Say Hello to Linkedin’s new Mumbai office!

Spread across a whopping 20,000sq ft, this is undoubtedly LinkedIn’s most innovative workspace so far. It uses a largely open workspace concept, where the entire floor is without any ‘cabins’ seating the ‘leadership’ The idea as LinkedIn’s India Head, Nishant Rao, puts it, “is to create a non-hierarchical approach for every employee in the system. Everyone should have easy access to the leadership.” The office space has been spread-out in a manner that inculcates an open work culture where members of different teams can coordinate and collaborate freely, enabling a better ‘innovative’ work environment.

LinkedIn’s new office is all about making it ‘fun’ to be at your workplace. The entire stretch is dotted with these ‘collaboration/ideation’ nooks and corners that can easily double-up as an individual’s break area, just to relax and continue doing what they do best! In addition to these nooks, there are ‘collaboration spots’, typically long tables with long bar-stool kind of chairs also spread across the entire office space, so working in teams doesn’t always been huddling around someone’s desk. It is also to promote the idea of an ‘open work space’ where there is a free-flow of new ideas, leading to better productivity.

When you work hard, you’re bound to get hungry! But not to worry, because the new office is also home to a brilliant cafeteria that looks right out of a Mumbai-movie set, with the look and the feel of a roadside eatery. However, the café is stacked with all kinds of foods from morn to dawn, and literally so. So on the offering is the special Mumbai ‘cutting-chai’ to fresh fruits, to all varieties of refreshing drinks, as well as a food counter that prepares and serves fresh food for each meal of the day. Another interesting feature would be the ‘tiffin-dabba’ styled light fixtures in the cafeteria, to give you the true Mumbaiya feel!

How about working under the open skies! That is turned into a reality, through this unique design, where an ‘open sky-like’ ceiling fixture makes you feel as if you’re working in an airy, open space with fresh light flooding in. In fact, another unique feature of this office is the use of ‘intelligent lighting’. The design uses natural light to the illuminate the office to the maximum, and lights turn on automatically every time the natural light dims below a certain level. Yet another envious feature of the new office is the adjustable desk heights. So, if you’re bored sitting at your desk and working and want to stretch your legs a bit, but don’t have the time to leave your work, well, just pull-up the desk and stand! Yes, you heard us right. You can adjust the table height as per your convenience, not only that you can adjust every fixture of your chair too to make it as comfortable for you as possible!

One glance around the office and you will know it’s the ‘Mumbai’ office. And what is Mumbai without Bollywood you would say! Therefore, to make it fun for everyone to get into and out of a meeting, or just ideate while staring at the intense discussions going on in the meeting rooms, each of the 9 meeting rooms are named after the hindi movie industry’s most iconic characters. Be it Shahenshah, Gabbar, Crime Master Gogo or Circuit, Mogambo, Jai Veeru and Shakaal. Going into a meeting can never have been so much fun! 

So if you work hard, you also need some time-out! An there is no dearth of space for that in this new Linkdin office too! So you can read a book from the envious collection that is displayed in the ‘reading area’ to actually giving your brains a rest by playing some table tennis, foosball or even just playing a video game on their huge gaming console! What, and you just thought going to office meant only ‘work’. Nah! At LinkedIn’s new office, if you work hard, you also need to play hard!

And if you have an office in India’s financial capital, there has got to be some iconic element that will tell you so! Enter the stock market ‘bull’. Because it’s about the good times that one wants to see in the new office and there can be no other symbol that aptly describes Mumbai, India’s business hot-bed!

In fact continuing the Mumbai theme. You now don’t need to go too far to visit Chowpatty! Yes, Juhu Chowpatty has been recreated inside the office, what with the coconuts, the street-vendor ‘thelas’ and the ubiquitous cycle adding to the ‘feel’ of the place.

. And if you still want to feel more ‘at home’ in Mumbai there are these pillars inside the office hand-painted by artists, depicting various interesting facets of the Mumbaikar life. From a painting about eating paav bhaji on the streets, to just chilling at the beaches, to taking a local train ride! You name it and its all been painted on these walls!

There is another artistic element adding to the Mumbai factor. At every empty space possible, is a framed graphic photograph of an iconic Mumbai structure, bearing the very basics of LinkedIn’s work culture, right from ‘Demand Excellence’ to ‘Our customers come first’. It’s all etched in to the office space in clear, bold letters.

So, if these aren’t enough, taking the fun-factor a notch higher is this wall, where you can handprint using any colour you want, and even write your name under your handprint! Fun, right? 

No wonder Linkdin’s employees in Mumbai are such a happy lot!