Vagabonding

Working at a tech company comes with some benefits that I hadn't considered when I first started.  For instance, we have a fully-stocked kitchen and lots of cozy common spaces to sit in. This past month, we began a new initiative at work that does away almost entirely with the concept of a cubicle. We are now using an alternative workspace approach.

This means that each person can choose where they will sit each day.  Some folks have chosen to stick to the traditional one desk approach.  While someone like me goes to the other extreme and gives up their desk entirely.  For the past few weeks I have been completely unchained from a desk - a vagabond, a nomad.

Each morning, when I arrive, I find a couch and get my laptop out on my knees and start working. There are so many benefits to this that I hadn't really considered before and I have become a big proponent for this setup.  Not all workplaces can go this route, but if you need to foster collaboration among team members, or cross-functionally, nothing beats this approach.

Each day, I sit down and am surrounded by an entirely new group of people.  I get to participate in and overhear discussions that I would otherwise be separate from. It allows more people and more variety into the tackling of a problem we are facing as a department or company. We can be more efficient and smarter about problem-solving and innovation. It has also given me the opportunity to learn more about my co-workers.  What music they like to listen to, what they do outside of work, what things they geek out about.  When you are sitting and working more casually, it allows for a more fluid stream of ideas and conversation. I don't need to make time to be social with these people anymore.  Now it is just part of how we naturally interact with one another.

This has also had another side effect that I was not anticipating.  Because work is a bit more flowing and creative now, it's easier for me to stay in "create mode" when I leave at the end of the day.  I can get onto the train and do a solid hour of writing because I've been letting ideas stew throughout the day during my conversations and observations. For the first time, my work is fueling my creative energies and not hindering them.  I am writing and making art not in rebellion of my other daily work, but as bookends to it.

So, huzzah to alternative workplace environments! Maybe consider proposing it at your workplace.  It's much easier to implement than you would think.