Why Castles Lifestyle is moving office location.
“Sir, I have been at the bus stop for over 3 hours. There are no buses going to the Island from my area” What does a CEO say to an employee who has gallantly been waiting at a bus stop for so long, just trying to get to the office? There is nothing to say but console the young man and release him to go back home.
Over the years, and particularly since 2021, there have been regular challenges workers living on the Mainland have to endure to get to our offices in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi. Then there is the problem of getting back home. If they close work at 5 pm, some consider it good timing if they get to their homes in Ikorodu at 10 pm. Only for them to get up at 5 am the following day to get to their desks at 8 am, the official resumption time. As I began to take special notice of this, we tried as an organisation to at least get workers to close and get out of the office by 4 pm. But because their schedules are collaborative, this proved to be impossible.
Even if the challenge of getting to the office was surmountable, transport costs have been rising steadily. And with all the presidential aspirants keen to remove fuel subsidy, my assessment of the transportation system is that costs will rise in lockstep. Already costs are eating steadily into the salaries and emoluments of the staff, and it is a major challenge in recruitment as potential staff who live in locations like Ikorodu, Akute and down the Lagos Ibadan Expressway who refuse offers based on this fact. A quick survey of current staff revealed that 90% would be getting a monetary respite if the office was moved to Ikeja.
Like other businesses, we have moved into a hybrid environment. Depending on their schedules, workers can come to the office two or three times in a week. Working ‘remotely’ has its challenges as well. Some workers do not have the space to work from home, and others have epileptic Wi-Fi connections in their homes. Many have also not been able to make the transition to working from home successfully. They miss the camaraderie of the office, and some do need an office environment to be productive. So, while we will keep the hybrid model, at least it will be easier and cheaper for those who want to work from the office to do so.
Minimal working hours in the office have also made some expenses redundant. We maintain a 40KVA generator as well as a smaller petrol generator. The additional power generation was based on full office staff, but now most days, there are not enough staff in the office to justify the cost. We also have gardening staff, refuse disposal, corporate guards and all the paraphernalia of a grand office environment of past years. Today all look like unnecessary expenses. The same goes for the staff canteen, reception room (about 5 visitors a month!) and board/meeting rooms. Customers have not been in our offices in years, and all transactions are done remotely. When a massive bill was sent to repair the diesel generator, I took it as a sign that we had to move and downsize office space.
So, we are moving from a wing of a duplex in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, on its grounds to a serviced office space in Opebi, Ikeja. The actual space we will occupy now is about half of our present space, but our accountant has worked out that we should reduce our facility management and rent spending to about half of what we it costs us currently. Also, all the challenges of maintaining the facilities are now outsourced. You want to see us? Come to Opebi.