Economy of Communion

Experiences: Relocating to a New Office, Together

Posted on October 15, 2015 Updated on November 4, 2015

My name is Anne Godbout and I started Spiritours, a tour operator specialized in spiritual journeys and pilgrimages, in 2003, as an EoC business.

Before the end of last year, we had to find a new office space as our lease ended December 1^st, 2014. I gave birth to my first born in May 2014 and was on maternity leave. Up until October I found very little time and energy to visit office spaces for rent with my little one, therefore employees started to worry since I hadn’t confirmed anything… I started doing more visits, then rumors started to go around in the office that I was looking for a space close to my house and some employees didn’t like this idea because it was far from their home.

I was actually looking for a location near my house (and close to a subway station), but I was also looking in different areas of the city, including the area where our office was at the time. My assistant convinced me I should come and speak with the employees to clarify things. At first I didn’t want to consult them because I thought i would become an endless debate since each probably had their own criterias and priorities.

However, because she asked me, and I knew she was doing it for the best interest of everyone, I scheduled an appointment and took the time to prepare a power point with pictures of the top 5 spaces I had found and details on where it was located, how far it was from a subway station, the office layout plan…

Before I showed them the power point, I asked them to fill a short survey (individually) to know what their priorities were. I explained to them I didn’t want a debate nor a vote, but wanted them to be able to express what they thought was the most important and give them an idea of the options we had. At the end I asked them by email to tell me what were their top 3 places among the options we had and why; this helped me know what they really thought.

My first choice would have been an office close to my house that was brand new, but I had to give it up, because it was the most infamous for its location, so I picked my second choice which was the first choice of most employees, even though it needed important renovations. I negociated the terms with the owner and got him to take care of some renovations that he started almost right away since we only had about one month left to prepare everything…

I hired a general contractor and a decorator for the renovations I had to take care of. They all did such a great job and respected the delays. There were so many things to do, I didn’t know how I was going to manage with the baby, daycare in Montreal is hard to find, there are long waiting lists and my baby was only 6 month old. I remembered my neighbor had a home daycare, so I asked if she had space and if she could take my baby part time, she had one space open, so she accepted right away, that was for me a manifestation of God’s love for us.

We managed to do everything on time. When the moving company finished to pack their truck with our boxes, we hurried to the new office and I surprised them with a beautifully decorated reception hall with new sofas and… pizza! We had a lot of fun together that day, we goofed around and ended the day with some beers, feeling exhausted but proud and very happy.

One thing my employees didn’t like about the former place was the layout, they were 4 in one office and 3 in the other one and when they were all on the phone at the same time, it was hard for them to concentrate, so they liked the idea of individual offices in the new space, but at the same time they feared to be isolated from the rest of the team and lose the family spirit, so I arranged it with the owner to make openings the size of a window between some offices so they could see and talk to their team partners and exchange files (they work in pairs). We also have lots of communal spaces like the kitchen, the living room, the welcome hall and the meeting room where we can meet and chat to keep building relationships everyday. We even have an oasis of silence (prayer room).

The next Monday after the moving, each employee found a little cactus in bloom and a welcome note handwritten from their boss on their desk.

I keep hearing from the employees that they really like the new office and I can feel the atmosphere is very positive! We did the inauguration in February and a priest who leads pilgrimages for Spiritours blessed our new headquarter. They even talked about this event in the medias.

Next I want to hear an experience from Nick Sanna…