Nature, peace, and space – three new important features in your office
Do they find their offices looking different? Do they find them a better a place to work than they did a year ago?
We are looking for answering these questions with Nedelina Traykova, Sofia Airport Center’s Property Manager.
Nedelina, you have been working at SAC for 4 years now, and you have been holding this position for a year, so you are well-versed in Property Management on a system level. What are the main advantages of SAC? What makes this park an attractive working environment?
Its major advantage is that it is far out from urban areas. You look out the window and see all this landscape, expanse and nature. There’s a quietude, a sense of something special here that I haven’t personally felt anywhere else.
Could you name 3 key benefits of Sofia Airport Center that appear most attractive for any tenant?
Actually it’s the quietude, the peace and the sense of space.
And which one of these would you choose to describe SAC in just one word?
I would choose space.
How has the office environment changed in the last year? After this long period of lockdown, the gradual return to the workplace has begun. What will make the office different in post Covid-19 times?
Nothing will be the same. We’ll have more events, more and larger communal spaces for collaborations. The hybrid office environment will develop massively.
How does the office change? What will this much-talked-about hybrid environment look like? Considering that SAC is located in a park with a pond, can we say that you are one step ahead already because you are looking after the wellbeing of your employees from before this became a trendy practice.
What has actually changed is ourselves, the people as a whole. The way of thinking has changed. Our needs have changed. Both personally and professionally.
We’ve been working recently on making SAC a place where you go to work, supposedly, and you feel so free, like you’re at home, like you’re in the park, like you’re somewhere where you can have fun, not just work.
And in that regard, we’re working on a couple of projects now. One of these is converting our conservatory into a shared workspace. We also have a project related to sports facilities to build in the park, which will also be in line with a more pleasant environment for the people. We are also planning to build gazebos by the pond, which will further create a cosy place to work and relax.
You mentioned the pond, tell us about the SAC pets.
SAC’s pets are numerous, as we already know – fish, ducks. Some even have their timber homes and really enjoy a massive interest from our tenants.
But do you think the home office will remain as a lasting alternative?
Yes. I believe it will. I’m sure because we’ve seen that we can work anything from anywhere and we don’t have that sense, that need to be anchored in one place.
So why would people go back to the office?
Because we need diversity. We need something different. We need to meet each other – something we cannot have at home. And I think with our team at SAC, our main role will be to work towards making SAC a truly shared space.
Many times when talking with other your coworkers they’d mentioned the SAC community. Can we actually talk about the SAC community, among all the tenants, among your team?
We have long-standing tenants, we know everybody already and our work intertwines on a daily basis. We definitely share common SAC-values related to the quality of the working environment, to the treatment of employees and the care for their well-being.
What would you like to see happen in your life at SAC?
I wish there would come a time when people would start coming here more often. Let’s take courage and somehow the well-known liveliness will come.
And can you tell us what was your biggest challenge as a property manager working at SAC?
The biggest challenge was getting through 2020 personally and professionally in the first place. We have completely changed the way we work, the way we think and we have changed a lot in 2020, for the better I hope.