We at roq.ad avoid politics in our communications, but it’s impossible to stand idly by given current events in Ukraine. 

We condemn the Russian Federation’s attack on the sovereign nation of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. We stand unequivocally with the people of Ukraine. 

I have been primarily focused on the safety of Roq.ad people in Ukraine and colleagues outside of Ukraine who have family and friends in the midst of this ongoing military conflict. I have been determined to bring the full support an organization such as ours can bring – to help those who want to leave, as well as those who have had to, or have chosen to, stay. 

The Roq.ad team is pulling together in large and small ways to support those impacted.

Here are some examples of what we’re doing, and we encourage other organizations to do the same:

• Option for 100% of our team members and their families to relocate from our fantastic eastern European locations to Germany, at least for some months/quarters, until the conflict is hopefully resolved at the negotiation table. Roq.ad will cover all relocation cost, organize and pay for housing for up to 3 months in Germany and of course adapt Roq.ad employee cash packages to German standards  
• Organize and encourage donations to the Red Cross
  
• Donate a percentage of my annual salary (I know, it is a modest amount, but every EUR counts)
• Roq.ad leadership decided to fill our open roles with refugees wherever possible. We have 20 open positions across many functions which can be based anywhere in Europe, including many in our engineering and data science teams. We offer a EUR 5K signing bonus if you are a refugee to replace at least parts of whatever you had to leave behind, payable on the day of contract signature, your start date can be later to give you time to arrive in the new country/reality. (This point we discussed a lot internally, if it is seen as taking “advantage” of the current situation to fill our open roles. I disagree, if I can offer well paid jobs to someone who is on need of a job and at the same time make sure my tech business continues to do well, I can ensure to be able to pay our Roqstar salaries for years to come and provide stability to our Roqstars and their families. We also decided to have all our roles open to people from any nationality including Russians. I am convinced that 99%+ of Russians condemn this war as much as I do. Roq.ad has always been a very inclusive business and will continue to be in these difficult times).

I will close by saying that last week in Berlin, the Roq.ad team welcomed one of our team members that we helped relocate from Ukraine to Berlin. We gave a round of applause as she emerged from the elevator and into our office. I look forward to hosting another celebration: marking the end of this senseless conflict.