Menlo Park, CA—Last week data quantifying company, Energtech unveiled its new headquarters on Middlefield St.
The business took over the the entire building of the old children’s hospital which closed in 1991 and had been empty until now. The building is fourteen stories high and 80,000 square feet. Energtech’s staff is just over 250 and actual office space only occupies the first four floors. “Working at Energtech is more of a way of life than a career,” said CEO Joseph Mulligan. The tech group’s new office features a gym with a half-Olympic sized pool, meditation center, three cafeterias, a greenhouse, a performance stage, seven kitchens, a brewery and a holistic health center on floors 5 through 10. Floors 11 through 14 have been turned into “bungalow suites”, which are dormitory-style living quarters. “We are empowering employees by supplying them with every necessity possible. To ensure prime productivity, we’ve provided free on-location housing,” said Mulligan. The dorms are divided into 50 semi-private rooms, each include two bunk beds with queen size mattresses and a small bathroom with shower. The design of the bungalow suites mimics the open-floor plan of the office space on the lower levels. The short cubicle-like partitions divide the rooms and a fly-strip is in place of a traditional hallway.
The average Energtech employee is between the ages of 22 and 31, 92% are single, 73% are paying back student loans, 67% embody a treacherous fear of living alone, and 84% feel there’s not a lot going on in Menlo Park anyway so, don’t think they’re missing out on much by never leaving the building. The vast majority of employees work fifteen-hour days, seven days a week. “Working long hours as Energtech doesn’t seem as big of a deal as it would working long hours at any other company,” said 24 year-old software engineer, Sam Cortez, who hasn’t left the building in over a month. “The commute is just thirty-seconds in the elevator, the perks are awesome and it’s the kind of atmosphere where you can sense people are really thriving by working round-the-clock and taking no breaks.”
Mulligan wants to see how this All Work and No Play style of office culture fares at the Menlo Park campus before expanding the concept to Energtech’s Chicago, Dublin, and Mumbai offices. However, Mulligan is excited about the new building, “My staff is literally living the dream here. I hope that we’re providing the new model for future corporate and tech work-life.”
