Skip to main content

CraftFebruary 28, 20205 min read

The office we built

Two offices, a few years apart. The old one where GlobeMetrix became Prudour, then a new one with three floors.

Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.

Richard Branson

Two offices, a few years apart. I stepped down in October 2023.

The old office

One floor. GlobeMetrix first, then Prudour from 2017.

A reception desk against a stacked-stone wall, with the company mark on a white panel and a plant beside it — Reception. That Prudour board is a temporary one, put up when the name changed.

Two men at a desk in the director cabin, laptops open, giving a thumbs up — The director cabin. Pramod Pawar and me.

Two men at the same desk in the director cabin with their laptops, giving a thumbs up — The same desk. Ramkrishna (Pavan) Lipare and Sudhish Mohan.

A wide view of the old office floor, rows of desks with orange partitions and blue chairs, the team at work — The floor, most of it in one frame.

Inside the partitioned desk bays on the old office floor, the team working at their monitors — Inside the partitions, on the same floor.

A bay of desks with orange partitions, four of the team working at their monitors — A bay of desks, mid-morning.

A long row of desks seen down the line, the team at work under a white ceiling — The long row, looking down it.

The old office floor with the stacked-stone wall on the left and the team at their screens — The floor, with the stone wall along one side.

A wide view of the old office floor, orange partitions, wall art at the far end — The far end of the floor.

A pantry corner with an exposed brick wall, framed pictures, hanging pendant lamps and a water cooler — The pantry corner. Pendant lights, and a water cooler.

A blue table tennis table in an empty white room, with a bat left lying on it — The table tennis room. The bat is still on the table.

The new office

Three floors, two of them used.

Frosted glass double doors carrying the company name and mark, set into a dark wood frame — The main door.

A reception counter faced in horizontal slats, the company name in raised letters, and a small shrine on the wall above — Reception. The name in raised letters, and a small shrine above it.

The entrance corridor with the frosted-glass Prudour door, dark wood panelling, a green mat and Diwali decorations hanging from the ceiling — The way in, dressed for Diwali.

The director cabin with a glass-topped desk, black leather chairs, dark wood shelving and geometric pendant lights — The director cabin. Ours.

Rajesh at the glass-topped desk in the director cabin, a MacBook open in front of him — At that desk. June 2021.

The open floor of the new office, long white desks with the team working at monitors under orange columns — The new floor, filled.

A long open floor of desks with the team at their monitors, a stone-clad wall along one side — The long floor.

A group working at a table near a door and window on the new office floor — A table near the door.

Another view of the new office floor with the team at their desks — Another corner of the floor.

A row of the team working at monitors along a shared desk in a bright room — A row at work.

A long row of desks along a window wall, blue chairs, the team at their monitors — The row along the window.

A corner of desks against a dark wood wall, the team at their screens — The corner by the wood wall.

A blue table tennis table under pendant lights in an empty room — The table tennis table, in the canteen.

A long canteen with wooden benches, brightly colored chairs, a slatted wooden ceiling and pendant lamps — The canteen.

A canteen wall covered by a large collage mural, with rows of orange, green and yellow chairs at wooden tables — The mural, and the colored chairs.

The corner of the office building photographed from below, glass and gray banding against the sky — Looking up the corner of the building.

Comments

You may also like

A pair of cricket wicketkeeping gloves with a red ball resting on them, cut out on a grained paper-collage ground

Become the MS Dhoni of your company

Five months to appraisals. Three questions to ask yourself before the company asks them, and why your raise depends on the company's growth, not your effort.

A monitor, keyboard and tower, cut out over a pale graph-paper panel on a grained slate-blue paper-collage ground

My workstation

People kept asking what I was working on, so here is the machine I bought in January 2014, part by part.

A vintage enamel megaphone lying on its side, mouth turned away, cut out against concentric sound-wave arcs on a grained dusty-rose paper-collage ground

Why I do not brag about earnings

A blogger asked why I never promote myself the way others do. My answer, and what I think income screenshots actually produce.

← Back to the journal