Our firm recently moved from an old building with a sandwich shop in the lobby to a 39-story skyscraper that was once the second-tallest building in San Francisco. Instead of walking through a sulfurous onion cloud on my way to the elevator, I’m now greeted by a man in uniform who smiles and says “hello” as I enter the hive.
I find this highly annoying.
This performance is a terrible waste of resources. By my estimation, about 25% of us return the greeting; the remainder breezes past, oblivious to our goodwill ambassador. If building management wants tenant employees to feel good about coming to work, here are suggestions that might create real value:
- Buy a few hundred commuter mugs with the building’s logo and give them away with Starbucks gift cards once/week.
- Contact the businesses immediately adjacent to our building and encourage them to offer us discounts.
- Engage tenants in charitable activities like clothing and toy drives outside of the holiday season.
- Organize a group of joggers/power-walkers who’ll meet up a few times each week.
- Each Friday, visit a different office and drop off a handful of movie passes. Every Monday, surprise a different tenant with pastry and bagels.
- Hell; just throw up a simple Facebook page to keep us posted on maintenance, improvements and other building news.
These low-cost ideas promote the notion that building management cares about our happiness. Which is the only reason they’re paying someone to wave at me, am I right?
More Gaudy Patter 