After over 25 years of Informing Change being in Berkeley, the move to our new office at Plaza 360 in Uptown Oakland marks a new era. It has been a journey!

We originally planned to move to our last Berkeley space in March 2020. For obvious reasons, that was delayed. We still imagined and planned for an environment where everyone worked from the office as the pandemic unfolded. Ultimately, all staff were not invited to the office until February 2022 due to ongoing Bay Area public health mandates. During the two years while we were a fully remote company, staff transitioned from the company or moved outside of the Bay Area. As remote work increased, we expanded our hiring search to outside of the Bay Area to find individuals we believe are most qualified and epitomize our values without sacrificing or compromising due to geography.

We eventually adopted a hybrid working model, but decided to keep an office to give staff the option to work outside of their homes. We valued in-person interactions and wanted to provide our team with ongoing spaces to connect. Here’s what our hybrid model looks like today:

✨Staff have the option to come into the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

✨We gather remote and Bay Area staff together in-person for IRL (in real life) Weeks which are determined by the remote staff.

✨We trust staff to decide where they best work from.

We do believe we can maintain our culture virtually and are still learning what works and what doesn’t work while also being open to change.

Our new office is smaller with desks in the open area. No one has a private office. We have two conference rooms and two team rooms that staff can jump into for private meetings. As someone who had a private office for 15 years, it will take time for me to adjust, but I’m excited to sit next to my team (even if they aren’t too thrilled!).

Cheers to our new home in Oakland!