For many of us, our idea of what the workplace looks like has changed, perhaps forever.
As the open plan office, works canteen and watercooler made way for the dining room table and the facilities in your kitchen – we soon warmed to our new way of working. Few of us missed that morning bumper-to-bumper commute or waiting on a dark windswept platform for a train that was always delayed and, when it did arrive, was always standing room only! We enjoyed the better work/life balance.
A Happier Team
Businesses saw the benefits of a happier workforce too and many have, post lockdown, incorporated some form of balance between ‘the office’ and ‘work from home’.
The migration from the dining room table to something more permanent saw some imaginative solutions: loft rooms; basements; spare rooms; and even garages and garden sheds became very workable workplaces - but one community had an even better idea.
These lucky souls had a ready-made oasis to escape to, a short walk across their lawn was a place where they could focus, undisturbed, on their work. A place where the inspiring scent of natural spruce timbers would excite their creative senses. Most of all, they had a workplace with a built-in barbecue for a fabulous flame-grilled lunch. They had an Arctic Cabins Barbecue Hut.
WFH In Style
The stories of how Arctic Cabins BBQ Huts have been repurposed in the last 18 months to accommodate working from home have kept our spirits up during the more challenging times of Covid and lockdown. If you’ve contacted us to share your experience of creating an office in your cabin or conducting a Zoom call at your cabin’s bar, or just taking a break from your work schedule to barbecue a Cajun chicken steak for your lunch – thank you. It’s been heartwarming to hear how BBQ Huts have been saving the day.
From Finland, With Love
Heart-warming, but possibly not surprising. Grillkota (the Finnish BBQ huts upon which Arctic Cabins are based) have been saving the day for generations! In Finland, and across Scandinavia, you’ll find wilderness huts in woodland areas and while they’re there for families to enjoy a woodland BBQ, they have also been known to save lives, providing shelter from driving in snow and sub-zero temperatures for those in need of sanctuary. Even when temperatures fall to -20 or -30° with deep snow on the ground, the huts kept the cold out and the warmth in. In fact, the tradition of these Finnish huts goes back even further than that, they have their origin in Arctic Lapland where nomadic herdsmen would have lived in them and, way back, covered them in reindeer hides for shelter from the elements. If a hut can keep you safe and warm from plummeting lows of -20 or -30° - perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that they can also keep your spreadsheets dry on a wet and windy workday.
Real Life Experiences
This actually, was the experience of Natasha who messaged about her Arctic Cabins BBQ Hut and how it had become a productive office space by day while maintaining its role as a family hub and entertaining space by night and across the weekend.
Natasha wrote, “The day the cabin really came into its own was when there was a howling wind and lashing rain outside. The kids were sitting opposite me doing online learning and I glanced at the clock. It was 8.23. I remember thinking the kids would have been in the breakfast club by now and I’d have been stuck in traffic stealing myself for getting soaked between the NCP and the office. Instead, I was warm, dry, and as the rain belted down we were cosy and already hard at it! What wasn’t to love?”
Natasha is right. The double-glazed windows and the thickness of the timbers used to create the perfect escape that is your Arctic Cabins BBQ Hut certainly create a homely, comfortable environment in which to work and the natural soundproofing qualities of the sloping wooden walls mean that, while it might be blowing a gale outside, you’ll be able to hear what your workmates are saying on the Teams meeting and they’ll be able to hear you.
As meetings moved offline and back into the real world, Natasha found that she had a ready-made meeting space for her colleagues and clients.
Hybrid Working
“Shortly after easing of restrictions, we decided that a face-to-face meeting would be good but there was zero appetite for heading back into the city. We tried to source alternative venues; nothing fitted the criteria, so I suggested the BBQ Hut. Our cabin is designed to seat 21 so a meeting of 8 wouldn’t be a problem and what a meeting space it proved to be! The circular table around the BBQ grill was perfect for spreading out paperwork and making notes and there was plenty of space for the most important meeting essential – the coffee. Coffee, which by the way, we boiled water for using the grill something that is a talking point many months on. We didn’t have that at the office! We had breakfast and lunch together, cooked on the grill. It was the perfect place to come together after months of isolation. Everyone said how safe and separated they felt – some had been anxious about being in an enclosed space again but 8 of us in a cabin designed for 21 gave us space to be distanced and opening the cabin’s windows and door allowed for air to flow. We’ve met up in the cabin regularly since – one colleague even suggested holding our office Christmas party in there!”
Natasha’s experience is not uncommon in the Arctic Cabins community. To be honest, once you own a BBQ Hut you do start to look for reasons to use it: romantic meals out become cosy nights in; birthday nights on the town become champagne around the BBQ grill; family get-togethers always seem to be at yours; now - WFH (work from home) is naturally evolving into WFC (work from cabin).
To find out more about joining this growing community, start your BBQ Hut adventure today. Call 0115 932 8888, get in touch via arcticcabins.co.uk or visit our Arctic Cabins Village (our show site of dressed timber garden buildings) just off junction 25 of the M1 near Nottingham.
We do have one request though. Having discovered the new work-life balance that working remotely can offer – don’t work too hard in your BBQ Hut.
Make sure those BBQ coals are heating from about half past four and that your evening meal is sizzling on the grill in time for clocking off, or at least close your laptop and open a bottle. You have a desk that turns into a BBQ diner! It would be a shame to waste it!
