Recipe For Disaster

This just in: the new office break room resembles a youth hostel kitchen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – I’ve got nothing against the backpacker experience – but there’s a time and a place for that, and I’d argue that it’s not in the head office of a high-end cookbook publishing house.

 

We should have taken more time with the consultation, like Boris said. Henry can see that now, at least, but it won’t make any difference – the office redevelopment is already well over budget, and there’s no room to go back to the drawing board. This is what we’re stuck with. 

 

It’s a shame – it’s not like there’s a shortage of highly regarded office designers within Melbourne, and it could have turned out as a real asset to the building, something that would support talent acquisition and retention, and establish us as a cutting-edge company with its finger on the pulse. The publishing industry is already suffering in that last department, and this is just the icing on the cake. 

 

Furthermore, it’s a shame because we used one of the best office space fitout companies Melbourne has to offer, and they did a really stellar job of executing the design. Seeing what they did with a bad design, I’d love to see what they could do with a good one… but it’s not to be, as least not as part of this project. 

 

What’s so bad about the design? Well, it’s not just the furnishings, colour palette and materials. It’s the whole shebang, from layout to lighting and everything in between. It just doesn’t reflect the tone of the company at all. 

 

The worst bit is that our whole team is going to be absorbing it on a daily basis, and while they eat at that. That’s when people are most prone to taking in impressions and circumventing the rational mind, you know.