While I was down in Dallas evangelizing about Bridge, the Dallas Market Center’s software provider and sister company (called MarketTime) invited me to their offices for a meeting. The goal of the meeting was to explore teaming up to help brands and retailers speed products to market, as well as get a leg up on the competition.
The Dallas Mart consists of two primary buildings, each with atriums and many floors each. I like the Dallas show because of the abundance of fresh air and light in these atrium spaces. (By contrast, the Atlanta Mart’s buildings, by contrast, are not this way. Only one, the original from the 1960s, has an atrium, and the other two are a maze of hallways with seemingly low ceilings.)
To attend the meeting in Dallas, I was invited down a long hallway past a Starbucks and a little store that sold mannequins to the tenants in the building. I arrived at the MarketTime offices: a 1400-square-foot windowless area with cubicles and a suspended-tile ceiling. One of the directors had placed Lego pieces on the wall to make the space "fun and creative." This office, resembling a "Skinner Box," was very different from the spacious atriums and showrooms that rested above this office space.
Studies have shown that people don’t fare well without sunlight and fresh air—they get sicker, more depressed, and in general feel worse. These days, they may even be more likely to contract COVID. While in college in D.C., I was stuck in the basement of a similar building—it even had an atrium—for a semester. (Thankfully, this was long before COVID.) I hated its subterranean classrooms, and I wrote two articles in the local college newspaper, the Hoya, about the sterile conditions. Ironically, the college’s admissions pamphlet at the time boasted a 19th-century Charles Dickens’ quote praising the campus’s sunlight-filled classrooms with open windows.
Since college, I’ve taken notice of my environment and how it may impact what I create in my work. I think one can draw parallels between what we wish to create and where (and with whom) we choose to work. And likewise, I think this may be said for those we partner with. With all the space at the Dallas Mart, and a portion of it vacant, I imagine there is better space for the software team to work and accomplish their goals. (I saw plenty of empty floor space on higher floors with ample windows.) A better office may also make them a better partner for Bridge because then our ethos would be more in sync.
I believe that Bridge’s ethos includes a humane element. We believe in public service, hence the '.org’ domain that we now use (bridge.org). We aspire to create a healthy platform and look after the health and well being of our team members. (You can see I’m becoming well versed in "virtue signaling!") A key part of being healthy is sunlight, fresh air, and exposure to nature (i.e. seeing the sky, a tree, a flower, etc.). We use mice; we’re not mice. We’re not meant for a "Skinner Box."