Fearless makes more room for families in its latest office expansion

As Fearless has grown, the downtown dev agency has taken more and more space at Spark Baltimore. Most recently, the expansion featured a renovation effort as the company moved into 7,000 square feet of space, mostly on the second floor of the building plus two small suites on the third.

With the March move, the company created some new areas for employees. But Director of Brand and Communications Bethany Halteman said the elements are designed to go beyond work.

“We believe the workspace has to be welcoming to the entire family, not just the individual we hire, in order to engage the whole person,” said Halteman, who has led each of the expansion efforts.

With the renovation, that meant including a family area that has room for team members who bring their young children.

“From day one, we’ve always been a kid-friendly office, with an open door to anyone needing to bring their family in for the day,” Halteman said. “Throughout the years, this has included nursing rooms, toy boxes and many toddlers coloring in meetings. When we expanded last month, we wanted to prioritize this space with a prime corner window location and lounge seating, right off from our open work area.”

The “calf lounge” — a play on the company’s Purple Cow-influenced branding — isn’t the largest area of the office. Yet Halteman said the space has been “huge” for helping the parents in the office feel comfortable bringing their kids. That’s helped a team that’s celebrated more than nine babies born over the last two years, and more team members currently expecting.

When it came time to design our new, expanded office space we set out to create a space that would allow everyone to be their best purple cow, https://t.co/C63sX3yiWS#IamFearless #mybmore pic.twitter.com/rW6Iym1GRI

— Fearless (@fearlessbmore) April 16, 2019

Separated from the workspace by a glass wall and filled with natural light, Halteman said it has furniture and a small fridge, plus TV, karaoke and gaming consoles, two full toy boxes, legos, coloring supplies and a playpen. It’s not full onsite childcare, but rather is a place where the team members who are parents can know kids are engaged, and Halteman said other team members have been pitching in. Kids have also taken to the photo booth station, and snacks around the wider office, as well.

“Since our March move, we’ve already had a couple newborns join us for a day, multiple toddlers spend days tearing through the toy boxes, and a few off-school kids enjoying their own activities while their parents are working or in meetings,” Halteman said.

We heard about the importance of thinking about the whole person during our recent stakeholders meeting. With Fearless’ efforts, it’s clear that talking about a “family” doesn’t just mean the team itself.