How come my office doesn’t look like the ones you see in stock photos? Yeah, I know that’s a dumb question – I mean, what does look like its stock photo counterpart? It’s just that it makes me feel like I’m not doing it right when I see pictures of vibrant, engaged workers collaboratively examining a pie chart, typically holding artisanal mugs and grouped around a communal table adorned with an inexplicable bowl of lemons.
How can I get my team to look like that? True, none of them want anything to do with communal work-spaces or lemons, for that matter. It’s more the fact that everything in this space just looks… well, like it was purchased at OfficePerks, which it was. I’m guessing the way to get that bespoke, ‘crafted’ look is to engage a custom office design company. Melbourne surely has loads of designers who specialise in creating one-off commercial interiors.
Sounds expensive and time-consuming, but maybe it would be worth it if my team could look as excited about pie charts as the stock photo people. If there really were such power in custom office fitouts, Melbourne businesses would know about it, wouldn’t they? Perhaps I should check out some other offices and see how they stack up to stock photo land – and, more to the point, how my office stacks up to them.
It’s hard to avoid drawing these kinds of comparisons in the age of the digital pin board and viral articles with titles like ‘Top 10 Coolest Offices In The World’ and ‘You Won’t Believe This Melbourne Firm’s Incredible Multi-Story Climbing Wall’. Let’s not forget the tidal wave of so-called influencers plugging their ‘Make A Mil With Your First Online Course’ online courses, complete with stock photos of hip, tattooed entrepreneurs smiling beatifically at their hot desks.
Okay, rant over. You get it.