Offices and how they effect your work
I am unusual in that I work from home. Of course, in today’s virtual world, more and more people are working from home as employees and freelancers. I own my own company and hire others who work from their home as well which is also unusual. Unfortunately, there is no way to keep an eye on employees working remotely, so you have to pay them by the job as sub-contractors which works well… generally…
But, I am thinking that at one point, I will need to get an office in able to be able to grow my company to the next level. I run several bustling online directories, and there is a lot of work involved. Having a few people in an office to do phone calls, emails, and database management would really help in the future. Some people think that people work much better in an office environment. The focus is purely on work, and there are fewer distractions than being at home. I think this is generally true, but we need to look at each environment one by one.
My visits to local Los Angeles office buildings – Downtown
I visited office buildings in many parts of Los Angeles, and the types of buildings were all very unique. I started in downtown in a high-rise. They had special deals on office spaces as they had many empty units. They were in prime, A rated office space. We were up on the 36th floor in a very professionally managed building with high security. The small rooms with no windows on the inner side of the building were relatively cheap for the area starting around $600 per month. But the nicer rooms with windows were much more expensive. My main issue was air. The air was recycled, and not fresh — with a low percentage of oxygen which is not tolerable if you have a heart condition. I would suffocate if I worked there more than two hours. I thought of bringing in many plants which would convert CO2 into Oxygen… I wonder if that would work.
Midtown – a dream shared office
The next building was a shared office loft. There were several companies with mini-suites there (no walls), and a whole bunch of entrepreneurs. The atmosphere was vibrant with creative energy and hard work. I liked the manager very much, and the air was freshly pumped in from the room (the manager was the architect who designed the place). Wow! So, I went back and tried working there. You can rent by the afternoon, day, week, or month at reasonable rates considering how attractive this place was. I did 76 phone calls in two hours and five minutes. I’m not sure if that is a record, but my concentration was very good there, and lots of work got done!
Beverly Hills – a nightmare office
I saw a realtor near the border of Beverly Hills. He was very nice and arrived early, and so did I. However, the square footage of the office was not what the specifications said. I learned that they include hall space in the specifications. The building was really old and very unattractive. But, at least the windows opened, so I could breath.
Midtown again…
I saw a nice office with two rooms separated by a wall with a huge window. I found that the size of the rooms wouldn’t meet my future needs. I needed the back room to be smaller since it would be for me personally, and the other room to be bigger as it would need to accomdate three people during peak usage…
The 1920’s building.
This was a real cultural experience. The landlord was really nice and showed me around. The entrance had a wonderful classic Spanish architecture and a domed arch near the entry. The tenants were an ecclectic mix of creative people including a singing teacher, an acupuncturist, and many varieties of small business owners. I thought it was a really interesting place.
Conclusion
It is hard to determine where would be the best work environment and why. But, the work environments were so diverse, that it was an interesting tour of my own city, that lead to my eyes being opened in new ways. My favorite was the shared office. But, in the long run, I’ll need to find that perfect office that is the perfect size and configuration.
