As SIGMADESIGN continues to grow, I feel it is important for me to expound on the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategy. In continuing this effort, I have come to one of my favorites – Take Time to Laugh. Boil this value down, and it essentially means that we all live the “work hard, play hard” mentality.
Bill Huseby, CEO SIGMADESIGN
At SIGMADESIGN we take our work very seriously, as is easily seen in the quality and hard work of our design and engineering effort. But we try not to take ourselves too seriously. Sometimes our laughter and fun is spontaneous. It is not uncommon for me to walk into our world headquarters building and hear eruptions of laughter echoing throughout the office. This often stems from a variety of things- like a funny video distributed to the team or from a practical joke played on the Industrial Design folks.
But here at SIGMADESIGN, we also believe in setting ourselves up for fun and for laughter. Of course fun looks different to everybody. Here at the headquarters, we have a foosball table upstairs and I encourage everyone to take a break and enjoy a good game. When you walk into our the Vancouver, Washington office, you’ll be greeted by a thirty foot rock-climbing wall, which our team members are free to climb. During the summer, we enjoy time together at local amusement parks, at the beach, or in my own backyard. When we have a holiday bash, we don’t meet in a stuffy banquet room. We head to a winery, to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), to the Pearson Air Museum. We’ve even held a carnival in our own office! We also set up times to get together and have fun outside of our summer and winter parties. Every Wednesday morning, you’ll see a group of folks in our kitchen enjoying coffee and bagels and watching funny videos on a big screen TV. If you’ve got a motorcycle, you’ll be invited by other team members to enjoy an afternoon ride during the summer lunch hours. We host beer busts, compete in engineered go-cart races, design pumpkin catapults, play golf together, compete in triathlons, etc. – the list goes on and on!
So why do I believe in having fun and taking time to laugh together? Why am I so intent on hiring employees that like to have a good time? The answer is multi-faceted. I realize that all of the SIGMADESIGN team members spend more time at the office than they do awake with their spouse, family and friends. So I do what I can to develop a culture that encourages fun and I do my best to provide a work environment that is enjoyable. Sure, our workload can be heavy at times and the work can be challenging. But I want our team to know that they are free to Take Time to Laugh. I want them to work hard but also to have a blast working here. Work is a major part of life; I want it to be pleasurable. Why do I look for folks who already have this ability to take the time to laugh? It is important to me that our potential clients recognize that SIGMADESIGN is unique. We don’t believe in boring. We work hard and we have fun while we do it. I want our customers to know that we love what we do and we want them to enjoy the experience while working with us. More importantly, I want our clients to laugh with us. When SIGMADESIGN is hired by a new customer they should know that they will get the highest quality design and manufacturing team who enjoy life and enjoy what they do.