, and will cover any travel costs to get there.
  (It's in the handbook so it's true!)
  