These techies have taken co-working to the next level.
At education company Fiveable, employees have been going into the office for the entirety of the coronavirus pandemic — because their office is also their house.
In a profile for the Guardian, writer Poppy Noor takes readers inside the “medieval-looking stone house” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where five of the tech business’ staffers have been living (rent-free), working, eating, sleeping, partying and hanging out with their two bosses since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. The decision to do so was made by the company’s leaders to simultaneously cut costs and offer workers something unique.
After a year of the experiment, participants generally reflected that it was a success, especially during such an isolating disease-filled year.
“Living and working together is not for everyone, but for Fiveable, it has worked well for years,” founder and CEO Amanda DoAmaral told The Post in a statement. “Not only because we’ve been able to move fast, with the benefit of being able to collaborate in the comfort of our home, but because we’ve also identified and built relationships with other people who care just as much about our mission and goals as we do.”
However, certain problems became intensely exacerbated by living together, according to The Guardian.
“Any conflict we have usually has to be resolved very quickly. Because we don’t want that to affect what we are doing,” Fiveable’s chief experience officer, Tan Ho, told the publication of co-living arguments.
“Firing anyone sucks,” said DoAmaral, who has had to let employees go, including ones she considered her friends. “But when you live together, you have to evict them also.”
To thrive in such an environment, a deep commitment to and fulfillment from work appears to be vital: The majority of those interviewed self-identified as workaholics and, while the group does let loose together after hours, the concept of a weekend appears blurred.
“We try not to work Saturdays. And Sundays are sort of like a halfsies day,” DoAmaral said.
The residents also have to navigate personal behavior and determine what is acceptable. For instance, when employee Harry Cao got sick after downing too much tequila at a house party, he lucked out because it technically happened during off-time.
“If we’re going to have a night where everybody’s drinking, then we’re drinking, too,” said DoAmaral. “I’m not gonna fire Harry for getting sick. He’s just having fun.”
But there are limits.
“If there was a fight between people and really awful things were being said … racist, sexist or homophobic things. If some true colors were coming out, that would be really concerning,” DoAmaral said.
Fiveable’s setup, while extreme, is far from unheard of in the often work-obsessed tech industry. At the six-bedroom Silicon Valley home dubbed “Casa de Facebook” — where the social media behemoth’s co-founders (Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg) and staff lived in the company’s early days — some 10 interns reportedly shared a bunk bed-filled sunroom.
“The home just exploded with engineers and Facebook employees,” landlord Judy Fusco recently told The Post of the Facebook team’s time renting it.
Also, giants like Google have created luxury campus headquarters to entice employees with cushy surroundings.
