Our workplace was set up to be an extension of the dorm experience. Free snacks, food, even beer! Video games, foosball, pool and ping pong tables. Often I come here around 2 am and see people working and napping on the couches. This is what young workers want. They are salaried but they will work way more than 40 hours a week, because they want to, it is fun.

But there is a problem, I have run this team for 15 years, and I have a bunch of really good, seasoned engineers who built much of our infrastructure and no longer want to work this way.

They are having families, they don’t care about the games, food, beer. They want to live a life outside of work. They moved, and commuting is a huge pain, as well as child care. They work 40 hours a week, but their experience, and expertise allows me to get way more than 40 hours of productivity.

I need these people.

So I have to create a different work environment.

Here is a heat map of where everyone lives, and have mapped out locations that are no more than a 30 minute commute.

I am going to set up satellite offices in these places.

There will be no free food, no games, but I will fund child care options.

The goal is to make an environment flexible to keep people through their lifecycles.

Link to original Linkedin post: http://bit.ly/2KSEOaQ

The picture is the office of Corus Quay in Toronto https://www.corusent.com/about/corus-quay/ and designed by Quadrangle https://www.quadrangle.ca/ and https://www.richardjohnson.ca/clients/quadrangle

I couldn't find an appropriate photo credit.

The story has nothing to do with Corus Quay. It was actually a friend of mine who in 2010 managed an awesome team of engineers at a company in the SFO Bay Area. With only 1200 or so chars in a linkedin Post, I couldn't say it all here..

One other thing, The SFO area is a great place to talk of 'micro cultures' and the reason to have offices in multiple locations. For example downtown SFO draws certain talent while the South Bay draws a different kind.. anyway.. it is important to know the micro-cultures of the area you are in, and also what your team needs for an environment..