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Inside the WeWork-designed offices of $3.2 billion startup Oscar Health, where kombucha is on tap and employees can work on a massive daybedhttps://www.businessinsider.in/miscellaneous/inside-the-wework-designed-offices-of-3-2-billion-startup-oscar-health-where-kombucha-is-on-tap-and-employees-can-work-on-a-massive-daybed/slidelist/70774240.cms2019-08-21T20:34:59+05:30

Inside the WeWork-designed offices of $3.2 billion startup Oscar Health, where kombucha is on tap and employees can work on a massive daybed

Aug 21, 2019, 20:34 IST

Oscar moved into its newest offices in June. The office is on the fifth floor at 75 Varick Street, on Manhattan's west side. Stepping off the elevator, employees and guests are greeted by a characteristically blue Oscar "welcome."

Inside its reception area, there's Oscar's logo outlined in neon, surrounded by 8-bit clouds.

Oscar's workplace operations manager Charlie Mirisola said it was important to the company to not have a sectioned-off reception area. In the new office, the space is filled with couches, books, art, and people meeting. "As soon as you're in, you're in it" Mirisola said.

Near the front desk is a big conference room the company can use for board meetings and onboarding new employees.

The front area of the floor also has LEGO tables. Oscar CEO "Mario [Schlosser] is big on the brain games and taking a minute for some creativity outside of work," Mirisola said.

Next to the LEGO tables, the front area has more room to meet or get work done.

The front area feeds into the company's all-hands space, where three times a week the company brings in lunch.

The office is covered in art, including this mural of mountains.

When Oscar moved into the floor, the company decided to re-expose the columns and the concrete floor of what used to be a warehouse used for printing.

The all-hands space has a kitchen filled with bulk snacks, some cans of soft drinks, as well as a sparkling water machine.

The kitchen area is outfitted with a lounge area where employees can work.

The space has drink machines, snacks, and tables where people can meet or eat lunch. Kombucha, cold brew coffee, and tea are all on tap.

The space is also fitted with TVs to pipe in Oscar's other offices during all-company meetings.

Toward the back is a daybed in a nook where employees can work.

Scattered throughout the office are messages about Oscar's mission. On the far wall, the sign encourages employees to "Refactor healthcare."

The office space is fitted with adjustable desks that can change heights. While everyone has a desk, employees aren't necessarily working from there all the time. Some teams move from desk to desk throughout the workweek, Mirisola said.

The floor has 22 individual phone booths where employees can take private meetings.

There's also common areas interspersed between the rows of desk, next to an executive conference room. "You didn't want to see an unbroken sea of desks. That's just hard to feel good about that," Mirisola said.

The team put in countertops next to it where employees can perch as well.

In total, there are about 75 meeting spaces in the office, Mirisola said, triple what Oscar's old office had.

When it came to designing the space, the Oscar team turned to WeWork for help. It was an unusual proposal: typically, WeWork designs spaces for leases the company manages. In this case, the company would just be in charge of design.

Once WeWork agreed to do it, the company had only about six months to pull it together before it was time to move in."As designs were being approved, we were having construction going through it," Mirisola said. "Everything was happening in tandem."

On a corner of Oscar's floor is an area that's meant to be like the quiet room of a library, where employees could bring work or something to read and get away from the noise of the office. But because the company already needs the office space, it's been outfitted with desks.

The office also has two mothers' suites with four rooms. Mirisola said about 25% of the employees in New York are parents, a number that's expected to grow to 50%. For those who are new moms, "We want them to be as comfy as humanly possible," Mirisola said.

Oscar's offices have lockers, which are meant to store belongings so employees don't feel tethered to a specific desk. The building also has bike storage and showers for those who want to get their workout and commute in at the same time.

The floor design draws from the three main regions Oscar employees work: the southwest, New York, and the West Coast. Incorporated into the design is original art done by WeWork. "The paintings, they painted, the murals, they came in and painted them all," Mirisola said.

Oscar's IT team can handle technical questions and help employees get the right equipment at a bar at one end of the office. Next to it is a waiting area where employees can wait to meet with the IT team, or simply work from.

Mirisola said that his favorite part of the office was the front area. "As soon as you walk in, to me this is very welcoming. When it gets into full swing, you get the hit of that energy," Mirisola said. "Getting that hit here is my favorite experience in the space."

Since moving in, the company's had a chance to put up some of its own artwork, including these posters detailing the company's values.

Downtown at the corner of Varick and Canal, Oscar's new space seems like a good place for its New York headquarters to grow. The company's also signed a lease for the fourth floor, with plans to build the floor out with design help from WeWork as well.

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