Work/Life Balance – Renovating a Home While Working at CommonGrounds
Author: Alycia Medina, Workplace Manager | CommonGrounds Workplace (Fort Worth, TX)
(Spoiler: The two are quite similar)
Operating a flexible work environment requires me to wear many hats – much like my home life right now! My husband and I are currently self-renovating a fixer-upper house while living in it, making work life and home life one and the same.
At home, we are the plumbers, carpenters, handyman/handywoman, painters, flooring experts – the whole construction crew! The goal is to complete the renovation ourselves and rent it out as an investment property when it is finished. Since I am outfitting this home for someone else and this is a huge financial investment for us, I handle this responsibility with the utmost of care. Therefore, every single remodeling aspect of the home requires me to think like a tenant:
- What would be beneficial to a tenant?
- If they had dogs and/or children, what amenities would they be looking for?
- How do I maximize my potential rental income by adding differentiators or unique features that a prospective tenant would be willing to pay just a little more for?
Being a Workplace Manager at CG (and considering I’m a team of one) means that I am the mail carrier, the event planner, the barista, the friend, the salesperson, the handywoman, the inventory specialist, the janitor, and the accountant.
My goal is to grow CommonGrounds Fort Worth to its fullest potential and part of that entails making decisions that solve for attracting potential members and improving member retention. Some questions that routinely enter my mind are:
- How can CommonGrounds attract potential members?
- Will our space help my members attract and retain talent?
- Will CommonGrounds strengthen the community by connecting members with one another?
- Does CommonGrounds create an environment that increases productivity?
- Can our space be a solution for members?
- Will the networking opportunities at CommonGrounds increase members’ business connections?
It’s imperative for a Workplace Manager to be able to think like a member. We spend up to 1/3 of our lives in the office, so CommonGrounds is really my home-away-from-home. A home needs love and attention; it needs to feel like a safe space; and a home needs to be structured well so that it remains strong.
From home to work and work to home, it is great taking my home renovation mindset and applying those learned skills at CommonGrounds. I spend my entire day wearing different hats and making it happen for the future of each space, and I am loving how things are unfolding and playing out.
