Sweet Dreams: Inside Casper's Cozy Office, Complete With Nap Pods
This story appears in the September 2017 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
In most workplaces, taking a nap in a common area would get you fired. But not at Casper. In the mail-order mattress brand’s New York headquarters, its premier product is front and center in cozy pods that employees use for everything from taking a quick snooze to holding an impromptu brainstorm. (They’re the lit spaces in the middle of this photo.) But the nooks aren’t the only thing that makes Casper’s workplace unique. The open floor plan includes the Commons, a sprawling space where employees gather for informal meetings or lunch. The kitchen is always stocked with cold-brew coffee, fig bars and beer. And the beloved rooftop offers city views and a place to clear your head -- or rest it.
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Dainielle Thompson
Executive Assistant
“The open office environment makes you easily approach-able in your own space. You hear how one team’s working on this, another team’s working on that. It motivates you to stay focused because you realize you’re part of a bigger picture.”
Eli Bosworth
Director of Operations Technology
“People do nap occasionally in the office. At certain businesses, if you were taking a nap, the boss would be like, ‘Who’s that person and why aren’t they working harder?’ But we encourage everyone to do a good job and set our time efficiently. It’s mature to understand that people need a break.”
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Taryn Jones Laeben
Chief Commercial Officer
“We do Lunch-and-Learn sessions to talk about new things we’re building, or new products we’re bringing to market. When we launched our mattress pad, which is totally waterproof, the product team had everybody in the office pour water on it to see how the water pearls on the top.”
Gina Shaffer
Director of Operations
“I come from a more cor-porate background, so coming to a place that’s more collaborative and less rigid? That was clutch for me. From the first time I met with the founders, they had a really clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, and I have found that’s not the case at other companies.”
Neil Parikh
Co-Founder and COO
“Our brand values zing, and our office is definitely full of that. If you look at the names of our conference rooms, they’re all named after different breakfast foods or coffees.”
Anita Parikh
Customer Experience Manager
“The roof is my favorite. The fact that I can have a very serious conversation with a manager while sitting in a hammock, drinking a sparkling water, in a sweatshirt? It’s insane.”
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Trina Fanfant
HR Coordinator
“The space says a lot about how everyone works together. The customer experience team is in the middle of the office, right next to finance, which you don’t see in a lot of companies. It shows how Casper really values its customers.”
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