Happy 7th Birthday to us!
We celebrate our 7th birthday this month. And it’s certainly a month for celebration as we also warmly welcome the new team members from Blab to our Pace family.
The merger with Blab is a milestone for us and reinforces our continued growth plans. It’s an exciting time for us all and we’re looking forward to working together as one extended Pace team.
When Jess and I started discussing the possibility of joining forces, she was clear that the Pace culture was the key driver. And that made the discussions easy from the start – we were totally aligned on the importance of our culture.
I’m very proud of the way we do things at Pace – it’s what stands us apart and our culture is visible and tangible every day because we’re together, in person.
There’s been a lot of discussion in the media about working from home and how this is the new ‘norm’, with the days of working in the office apparently over. Well, not here at Pace.
There is no doubt that the pandemic and associated lockdowns made us all reflect, review and reassess. However, one thing that remained constant for me was the belief that the Pace team is better together.
In fact, the periods of lockdown when we were apart reinforced that belief. Putting aside the technology frustrations, Teams fatigue, isolation and groundhog day vibes, my reasons are quite simple:
If you feel you are part of something, sharing a common goal with others, you are more motivated. If you’re separated and working remotely, you lose that feeling of ‘belonging’.
You don’t feel part of a team in the same way you would if you were together, and if that’s the case, you may as well be a freelancer!
If your norm is to work from home, you are essentially sitting alone working through your ‘to do’ list, with a reminder of your employment status at the end of the month in the form of your pay. And therein lies another problem.
Without the office culture and the shared values that come with collaborating, the only thing left to differentiate what you do when working for company A and working for company B is pay.
So that becomes the be-all and end-all – all the other recognised benefits that work provides become redundant.
That sense of community, connection and togetherness no longer exists. So it’s not great for employers as they’re having to constantly compete on pay…and worse, it’s not great for employees who lose the sense of being part of something worthwhile.
There’s a reason companies are created in the first place - there’s a clue in the word: company!
So this is an exciting time for our company. I’m looking forward to working with the new, larger team and I have absolutely no doubt that our culture will remain at the forefront of our growth in the years to come.
