The pandemic created a lot of change and transition in our lives, but two things remain constant: WeTransfer's culture values togetherness, and that our environments shape our creative culture. Over the past three years, we've adapted to hybrid work and have found that connection can happen anywhere. We're proud of our flexible working situation and are happy to work from the office, from home, the garden, or even the bathtub. So proud, in fact, that we asked some colleagues to share their workspaces with us, and we were impressed with how they've made their spaces work for them.
Photography by Tom van Huissteede
Hari Jayapalan, Almere
Hari, a Senior Engineer II for our Transfer platform here at WeTransfer, has loved the opportunity to bring a bit of nature into his home work environment. Originally from the city of Coimbatore, India, he now calls Almere, Netherlands, his home, and enjoys the fact that he’s got a tad more space to work with versus the typical Amsterdam city apartment.
Do you have any creative pursuits, inside or outside of work that the shift to hybrid working allowed you to develop?
"Yes! So to start, me and my wife, we’d go play badminton or padel. I previously could’ve done that by heading straight from work, because the courts are not that far from the office. But, my day would be over by the time I got home. By doing all that, I would reach home by 6pm or 7:30pm.
Now, I just step out when the sun comes out. I step out for a run or step out to go to the gym. In the middle of the day, it’s less crowded, rather than if you go at a peak time, like 5:30pm.
I’ve also got these special edition cards, signed by the illusionist David Blaine himself. I can fan them around, and then, you know, keep practising the techniques and sleight of hand, almost like a Rubik’s Cube! It helps me focus. Starting this year, I've invested some time to practise. I think it's been five plus years since I did a magic show. I used to do it a lot back in school. But, they’re always gonna stay near me and always gonna be on my hand and within touching distance of me. It's like driving – you don't forget, but you need to keep practising."
I love my space because me and my wife, we have put a lot into it. We wanted to be in a place where we were just surrounded by positivity.
How has WeTransfer’s hybrid way of working changed your day-to-day work?
"So, I can start off with what I miss about completely working from the office. We would have a lot less meetings, we would just hop over to each other's desks and discuss anything you needed to, just like that.
I miss the unscheduled knock on the desk to talk about things, but I found that once a day or twice a week when I go to the office, we still do that and I love it. For our technical jams, you just take a whiteboard and you draw right there.
On the other hand, like I mentioned before, working from home for me is super relaxed. In order to be in the office at 9:30am or 10am, I need to get up one hour before I can get ready and all that stuff, but if I had a long night, or the weather is bad, or if I need to actually make a lot of cognitive decisions before I step out of the house, all that stress has been reduced. I just take a chill pill and take my time."
Emily Logan, Amsterdam
Hailing from the US by way of Paris, Emily spends her days at WeTransfer working with our global luxury clients (Chanel, LVMH, Kering). Emily lives in the Jordaan, Amsterdam, with her dog, Yaya Diamonds, in her classically Dutch (if not slightly wonky—she said it, not us) canal-side apartment.
How has work changed for you since being given more flexibility?
“In all of my past jobs, I experienced the most insane commutes. And it's just not something that I wanted. I think that, for lack of a better way of phrasing this, commuting is such a waste of time. For my job, there's no real reason for me to need to go into the office all the time—I'm working with global clients that I'm having only video calls with anyway. And if I need to go to Paris to meet with a client, then we schedule a trip far in advance for that. So it works really well, I really enjoy it.
Plus, if I didn't have a hybrid job I wouldn't have been able to get a dog. I wouldn't have the support to help with walks. It's awesome. I really love it. It’s one really big perk of the job, if not the biggest.”
I wake up, take my dog for a walk, I make some strong coffee, and then I come downstairs to my office with this canal view. I really love working from home; it offers a lot of flexibility.
What has hybrid working given you space to explore?
“My hours can get really crazy, because in my position, I'm in a really, really reactive role. But I’m also working on getting my yoga teacher training certification. I wanted to make sure that I'm doing something more connected to creativity and art, so I just bought a little easel with oil paints too. I just do that fun when I can.
Besides that, I really value my time with my friends. I love having friends over for dinner, cooking and doing dinner parties, stuff like that. I’ve also joined this women's club—it’s for young professional women, and they do monthly dinner parties with different topics, and sometimes meetups outside, walking for example. I’ve volunteered to be a host, too.”
Check out more tales of creativity from our people at home.
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