Previously we’ve talked about how we had to leave our office (OMG years ago), then leave it again, and how the folks at Mito Digital used their own imagination and hands to pimp their entire floor. What we didn’t mention at that time was that we have a long-running tradition of the same kind which puts the entire company into DIY mode.

This tradition of ours is called Office Hack Day and it’s basically the little brother of our own Hackathon. There is one condition of utmost importance: it’s always a Saturday which is a work day (shuffled around because of national holidays). This way we still work but not in a way we would work on an ordinary day. The goal of the day is to make our own surroundings nicer, based on own our ideas, with our own two hands. Of course this is an opt-in event, everyone can stay at home and complete tasks in a regular manner but our experience is that DIY is good. Group DIY is even better.

So what are we talking about?

Decorating your room, getting rid of clutter in a common space, building an oversized pinata together, or welding a huge-ass steampunk version of our logo with functioning Edison light bulbs. It can be basically anything as long as you make it yourself and it adds to or subtracts from the office. In a reasonable way of course.

Everyone can submit a project idea for any space in the office, so naturally we end up with budgets of all sizes. These then have to be approved by a dedicated OHD committe, so they can be translated into shopping lists for tools and materials. This is not a problem when all you need to buy are three shelves, but it can get exciting when you have to acquire some Frankenstein-switches. And then comes production, and boy, do we love producing stuff.

And in this production phase, our own graphic designers are our chief architects who help us fill various canvases and walls with pop culture, obscure Mitolian references and artworks. So when you walk through our offices you can see building blocks from our own history, nowadays in fancy frames but back in the day just painted straight on the walls.

What happens at OHD?

So we have all the ingredients, all the people and the tools to have a day full of hammering and getting somewhat hammered too, as those who are still around when the factory whistle starts to blow, will of course be able to sit back and have a drink. Generally, you come in as you would on any ordinary day at an agency, but instead of your laptop, you grab a drill, a brush or a paper cutter. In the morning, everyone focuses on their own rooms, and the afternoon is all about the common spaces.

This is also one of the rare occasions when being half done is totally okay. You cannot complete an office renovation in a day, and you shouldn’t push people into becoming carpenters in that amount of time either. You can, however, complete tasks that no one had the time for for months or even years, and it’s not a shame to get only the first steps done. Didn’t manage to finish that interactive 2-meter print because some components were out of stock? It’s not a problem, put the nail in the wall where it should be and there is your first step done.