The first time I walked into the genOn office, I was both a little startled and pleasantly surprised by the fact that as soon as I stepped off of the elevator, I was greeted by a cheerful staff. The open office has partitioned desks that face the entrance and an open work area, a semi-circle where the interns sit. From each of the desks, you can see and talk to any other employee which I was very happy to see since I thought all office spaces were lonely, boring cubicles. There’s a huge chalk wall with the company’s logo on it that runs along the back of the office, separating the main workstations from the bathrooms and kitchen. On the front and back of the wall, there are cute doodles and short inspiring quotes. There is another chalk wall in the mini library and other inspiring words designed in their branding up throughout the office. Even though the office is usually very quiet, it’s also very friendly and inviting.

There is only one man on staff so the office is dominated by 13 women. All of the employees are pretty much laid back and often wear business casual/semi-casual outfits. One of the women is often in a simple t-shirt dress and sneakers and no one wears heels really, not even the senior VP.

A typical day in the office is pretty much quiet, everyone doing their work and having one-on-one meetings within the different departments. Around 12:30, some people go and pick up their lunch, others heat up food in the kitchen and eat there. I’ve only been there four weeks but there have been a couple times where there are only about 5 people in the office. Many times, people work from home or have to leave early. Since they work on nation-wide campaigns and have to touch base with the Atlanta headquarters, there are some days that everyone is in meeting after meeting and the interns are the only ones working at our desks.

The employees are very friendly and interesting. So far, we’ve done ice breakers with M&Ms where we heard some really funny stories about each other, talked about what everyone wanted to be when they grew up, and celebrated one of the interns’ birthday. Next week, there’s even a Halloween appetizer party.