Tag: workplace

The End Of Work-Life Balance?

As everyone knows, I love the co-working space Valo, and all the staff know me and go out of their way to do the best for me. Back in January, a funny thing happened, and since then, I use it as an excuse to get out of work by 5 PM or 5:30 at the latest when I am in Helsinki. Otherwise, I am caught in things that are just starting to happen in the office when people start their work day in Chicago.

Last week, when I started to reserve rooms for the upcoming work week, I accidentally reserved two rooms for October 28 instead of One for 28th and one for 29th, and when I realized I made a mistake, I couldn’t cancel either of these reservations. When I came to Valo on Monday, I asked Jarko, a person who is responsible for all tech support, and who helped me many times before, to move this second reservation from Tuesday to Wednesday. He told me I should be able to do it myself, and showed me in the app how to proceed. I was able to cancel, and make a new reservation for October 29, but unfortunately, there were no rooms with extended display available, and I really need this second display for work.

I mentioned it to Jarko when I was in the co-worker’s lounge for my next cup of coffee on Tuesday, and I told him I will check the next morning whether there will be more rooms available. He replied that even if there won’t be any rooms, he should be able to bring an additional display to my room, and asked me whether I was going to come around 8:30. I told him that sometimes, I come earlier and work out before I start the working day, and that was it.

On Wednesday morning, I checked whether to room for the day was already assigned, and I saw that it was. The room number was 328, so when I came in, I dropped my stuff in the room, changed into gym clothes and went to the gym, being pretty happy with the fact that the room as assigned early, so I had time for a workout, and breakfast with no rush, and then I could check with Jarko the monitor situation.

After my workout, I came back to room 328, and my key was not opening it – it flashed red! I looked and the app on the phone and saw that the room number had changed, and now I had room 284 instead of 328, and it was a room with external display. I realized what happened, and went down to reception hoping to ask them to open theold room and letting me to take my stuff. They said that Jarko has changed my reservation, but then he realized that I was already in so he switched it back.

I knew that nothing was switched, so I went to see Jarko (all in my gym clothes, mind you). he was very apologetic, but I told him everything was great, and I am very thankful for his thoughtfullnes, I just need to get my stuff out :). He went to the third floor together with me, helped me to pick up everything and move it to the new room. After the move was completed, he asked: would you like me to extend your hours today? We usually do not rent the rooms with extended display for the evenings, but I want to make sure! I said: thank you, no need today, but in general – I might need it. He replied: any time!

… I didn’t share his response with my Chicago co-workers 😀

Seen In Helsinki

Partially obscured, because I was in a hurry and didn’t want anyone seeing me taking pictures of the bathroom, but I still wanted to take a picture of a gender-neutral parent changing a diaper 🙂 .

Two-level bike parking at the train station
And yet anothe ice cream!
Lindonberry season – I got a box in the store, and ate it with rahka, and there is still some left – I will take it ho

On Monday, I worked at Valo again (the staff is saying “Nice to see you again :)).

And in addition to breakfast and lunch, they now have afternoon coffee:)

And finally, here is a mystery photo of the day – any guesses where I took it?

Tenant Lounge

There was construction going on on the second floor of our office building, and a couple of weeks ago, a new tenant lounge was finally opened.

Just showing off 🙂

Office Events

This week is packed with multiple office events. On Tuesday, our firm hosted a workshop organized by 100 Women in Finance. Rebecca Malotke-Meslin talked about negotiationg strategies. I was hoping for more generic negotiation techniques, but it was mostly about salary and promotion negotiations, although very well done!

Today, we had a Women Networking Breakfast at our rooftop. A little piece of irony: our regular breakfast is/was much better! We had a fruit salad, Greek yogurt, spinach and onion scramble, and proscutto and pesto scramble. And an apricot-raspberry topping for oatmeal. And freshly baked croissants. And the networking breakfast had iced coffee, chocolate croissants, and donuts. So I had a “normal breakfast” and then went to networking!

Tons of great conversations, new connections and catching up!

Charcuterie Board Class

We often have interesting office events after work, and I try to attend when I do not have a conflict. These events often conveniently fit between the end of my workday and some later evening activity.

On Thursday, we had a charcuterie board class. I missed the original sign-up, but signed for the waitlist, and once in a lifetime, I was lucky to be the only person moved from the waitlist to the actual event participant.

