Melbourne’s coolest offices let you work, rest and play
While you toil away in your soulless cubicle under cheap fluorescent lighting, some lucky workers are playing basketball, relaxing in meditation pods or bringing their dog to work. Take a look at Melbourne’s coolest offices.
Lifestyle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Many office-based workplaces haven’t changed much since Dolly Parton worked 9 to 5.
They’re the kind of places where people arrive late and make up for it by leaving early. Beavering away in cattle-class cubicles with morgue-quality lighting, they perfect the art of looking busy but producing nothing.
The Office’s David Brent sums up the absurdity of many modern workplaces: “Put the key of despair into the lock of apathy. Turn the knob of mediocrity slowly and open the gates
of despondency — welcome to a day in the average office.”
But some bosses are out to change office work, and a number of workplaces in Victoria are undergoing a dramatic transformation.
It’s not just about offering innovative physical spaces packed with video parlours, basketball courts and meditation pods, but putting care for the workers at the heart of everything.
Such offices are “agile”, offer staff a premium “flexperience”, give joy, and even promise love.
Yes love.
A leading new-style employer is Moose Toys, which doesn’t invite staff to “come work with us” but “come play with us”.
The company produces much-loved toy lines such as Shopkins, Mighty Beanz and Pikmi Pops.
“The inside of a Moosie’s brain looks like a unicorn hosting a rainbow surprise party,” their website says. The outside of its Cheltenham office has the same vibe thanks to the eye-catching multi-coloured barcode wrapped around its facade.
The foyer features a giant Jack and the Beanstalk cubby house, which doubles as a standing meeting place for brainstorming, while an upper level houses half a Douglas DC-3 plane — yes, a real one.
One of the company’s owners, Manny Stul, is obsessed with planes and had it installed as a surprise for staff one weekend.
“We came into the office one day and there it was,” Belinda Gruebner, executive vice president of global marketing for Moose Toys, says.
“Half of it is upstairs as a creative place, which people really love.
“It’s all about fostering creativity and collaboration. People feel the energy and love the work-life balance. There’s lots of music playing and we all have lunch together in the kitchen and share food and take a break.”
The company also offers free personal training and yoga classes, and there’s an organic vegetable garden. Pet days twice a week allow staff to bring in their dogs and cats, and even a rabbit named Sherbert is a regular visitor.
Flexible hours are a key perk for staff.
“We work around people’s out-of-work demands — they might need to start early and finish early,” Gruebner says.
“Or do a full-time job over four days.”
This people-centred approach is key to attracting millennial talent, which is projected to make up the majority of US workers by the end of next year.
Bruce Daisley, European vice president of Twitter and author of The Joy of Work, says millennials don’t want endless meetings “where we start to forget our own name and (get) emails that seem identical to those we got rid of yesterday, all done against the drone of vast open-plan offices”.
This is why companies are doing things differently in both their workplace policies and their physical environments.
Technology and software company MYOB had the lifestyle of its workers in mind when it moved its Melbourne office from Glen Waverley to Cremorne’s “Silicon Yarra” in 2016.
Sally Elson, MYOB’s head of people, advisory and talent, says it was about “attracting the right talent”.
Staff can cycle, run, walk or take the train to this workplace on the leafy edges of the CBD.
“It’s quick to get to the Tan for a run and it’s also close to the Yarra bike track — the environment is also a nice break,” she says.
The converted warehouse offers a communal kitchen and collaborative spaces for “mobbing” as well as quiet areas for “deep work”.
“Often everyone is standing up, moving around. There’s a lot of noise and good things going on. It’s not all about closed rooms,” Elson says.
“There’s also video games and table tennis that people use during breaks.”
At the heart of it all is the need to offer staff the full “flexperience” which allows teams to decide how they work, when and where. Additional flex days give staff freedom to take more holidays or spend time with family.
“The focus is on outcomes, so where, when and how you do it is up to you,” Elson says.
A St Kilda mother of two young children, Elson “runs the late shift” and comes into work after doing school, day care or kinder drop-off.
She says she likes being in the office but appreciates the “focus time” that she gets at home.
“It also means I can get to basketball on a Friday with the kids,” she says.
It’s a savvy business move. A lack of control over how workers do their job is a key cause of workplace stress, according to a 2018 study of nearly 7000 middle-aged workers from Australia’s Black Dog Institute.
However, some companies are finding it hard to change their approach to staff.
Emma Walsh, CEO of Parents at Work, says many workplaces haven’t repaid the favour of flexibility offered by technology.
“The expectation is that you need to be flexible all the time and work has flowed into people’s homes,” she says.
“Yet people with caring responsibilities such as kids and older parents haven’t had the same welcome back of these things into the workplace.”
