Back to my first office in 5 years.
I’ve been working from home and client sites since starting Exponentially in 2017, and it has worked well. It’s been a healthy balance of client engagement and delivery, serendipity, and focus while on-site and withdrawing, regrouping and creating at home. Then Covid-19 happened. I’ve been working remotely since March 2020 like most of us, and the business has grown 20% while reconfiguring how we deliver workshops, training, consulting and scaling out experimentation with our clients remotely.
But it’s time to get an office. I’ve just hired a small office in the City — Melbourne, Australia — for a few reasons.
- Mental health. I’m finding it’s important to separate ‘Church and State’. Home is my sanctuary and place to rest and be with my family, not sit behind a closed office door working and expecting my partner to tiptoe around and not ‘interrupt’ me. I want to be home when I’m home, not have work on the other side of my study door.
- Voting with my wallet. Watching businesses that have served me delicious food and coffee and satisfying my every whim close down is sad, and I’m going to spend as often as I can as much as I can every day to support them. It’s not saving the planet, but every dollar and smile helps. The City is dead, and I want to do my bit by investing back into it. This includes the rent for the office that goes into the local economy.
- Energy. I love walking to work in all weather and seeing everybody busy going about their business. Even my judgy brain gets a workout ;-). I get to the office energised and ready for the day.
- I transition from ‘work Leslie’ to ‘home Leslie’ on the walk back across the river, and it’s already doing wonders for my relationship. Less hassled and able to spend quality time with Kim or just chill.
- Serendipity is back, baby! As a few people venture out of their caves, we can grab coffee, lunch etc., again.
- The Big C. I’m careful and washing hands, masking up etc. It’s just common sense, and most people are respectful and doing the right thing.
It was a huge decision — out of proportion to what it actually entailed. Not sure why but I suppose I had to overcome what I was always proud of — ‘Give me a laptop and wifi, and I’m good to go.’ Still somewhat true, but no more on-site work for a while means it’s the only choice for me.
Co-working vs a serviced office?
A big decision? Not really. I’ve done co-working with previous startups, and it was great for that use case, but now I’m in year 4 of Exponentially, and I know and like my working style. I like an environment I can control, especially since I now deliver workshops online and do lots of Zoom calls and don’t like interruptions, so co-working is out. Besides, great Serviced Office deals are available right now vs WeWork’s rabbit warrens and tiny ‘2-person’ offices. I have space, natural light and privacy. Perfect.
I’m on a 3-month pretotype of this, and I’ll update you to see how it goes.
If you’re near 330 Collins Street, Melbourne, any time soon, come to say hi!