If nothing else, all of us could take our delicious boards home (I still have a little bit left in the fridge), but I also learned something new (and that’s me thinking I have these skills). One of the revelations: never do cubes! Cubes are boring 😂! I also learned why you want to cut in wedges – the cheese tastes differently close to the rind, so you get the full palate if you cut in wedges. I also learned how to make salami flowers, and why breaking cheese into pieces “naturally” is good. And – all these goodes were for me to enjoy!

Office On Friday

Most people prefer to work from home on Friday, especially when the weather is as nice as it was yesterday, but then you miss out on all of the Friday food!

More Pictures Of Valo Coworking

I posted tons of pictures in October when I worked in Valo for the first time, here are more.

On Friday, I was in a room in a different wing, and it turned out that there are more coworking spaces which I didn’t see before:

A view from the first-floor coworking space into the cafe. I love that you can sit anywhere, and there are electric plugs everywhere!
On my short walk
In the gym
Breakfast:)

Back To Work (In Helsinki)

Resuming my work at Valo coworking space didn’t go smoothly. The app kept saying there were no rooms with extra displays available, and even a room without an extra display was not available until 9 a.m. I made a reservation, but the room number didn’t show up in the morning, so I decided to go to Valo and figure out everything while I was onsite.

I arrived five minutes before 7 AM, and nobody at reception could tell me why the rooms with displays were unavailable. I knew I couldn’t officially claim my room until nine, but I also knew it should have been assigned by that moment. The next thing I realized was that since the room was not assigned, my magic button did not work for anything, so I couldn’t go to the gym or close the locker. The morning reception shift came, but they still couldn’t tell me what was going on “until Jarkko comes.” I knew from the last time that Jarkko could fix anything in the system, but he is not a morning person, so I couldn’t expect him to be around at 7:15.

Suddenly, a room with an extra display popped up as available on the app, and I grabbed it, but nobody at reception could help me to cancel the previous reservation: “You need to wait for Jarkko!” But at least I had a room, and my button started to work, so I hurried up to drop my things, change, and go to the gym.

One more change since last time was that the breakfast price went up; however, it remained the same for the tenants, so I could still enjoy “all-you-can-eat” for 10 euros. Also, it turned out that they had several conferences going on, so many rooms were converted back to hotel rooms, and all the staff was busy servicing the conferences.

On my third trip upstairs, I finally found Jarkko at his desk, and everything started magically working: my canceled reservation was credited back to my account, I was able to book the rooms with an extra monitor for the remainder of the week (“Try now, I added five rooms!”)

I remembered how to make the magic button work on the elevators and realized I could pour cappuccino into a ceramic cup and take it back to my room. I found a fruit bowl in the cafeteria and grabbed a couple of pieces for later. Life is beautiful again 🙂

TIME Magazine: Emotions And Productivity

An absolutely brilliant article! I agree with every word of it. I know first-hand how difficult it is to concentrate on what you are doing when your emotions dominate. That’s why I would always tell Boris that if we argue during my morning and won’t resolve the issue before his evening, my whole workday is gone. I am incapable of doing any work whatsoever.

There is one thing, however, which I would add: yes, we all should practice controlling our emotions, but also, we all should be mindful of how our behavior at the workplace affects others. Just remember that one rude comment can make a person completely unproductive for an extended period of time.

The full article text is copied below.

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Emotions And Productivity” →

A Week Of Working At Valo

I used Valo Work for the whole week, and each day, I loved it more. Both Thursday and Friday, I went there earlier so that I could work out and then have breakfast. Breakfasts were amazing, even better than lunches.

Not pictured: they had overnight oats, and I decided just to try a spoonful, and it turned out that they had fresh (I guess, defrosted, but tasted like fresh) wild blueberries! Absolutely fantastic. Also not pictured: a huge selection of cold cuts and cheese, and nuts/dried fruit/you name it.

Here is a picture I promised last time:

Don’t you love these sitting spots on the stairs?! And electric outlets everywhere. This area is open to everyone, and there are many other sitting areas, like this one:

I kept discovering new amenities of my private office; on Thursday, I found that each office has a fridge 🙂

Although my office rent time was technically from 9 AM to 5 PM, my key worked when I would come at 7-30, so I could leave my things there and go to the gym, and then to breakfast, and then actually start working at 9 AM. I will definitely do it again next time I am there!