MP’s Flex Office

Just recently, we celebrated the grand reopening of our office in Vienna’s Inner City and our entirely new flexible concept. Due to the circumstances of the last few months, this was the first time that the entire team got together in a physical format since last year.

Weeks preceding that may have been a bit stressful for one or the other colleague, with every single room receiving makeovers to be equipped with the most up-to-date equipment fit for flexible working, such as plug-and-play Bluetooth devices, personalised for every team member. I myself remember having to move from my workstation several times in one day, as new lights were being installed!

But the result is truly worth it, and already on that first day, after we all partook in guided tours of our new facilities, many colleagues immediately began using all the new features that our upgraded office has to offer.

The most obvious change struck my eye right when I walked in: Our old lobby has been transformed into an amazing looking multi-purpose space. Movable furniture, big screens and a large grandstand can accommodate our entire fast-growing team for team meetings, offer additional hangout areas for breaks and a casual environment for brainstorming sessions.

When I first started working at MP, everyone had their assigned standard workstation, and we all formed tight-knit communities with our “roommates”, while now we have free choice of seats anywhere around the office. This is great for exchange with different colleagues, whom you would usually see less often. Of course, you might think that now it’s harder to find the colleagues you need to talk to in an office, where seating arrangements change constantly. But we also took care of that by offering an app that shows you which workstations are currently booked and where your colleagues are when you need them. It is also always healthy to not sit all day, that’s why some of our new rooms now also feature height-adjustable desks.

We all face a wide variety of different tasks every day, and now we have the optimal spaces to accommodate all our needs effectively. In addition to our standard multi-desk office rooms, each one of us is free to book collaborative working spaces, as well as focused working spaces.
These past few months, working collaboratively was mostly limited to Microsoft Teams, and when we were able to come to the office, we repurposed our classic meeting rooms. On the other hand, the new number of co-working spaces are all adequately sized for small group discussions and joint outbursts of creativity to make that pitch you’re working on just look perfect. Working collaboratively simply feels much livelier when you’re standing next to your colleagues. But since the option to work remotely will remain part of our flexible concept, modern conference systems and screens will still make you feel like you’re right there with your colleagues, even when you’re calling from home or from a hotel during a client visit.

Do you need to phone a lot with clients today or do you require intense concentration without distraction to complete an urgent deadline? Simply book a single person focus zone for a couple of hours to cover your needs, no matter if you are an analyst or partner. We have managed to efficiently plan our layout for all of this while also retaining our large meeting rooms that will now serve exclusively for meeting our clients and hosting team meetings.

Working from home has its benefits, and of course, we still offer that opportunity since many of us appreciate that flexibility. But we are proud to have not slept during these past complicated months, and instead of just returning to the old normal, we have found the perfect way to balance our needs for flexibility and embraced its benefits.
Many thanks to the many colleagues of different positions and functions, who came together in several intense planning sessions to carefully define what flexible working entails and to craft the perfect office space for us.

Naturally, we also remembered to take care of the little things. My fellow coffee addicts can rejoice at the new set of coffee machines strategically placed around the office. And during breaks, the more competitive ones among us can now measure their virtual football skills on our brand new PS5, in addition to our old, trusted foosball table.

After such a long time of mostly working from home, a comfortable but sometimes lonely place, it is now an even better feeling to reconnect & collaborate with your colleagues in person and we are all looking forward to using the many new tools we got and hosting many future team events in our office!