I have officially started work! After a few minor delays, I had my first day on Monday. I am eager to get ramped up and begin contributing This past week included my first trip to the office, and tech offices are known for being full of bells and whistles. Now as these things become the status quo the allure will fade, but for right now I am enthralled. To give a sense of what I mean I will walk through one of my days this week, and highlight amenities I appreciated.
I woke up bright and early ready to bike to work and hit the corporate gym. I discovered my tire was flat but was able to pump it up enough to make it into the office. Arriving at the gym I filled my water bottle up with berry electrolytes at one of the water dispensing machines they have around campus. These machines allow you to pick between still and sparkling water, with different flavour profiles available. As someone who really only drinks water, I appreciate these machines.
At the gym, I hit chest, shoulders, and tris. The gym is well equipped with many squat racks and deadlift stations. There are also a few outdoor sections to the gym which include squat racks and free weights which I am excited to try. After finishing up I shower and utilize the tower service available, another thing I appreciate.
Next on the agenda is addressing the flat tire on my bike, luckily there is a bike shop on campus! I drop my bike off at the shop to get my tire fixed. Labor at the bike shop is free, you are just responsible for paying for the parts, less 15%. The bike tech also noticed my chain was worn out and offered to replace it. While my bike is getting fixed, I go grab breakfast.
Now the food may be the most infamous aspect of tech offices. Who doesn’t love free food??? On the main campus, there are about eight different restaurants available. The menu at each place changes slightly every day. Something I really appreciate about the food is that each item lists out all of the ingredients. As a nutritionally conscious person, I like to be able to know what I am eating. There are a lot of healthy options available. For breakfast, I get scrambled egg whites, fruit, and oatmeal with cashew granola.
Up until this point, my dentist would be furious with me, I have not brushed my teeth! Have no fear, the bathrooms have pre-pasted toothbrushes available so I give my pearly whites a scrub. At this point it is ~9 am and time to get to work. I currently don’t have an assigned desk, so I just sit down at a desk and plug into to the monitor. The chairs at the office are the same as the one I just got, so I make sure to properly adjust it to make sure the ergonomics are on point.
Now the work itself isn’t much of a sight, just a dude sitting at a computer. So we will skip ahead to lunch. I meet up with a fellow new hire for lunch, and we head to the salad restaurant. At this point, I was already pretty satisfied with things, but this salad bar was the cherry on top. Salad is usually my go-to lunch, and this was the best salad bar I have been to. I loaded up my salad with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, lots of other greens, and steak! I fill up my bottle with lemon sparkling water to have with lunch.
Post-lunch includes more work and a mid-afternoon snack. Mid-afternoon snack is my favorite protein bar which I don’t usually buy because there are too expensive, another thing I appreciate. After I’m done with my work for the day, I pick up my freshly repaired bike and bike back home.
All of these things make for a really nice quality of work-life. Even small things, like toothbrushes, contribute to this overall enjoyableness. It is definitely easy to get comfortable with this. I have started out with a pretty high bar, not sure if any other office in the future will be able to compare…
I just moved into my place which is only a 14-minute bike ride from work, so I will definitely be taking full advantage of the office amenities!
– Mitch
Favorite Things of The Week
📦 Amazon
Amazon really is amazing. I have ordered almost everything I needed for my new place from here. Not only is free one-day shipping great, but also the ability to easily compare products and read reviews. It may be a US thing, or just more people using Amazon, but all the products I was looking at had tons of reviews. The mattress I ordered at 130,000 reviews!
💳 Google Pay
The ancient, archaic institution of TD Bank somehow does not support Google Pay but Bank of America does. Having my credit card on my phone is just another small but notable quality of life improvement.
📺 Foresty Forest Youtube Channel
Just a guy living out of his van doing hikes in Canada. This is out I get my dose of Canadian mountains while out of the country.