Walsh said many workplaces haven’t restructured to put flexibility at the core of their operations.
“They don’t consider how work is going to fit in with what else you’ve got going on,” she says.
“They might offer three days a week but expect five days’ output.”
The feeling of being taken for granted and a lack of real flexibility are some of the reasons why many workers face the ultimate “first world problem” of being unhappy at work, according to Daisley.
Some of the solutions he proposes, such as regular, proper lunch breaks with colleagues coming together, are offered at Carman’s new office in outer-suburban Huntingdale.
It’s a striking converted chocolate factory with a cafe on the ground floor that showcases the brand’s range of muesli products.
Carolyn Creswell, founder and owner of Carman’s, is a warm whirlwind brimming with enthusiasm about her company’s new space.
“I asked myself, ‘What would l love?’, ‘What would my staff love?’” she says.
The answer is a space based on Google’s New York headquarters, filled with artwork and plants and with light streaming through conservatory-style windows.
An app allows staff to have freshly brewed coffees delivered to meeting rooms. There are also yoga classes, a gym and mediation space, a fully equipped change room, infra-red sauna and a massage chair.
Creswell’s favourite place, though, is a make-up and hairdressing room dubbed “the panel beaters” because it’s where you can “knock your face back into shape”, she says.
It’s a far cry from the company’s first digs — a 290sq m site “attached to a brothel in a dodgy street”.
The opportunity for staff to come together every day over food is at the heart of the employee experience.
“At 12.30, we all stop and go to the kitchen and sit together and have lunch,” Creswell says.
“A chef prepares one main dish for staff at $8 a head and also offers home-cooked, nutritious takeaway meals for people to take home for dinner.
“A lot of people want an employer that cares about them. That’s why we do lots of little things, like have an alterations lady that comes in, and make sure cars are washed regularly.
“Most of it is user pays but none of it costs a lot and it makes staff feel loved.”
However, such social, fun-filled flexible workplaces can have a downside — it can be hard to get enough work done.
Raquel Lemon, a talent acquisition manager at Envato, says it does take a degree of discipline. Envato, a company bringing together clients and creatives, has a lively office on Melbourne’s King St.
There are ping pong tables, puzzles, basketball and lots of engaging, colourful places for staff to congregate.
“It’s a social hub to attract millennial talent,” Lemon says. “There is lots of fun stuff but there can be pitfalls, so it’s very outcomes focused. For it to work, there has to be a certain degree of trust.”
Indeed, one UK study of full-time office workers found many worked just two hours and 53 minutes in an eight-hour day. The rest was spent browsing the internet and social media, taking food breaks, smoking, searching for new jobs, texting, making non-work calls and chatting to colleagues.
But none of this matters when the focus is on outcomes rather than hours, as the workers are wasting their own time, not their bosses’ time.
It’s a very different way of operating. At Envato, it’s not just confined to junior employees.
Mother to three-year-old Oscar, Lemon works four days a week and has four people reporting directly to her.
She lives on the Mornington Peninsula and commutes to the office two days a week. The other two days she does childcare drop-off, then works from home.
“My team and I are completely flexible — on any given day you can never tell where they might be,” she says.
As she sees it, such flexibility doesn’t just suit parents, but any worker with caring responsibilities such as ageing parents.
WHAT AFL MEANT TO SAY ON CROWD BEHAVIOUR
PAGE 13 APOLOGY TO LADIES OF GOTHAM CITY
“I wanted to work as well as look after my son,” she says. “I feel very fortunate to have a bit of both.”
Envato is regularly named one of Australia’s Top 50 Best Places to Work, and was rewarded for the trust it places in workers and the way it encourages them to pursue personal goals as well as professional ones.
Having a great workplace like this is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity because it boosts productivity and aids staff retention.
When MYOB allowed an entire team from its call centre to work from home recently, their customer satisfaction score soared, call quality increased and there were no sick days.
The top 50 list is produced by Great Places to Work, which surveys 63,000 workers from 160 companies annually.
Its latest survey shows workers want more. More recycling, bike racks, healthy snack and drink options, ergonomic workstations, paid time off for volunteering, paid maternity leave on top of the statutory minimum, and diversity strategies.
It’s got to be better than David Brent’s mantra for managing people.
“Treat the people around you with love and respect,” he says on The Office. “Then they will never guess that you’re trying to get them sacked.”
How to mark the VP Day 75th anniversary at home
It is 75 years since World War II ended, but traditional Victory in the Pacific Day commemorations are off the table this year. Here’s how to honour our veterans in lockdown.
How coronavirus turned club kings into cleaners
Melbourne’s night-life spots may have been closed for months, but club kings Nick and Daniel Russian have pivoted away from celebrity haunts to help the state’s fight against coronavirus. This is what they’re up to.