Electric Citizen has a new office space!
After 7 years at our previous location, our official address has changed. We didn't go very far, just a mile or so north of our last space. But if you're planning to send us any mail, make sure you update your address books:
Electric Citizen
2744 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Electric Citizen is a Minneapolis-based agency. It's where we started and where I (your dear author) continue to live, along with several members of the team. But like much of the rest of the country, we moved to a remote team in 2020, and that is where we stayed.
We now have team members across multiple states and timezones. Everyone works from a home office and we manage all our communication via Zoom, Slack and email. It seems to work particularly well in our line of work, and we've been able to continue large-scale website redesigns with our clients, all without ever meeting in person.
So you may ask yourself, why have an office?
Reason 1: I don't like to work at home.
Yeah, I said it. I don't. I did work from home for a very long time (13 years) prior to founding Electric Citizen in 2012, and really had that practice down. But we started as an in-person agency, with a locally-based team that came together every weekday to work. I really grew to like the experience of going somewhere each day and having a clear work/home divide.
No one else on my team agrees, and that’s fine! They are all very happy working from home, and we’re happy to support that. It's been great to have such a wider pool of people to hire, not being limited by who is only in my area.
During the Covid pandemic, when the rest of my team transitioned to working from home, I continued to go into the office. There was no one else there, so I can’t say I did it for social reasons. But it just felt right to me and continues to do so. I like a bit of socializing and seeing other people, even if I’m mostly heads down at my desk. So the number one reason is me. I like to have an office. What do you prefer?
Reason 2: Keeping work and home separate
I kinda touched on this in reason 1, how I prefer that psychical distinction between home life and work life. When I’m at the office, I know I’m working and when I’m home, I’m in downtime. It’s totally manageable to do this all from one place, as my coworkers would attest. But it just works better for me.
There’s also something to be said for nothing having everything tied to one’s home address, and having a separate street address to use in contracts, in hiring, and other business communications. Not everyone needs to know where I live!
Reason 3: A place to store the stuff
There’s not a ton of equipment needed for our line of work. A desk, laptop and Internet connection is really all you need. Maybe a monitor and printer. But this business has a few other needs.
There’s tradeshow materials, including big cases, big and little signage, lights, and company-branded swag. There’s also printed sellsheets, company-branded clothing, case studies, business cards, etc. Where does it all go?
Until now, it was all at the last office, and then some! I still had chairs and monitors from when we were an in-person team. Keyboards, cables, fridge, whiteboards, and so many other little things. It was a great opportunity to pare things down. But I still like having an office for some of this, and not cluttering my house with it all.
It’s pretty clear that working from home is not going away. But who knows where things will go from here? Most people still like to get together at some point.
Maybe a client will really want to meet in-person again. There’s also a local community of web professionals and Drupal users that like to get together on occasion. Maybe we could host them at our office?
I don’t think we know for certain where things will go from here. I know I like to see and be around people, so I’ll be here at the office, working away, ready for whatever is coming next.
Have your own thoughts or experiences, working from home vs the office? Leave a comment below!
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