Employees of the health care research and market strategy firm LIFT have always had the flexibility to do some of their work from home. But when the coronavirus began to spread in March, the Chattanooga-based consulting firm immediately emptied its downtown office in the Hogshead building and shifted the entire staff.
“With the pandemic, we went from dipping a toe in the water with respect to work-from-home to jumping straight into the deep end out of necessity, as was the case with so many small businesses,” says Dave Chlastosz, the president of LIFT. “But while we have learned and embraced the benefits of this model, it also has affirmed that there is no replacement for human-to-human connections in a culturally relevant space, even if those connections look a little bit different through the lens of social distancing.”
As commerce has rebounded and workers are increasingly returning to the office, Chlastosz has brought most of the senior staff back to the office, but at a new and more flexible site outside of downtown in the Cambridge Square shopping and office park in Ooltewah.
The new office still has work stations, a conference room and break area like the company’s former work facility downtown. But it also includes features that Chlastosz says “supercharge creativity,” such as music and displays, comfortable couches and chairs, a bar area and outdoor space to entertain clients or simply unwind and socialize.
“It’s a space that we all use and share in our own unique ways-merging the perks of work and home, and then adding in our cultural disposition as a sort of ‘secret sauce,'” Chlastosz says.