News

Alexander Interactive is proud to support its staff with a newly initiated sabbatical program.

Now underway, the sabbaticals are designed to give developers and other long-term staff the opportunity to re-energize after busy periods. Employees on sabbatical propose a project of their choosing, then spend up to three weeks offsite working on their projects. They are encouraged to disconnect from the daily workings of the Ai office.

"We decided to do sabbaticals to create a mechanism to allow self-directed projects," says Loren Davie, Tech Lead at Ai. "We also wanted to create assets that could be the basis for possible future projects, and not least, we wanted to reward proven performers with an opportunity to work on something especially fun."

In the inaugural sabbatical, two senior developers are building a Ruby on Rails business process management plug-in for use in process-intensive rails projects. In addition to the project, the duo is keeping a detailed blog of their progress.

"Alexander Interactive is committed to having a supportive and fun work environment," said Alex Schmelkin, president of Alexander Interactive. "We do this not only with good benefits and an upbeat office, but with innovative retention programs that give back to the people that work hard on our many successful projects."

"Our team works hard," said Josh Levine, Ai's creative director. "We hope this program will get creative juices flowing and bring each person back fresh and excited."

More information on the program can be found on "AIAIO", the company weblog, as well as on the developers' sabbatical blog.

AIAIO - Our company blog: www.alexanderinteractive.com/blog

Sabbatical blog: http://3weeks2build.blogspot.com