Building tour of One Microsoft Place
Welcome to the HQ of Microsoft Ireland!
Russian language version is available here.
Версия на русском языке доступна по этой ссылке.
I came up with an idea to write this post after I’ve been asked
Oh, you work in Microsoft. Why not Google? Their offices are so cool, I’ve seen photos on the Internet
Today, I will give a tour, which I gave many times to my friends, but this time it will be for the widest audience — the Internet.
This post is prepared in accordance with internal Microsoft privacy rules.
Do not copy the text or photos from this post.If you found yourself on a photo in the post and would like it to be removed, then please contact me. Contacts are available here: https://kurmangaliyev.kz
Approaching the building
There are several buildings of Microsoft in Dublin, but today we will take a tour of One Microsoft Place. This is the only Microsoft office outside of the US, which performs all functions: development, sales, management, finance etc.
One Microsoft Place is located in the administrative center of the southern Dublin — South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18. If you come here by public transport, then there is a Green line Luas stop in 2 minutes walk.
Fáilte
The building is open for visitors, but every guest should be invited and accompanied by a Microsoftee.
There is a tablet on the receiption. You can enter your details and details of the inviting person on the tablet, and get your visitor badge. Inviting person will get e-mail notification and come to pick you up.
The lobby screen announces current events, celebrations or special guests.
On the left of the lobby, there is DreamSpace lab.
DreamSpace is an initiative of Microsoft to teach school students and inspire them to invent modern technologies, create 3D-models, work in teams, to program robots or just play Minecraft :)
If you are interested in how it looks like, you can check out this YouTube promo.
Ground Floor
After a Microsoftee meets you in the lobby, you can enter the atrium.
There is a digital waterfall and lake in the center of the atrium, consisting of 125 000 LEDs. Ireland is an island. That’s why the main idea of One Microsoft Place is island as well.
The atrium is the central space in the building. All pathways meet in the atrium and most of the windows face to the atrium.
All the large events and fairs are happening here as well.
The remaining part of the Ground Floor are conference-rooms and canteen. The canteen includes 5 restaraunts, bakery and coffee shop.
There are amusements spread over the floor: pool, table tennis and foosball tables.
I have written a separate post about food in Microsoft Ireland:
On summer, the floor is extended to the terrace. In good weather, you can have a lunch or make a BBQ party here.
Working floors
The most scenic way to go upstairs is using the atrium stairs. It starts just behind the digital waterfall and symbolyzes the mountains of Ireland.
Starting from the first floor, most of the floor space is reserved for working areas. Visitors are not allowed to enter working areas, because there can be sensitive information on the walls and the screens.
Working areas are grouped into so called neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods are separated from the noisy halls, but are connected with each other. As the result, it is usually quite in there, but people can still freely walk between working spaces and teams.
There is a meeting room in every neighbourhood, so every team always has some space for the meetings.
If you need to book a meeting for a larger audience, there are many conference rooms, which you can book using Outlook or a tablet near the door.
All conference rooms are equipped with hardware and software for remote sessions. Many people prefer to participate in optional meetings remotely via Teams or just watch the recording afterwards.
If you need to work in a small group or alone, then you can always find an empty phone room or meeting room.
There are lots of co-working zones for less formal meetings.
People also meet each other and hold informal meetings in the kitchen area. There is a kitchen area on every floor, with free drinks, fruits and cheap snacks.
Sights
Shop
with Microsoft souvenirs and discounted Microsoft products: devices, Xbox games, Windows, Office etc.
Tech Link
Technical support. Employees can order new headsets, fix their hardware or pick a cool sticker on the lid of their laptops.
Microsoft Technology Center
Demo-room with the cutting-edge technologies and devices of Microsoft like Surface or HoloLens. Unfortunately, I cannot show you how it looks like inside, because visitors are not allowed in these premises.
One more coffee shop on the 3rd floor, Lego walls, walls with markers for visitors and more…
At the very top
The main atrium ladder goes all the way through the working floors and ends up here, on the summer terrace.
There is a gorgeous view opening from the terrace. You can see Leopardstown Racecourse, golf course, Wicklow mountains and the Irish Sea from here.
Let’s walk out of the terrace and get into Wellbeing Area. There is an internal website, which employees can use to book an appointment for hair stylist, massage therapist, cosmetologist, optician, dietician, nail technician and other wellbeing specialists.
All services are subsidised, so it saves both time and money. For instance, I am prescribed glasses or contact lenses for driving, so Microsoft covers glasses expenses for up to €150 once in two years.
There are also free health monitoring events, vaccination, nutrition or psychological consultations occuring all year round.
Just behind the wellbeing area there is a yoga box for yoga and meditation. This black box on the top which looks like a command center, turns out to be the yoga box.
Underground floors
There is Fitness Area on the floor -1 with two gyms, showers and lockers. Gym membership are not free, but it is times cheaper, than regular gyms.
There are also prayer room, first-aid room and own postal office where employees can send or receive correspondence — both professional or personal.
Music Room, which is the most popular and booked room in the building, is located one floor below, on level -2. All members of music club can book this room and play guitars, keyboard, drums and other musical instruments. People even create music bands and play together.
If you are not a fond of music, you can choose one of other 15 clubs in Microsoft Ireland: running, cycling, photo, drawing, dancing and more. You can always create your own club and invite other people, and Microsoft will try to support you with the resources.
Beside these facilities, underground floors are used for car and bicycle parking.
Walk around the office
On the backyard of One Microsoft Place, there is a pond and park area for walks.
If you go deep towards the end of the business park, you will find another Microsoft building — One Microsoft Court. I don’t want this tour to be too long, so we will peek into this building next time :)
The most frequently asked questions in the end of a tour: “what is your work schedule?” and “how is it to work in this atmosphere? do you have time to work?”.
The work schedule is flexible, so people are responsible for their time management. Software engineers are expected to work efficiently for 4 hours per day. The rest of the day can be used for meetings, collaboration with other engineers or for oneself. As long as the tasks are being completed in time, the customers are happy, and services are running regularly.
With regard to working atmosphere, this creative and free atmosphere makes people more responsible, they find more efficient ways and time to work, and eventually work with higher motivation. Moreover, many people continue to be useful in their free time — for example, some people work on charity projects.
In my opinion, Microsoft One Place is a great example of an interesting and comfortable office. Indeed, sometimes it is even too comfortable :)
Links
- Table of contents
Your guide to all posts in this blog - Food in One Microsoft Place
