After three office expansions and an international pandemic, one Buffalo startup’s workspace setup embodies multiple pros in this new world of work.
Mongoose, whose product integrates with existing software used by college staff and allows them to communicate with students via text and web chat platform, employs 52. Forty are locally based. The software-as-a-service company is located at 6506 E Quaker St., Orchard Park.
“We just try to keep it efficient, comfortable and give people what they need to get their work done,” said Leslie Skwara, vice president of operations.
Mongoose, founded in 2015, expanded its office space three times between 2017 and 2019 due to its growing team and occupies about 9,300 square feet of space at its Orchard Park office. Since the pandemic, the Buffalo-area team has been largely working a hybrid schedule.
But even within that hybrid work, there’s room for flexibility, Skwara said. The specific days of the week that staff work in the Orchard Park office are left up to each individual team, of which there are six total. Generally, each team has a weekly in-person meeting.
Workers who are in the office three or more days have their own designated workspaces. Those who work less than three days in-person can come in and use any of the open workstations.
Each workspace is set up the same, with a sitting-standing desk, agronomic chair, monitors, mouse, keyboard and all the plug-ins a worker could need.
“We have more than enough to go around,” Skwara said. “We try to keep it as uniform and comfortable as possible.”
Open desks, meaning they aren’t a dedicated workspace for a specific employee, are marked with stickers.
If workers want a different type of work environment option, there’s a room with a table and chairs, and also a table and chairs in the open office space, as well as a couple couches and low beanbag-type seating with low tables scattered throughout the office. Options are a common office space must now, as employers in many cases want to entice staff back to the office.
Other office considerations include décor and colors that are contemporary and reflect Mongoose’s branding, as well as two water coolers and healthy snacks delivered to the office weekly via grocery delivery.
