Open Office - Nothing to Hide Here

The other day we held our weekly ‘Open Office’ zoom call. Open Office is a more relaxed, less formal way for all of the team to get together, often over lunch or coffee, or a Tunnock’s tea cake (@AdrianMursec). We chat about the business, bring in a speaker, find out if anyone has any needs, and frankly, just hang out as a team.

For some people a zoom call that lasts up to 3 hours (!) might seem a nightmare, but once you take the rules off – (come and go as you please, camera on or off, listen in, jump in, jump off) – it makes for a great way to share those ‘water-cooler’ moments and to really feel a part of the team and be part of our community, even if in reality we may be hundreds of miles or even time zones apart. As we grow and expand Open Office is even more important for our US team who feel the benefits of connecting back home.

Open Office is a welcome relief from the constant pressure that zoom deadlines bring, reminding us that there is more to life, and more to productivity, than squeezing ‘just one more’ zoom call into that already over-booked schedule.

So what was the Open topic for discussion this week? How about appraisals, salaries, share options, and company valuations?

Led by the leadership team, but welcoming comments, questions and input great or small from everyone at every point, we openly discussed everything. Our aspirations for the company, our journey over 9 years to the inflection point of US led sales, what allocated shares could mean at exit, our approach to appraisals, salary reviews, the UK inflation bubble, and our opinions on the valuation of the company, as the world wakes up to the huge potential of PatientMetRx?.

Not behind closed doors, not hushed in whispered tones, or in terse 1:1’s with HR standing on the side. Just open, welcome discourse.

The discussion, as you may imagine, was lively and informative. The whole team shared their experiences of things that had gone wrong and right in previous jobs. They openly expressed their desires and concerns for the forthcoming appraisals, and chatted about their remuneration hopes. ?We had a frank conversation about benchmarking by sector, growth stage and role. We debated about the needs for privacy and confidentiality in all of our contracts. We dug into what share value actually means and we reflected upon the significant impact that PatientMetRx? will have upon the world.

At the end of the Open Office session, we re-affirmed that if we keep working together, building together and exploring together, we can share a truly unique, and life-changing journey.

Open Office is more than a zoom call. It’s a chance to tear down walls, to commit to transparency and be conscious about the decisions we make as a team. To share problems and solutions, and to re-connect. It’s a chance to live and breathe our values of Community, Innovation, Quality, and Transparency.

So, when are you scheduling your first ‘Open Office’ ??