Wouldn’t it be nice if, as a creative, you only ate with silver spoons? Woke up never having to worry about rent, groceries or bills; all you have to do is just create? God of Rihanna’s son! That would be bliss. But nope, you’re out here with the rest of us fighting deadlines, global warming and an inflation trend on crack.
Although the answer to our struggles are mostly monetary (show me money and I’ll show you mental stability fr), there are other things that can help keep creatives happy and zen so we can do better work. Here are 5 non-work related things at Anthill Studios that help keep those frowns upside down:
1. Pet Power!
Animals have a very high reputation for being furry sacks of serotonin. You pet a dog and your brain gets a little oomph. A cat purrs on you and anxiety takes a back seat. Studies have shown that interacting with animals reduces levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), and some employers are becoming more open to allowing emotional support animals.
While not everyone at Anthill is an animal lover, those who are have been having a great time bringing their pets to work for everyone to enjoy. We’ve had puppies, kittens and birds. No reptiles have made an appearance yet but the year is still young!
Why does this matter? Little things like having pets around make a huge difference in mood. They might not make an appearance everyday but just the idea of a workplace that allows this freedom is something that keeps some of our employees very happy. Below is Daisy, Head of Cuteness.
Hugs:
Did you see that TikTok where a lady was crying because she’d been starved of even the littlest friendly touch for 6 years? It might sound ridiculous to you but physical touch is part of maintaining positive human connection. Family therapist, Virginia Satir, is famous for declaring that we need at least 4 hugs everyday. And you know what? The Colony doesn’t slack.
In this studio, we are huggers! You can literally get hugs on the hour here, all you have to do is walk into someone else’s office with arms wide open. Hugs spread warmth, affection and helps create an atmosphere of friendliness. In a nutshell huggy employees=happy employees.
Nap Areas
One of our unofficial mottos is “when in doubt, take a nap!” In fact, spend the night under our air conditioners if you need to. Many times, being creative means long hours trying to meet deadlines; but no matter how much we like to ignore it, every brain needs shutdown time to be able to function optimally.
Our nap areas are not an invitation for our colony to spend the work day on their backs scratching their bellies, and thankfully there’s been no need to send that memo.
Food:
If you’re ever in Lagos and feel the ground tremble, don’t panic, odds are that everyone at Anthill is stampeding to Niyi’s office to deprive him of his puff puff. Eventually, he won’t want to share and just order for the rest of us but this has happened enough times that we can safely say we’ve worked out a system. Occasionally, small chops graduate to big chops but the adrenaline that comes from bursting into whatever office has the platter to make away with your favourite snacks is priceless.
This is your invitation to send us all sorts of chops. We always make time to do them justice
Parties!
“Ain’t no party like an Anthill party!” is what Mr Wellington was going to sing before we humbly declined. Our humility is, afterall, our pride.
After every intense period of work, we like to let our hair as down as it can go. You know what they say, the family that plays together slays together. We take this age-long advice pretty seriously.