Lunapads

Further to my “this is harder than it looks” entry a few weeks ago that covered some of the stresses and strains of floating the Lunapads boat, I’d like to fill in the rest of the story: why I love it. Where to start? I love our work here because it matters to us - this in & of itself feels like a kind of luxury. We get to be creative and political and close to some very intimate aspects of our customers’ lives. The freedom for me personally is incredible - I get up and have the choice of either going to the office or working from home, taking Genevieve with me if I like - how many people have this kind of flexibility? At work I find a group of amazing women who are completely committed to what we do, do fantastic work, and are more than happy to lend a hand with whatever small people happen to be around. It makes me wonder what work was like prior to the industrial revolution - women have always had kids and always worked after all, so I’m guessing that a lot of their enterprises were small, community-based, and involved having their kids running around - maybe kind of like this?

More things that I love: our office is painted purple and yellow, and there are tons of other colours - the pads, artwork, etc. We have a spare office that we call “the quiet room” that is basically for breastfeeding and hanging out with friends who stop by. Sandra and Marie-Genevieve always bring in crazy new music that I would never otherwise have the opportunity to listen to. Sandra’s vegan baking. Goni’s stories about her kids. Suzanne’s endless patience and wisdom when I get overly stressed or excited. Finding new fabrics and deciding what to call them. We talk about a ton of different things - from business to our personal lives to what we’re reading to silly girl stuff like fashion and hairstyles. So really it is like a bit of a feminist working sorority, if you will. It’s an unwritten rule that it’s cool to take the first day of your period off work (no surprises there, I guess!), and we also occasionally do extra-fun things like go out for lunch or see Sarah Harmer (one of the all-time top office favorite artists!) perform in Stanley Park together. Last but not least, there are wonderful interactions with customers where you feel like you’re really gotten to know someone and also helped them - it’s a very special buzz. So, yeah - it has been a long road that has not been without challenges, but with these kinds of bonuses, you can see what’s kept us going!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 10:32 am by Madeleine and is filed under Inside Lunapads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.