Creating the ideal workplace – what’s the mantra?

As part of my job, I keep reading articles about the techniques and ways through which organizations can make their workplace desirable for existing and prospective employees. There’s the age old incentive model and then there are more recent recommendations about keeping the work environment casual or making work hours flexible or promoting a sense of healthy competition. 

All of the above have some impact, yes. But at least from personal experience, I feel it is that sense of comfort and belonging a person feels when they enter their office every morning, that defines work culture and makes it stellar, rather than merely acceptable.

Where is all of this HR gyaan coming from today, you may be wondering. Well, simply put, I just felt like it. I felt like giving a well deserved tribute to an organization that has shaped who I am over the past two and a half years.

What has it done so differently? I think my office head once summarised it aptly, “It’s important to make sure everyone retains their inherent personality without imposing it on others.” That’s what I love, they let us be and I am aware how much guts that can take from an organisational viewpoint.

We are encouraged to do our best during work hours but simultaneously, we are pushed to party hard after a long week’s work too. And that attitude has most of us landing up together on a Friday night, chilling but more importantly, bonding as well. We have no race, class or religion discrimination and each of us are as happy to go to Srinidhi Sagar post work as we are when we head to Monkey Bar. We understand each other’s strengths and enjoy each other’s company.

Some of my friends and family outside of work sometimes ask me, “Aren’t you bored of seeing the same faces over the week?” And my response? “Well, those faces let me be my truest self and how can I be bored with that?” For everyone who would like to see some more evidence of how much we mean to each other, here are some snapshots of us hanging out.

And I’ll tell you the best part. This is not one group of people who have grown close to each other, these pictures reflect a sense of oneness throughout the office.

This might sound like bragging to some. But I know how difficult it is to find that perfect workplace that lets you be and makes you comfortable in your own skin. It’s a quality I am grateful my organization possesses and though not unique, I understand how rare that quality is.

As for all my past and present colleagues who will be reading this, please know that this post is as much a tribute to our friendship and camaraderie, as it is to our company.