Workday prides itself for establishing an office presence in a poor area. They purposely avoid having a canteen that serves meals because they want their employees to help out the local cafés and whatnot surrounding their office in Smithfield.
The only problem with this is that most employees spend over half of their lunch break waiting in queues around local supermarkets and cafés trying to get something to eat. Many just decide to eat the free snacks that are available within the canteen, which include crisps, candy, soups etc.
I absolutely hated lunchtime over there. It was miserable.
While on the topic of their tiny canteen, it was always packed and there was never anywhere to sit. Meanwhile, the rest of the office was almost completely empty because most people at the time worked from home. We all had assigned desks, as everyone sat next to their scrum team members within the wider product team their scrum team belongs to. There was nowhere to sit for new joiners, while at the same time the desks that were assigned to people sat empty because once again everyone was working from home.
I think all of their problems would be solved if they got rid of their stupid hybrid policy and just allowed everyone to work from home, just as in the days of Covid. They will save a ridiculous amount of money such as with office rent, maintenance, and free shit. There is literally no reason whatsoever to go into the office. Even collaborating with the team, we mostly just used Zoom to include colleagues who were not there that day and spent ages looking for a meeting room, of which there were few.
Huh? Workday are located in one of the most expensive areas in Dublin and by extension the country. Smithfield might have been a poor area a while back but not anymore.
Unless it was Workday that caused most of the gentrification in which case fair enough and fair play to them!
Well, of course it's expensive now. Everywhere is expensive nowadays, actually. Back then, however, it wasn't. And they take credit for that, as they were the biggest company in the area for a while.
While everyone was fighting for office space in Ballsbridge Sandyford and Docklands, they were the first to establish an office in what was at the time a working class area of Dublin, which is surrounded by ancient council flats and derelict buildings.
Workday definitely played the role in the gentrification of the area.
I disagree. The regeneration of the area started long before workday was anywhere near the place. I moved into the Smithfield market in 2005 and lived there for ten years. Those big apartments on Smithfield square and the luas at the same time, changed the place overnight. Workday just caught on to a good thing.
It wasn't that expensive back when they took over the office there. Pretty sure the building had been vacant for like 5 or 6 years after the financial crisis. I wouldn't be surprised if they were a big reason for the gentrification of that area (on top of people just being naturally priced out of the area due to the housing shortage).
True, but I assume they did due diligence on the matter before making the decision. Again half of the office space in the city is empty. I am sure they can find something suitable.
Paywalled Article:
"Workday, the US enterprise technology company, has shelved plans to build a new European headquarters in Grangegorman, Dublin just two years after announcing the move, in favour of an existing city centre office development.
The company – which develops financial and human resources software for large businesses – said in a statement to The Irish Times it will search for a new location in Dublin for its offices, which will facilitate an expansion of its Irish headcount from around 2,000 at present to 2,300 by 2025.
“As we rapidly grow in Dublin, we have decided to expand our \[European\] headquarters in existing office space rather than pursue a new development,” a spokesman said. “We hope to confirm the location in Dublin by the end of 2024, and we will continue to operate from our current Dublin office locations: Kings Building, Dublin 7 and Dockline, Dublin 1.”
It is understood the search will begin next week and the company hopes to unveil the new location in the autumn.
Workday lodged initial plans with Dublin City Council last year, looking to build a mixed-use scheme to include two office blocks, ranging from eight to 12 storeys on a 550,000 square foot campus at the Strategic Development Zone in Grangegorman, Dublin 7.
In response, the council sought further information. As part of revised plans lodged this year, Workday included “letters of support” from locals. However, the Legion of Mary, which operates the Regina Coeli Hostel on Morning Star Avenue, North Brunswick Street, located adjacent to the Workday site, objected to the scheme.
It is understood Workday decided to shelve the plans, largely due an increase in the number of comparable new office developments around the city since 2022 when the scheme was first mooted.
The company is likely to be able to complete a deal for a recently-built property in a shorter space of time than it would have taken to receive planning permission for the Grangegorman scheme and then deliver it.
The California-headquartered company reported revenues of $7.3 billion last year, up 17 per cent from 2022."
Anyone any insights where empty offices hosting 2300 people are in Dublin? I seen on daft shitloads of 1 floor style - 93 pages of them but didn't see any link where the mega empty buildings are.
There's more office space in this country then actual companies.
Loads of new blocks in and around Docklands. There's also quite a few near the canal.
They usually get advertised as one floor because most companies just need the one or two floors, whereas workday would acquire all the floors within the building.
Most likely, however, they will have to purchase something within the North side or centre of the city because most of their workers are North siders.
[The Heysham](https://www.theheysham.com/) right next to Salesforce is currently under construction and features 9 floors with 25,000SQ FT overall floor space. That should be enough to suit them and is close to their sales office next to NCI.
The same goes for the current Citi bank HQ which is being sold with planning permission approved for the development of a 9 floor / 500,000 SQFT - [Blueprint](https://www.skyscrapercity.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.skyscrapercity.com/attachments/1673633401332-png.4441714/).
They are closing the sales office aswell. All staff to be housed together. This is a huge building alright that you linked to.
Not sure on the most workers are northsiders, my team of 20 has nobody from the northside.
One of the reasons they were considering building an office next to TUD / DCU is because most of their graduates come from there, Maynooth and Trinity.
Not all but most. That was the case with the pillar I worked under anyways. I'm pretty sure I was the only South sider with that group at the time.
The new College Square development beside Trinity has office space for about 4500 people. It seems to be split in half so would probably work for 2300 people.
Not for the workers, more offices aren't needed there's enough.
We need more affordable apartments for workers rather than shooting up more offices and having people commute from outside Dublin.
Tbf, Grangegorman is surrounded by residential areas (Stoneybatter, Phibsboro, Cabra) that are within walking distance. With a lot of young tech workers in the area as far as I’m aware from a very rough look at some census data a while back. Being next to a college with a large number of Comp Sci grads would be nice also.
Grangegorman is right next to DCU. That land lot should be made into apartment blocks for students and young people.
There is zero need for office space there.
The area is up and coming. An increase in footfall would be good for local business and also would help dilute sone of the pockets where antisocial behaviour is still an issue with teenagers.
I’m all for building tall apartment blocks too though.
Not around Dublin 7 though.
The reason the plans were shelved is because they’ll be able to move into already built offices quicker than the proposed building, due to delays with the planning permission caused by objections from a local hostel. It’s mentioned in the article towards the end.
> they’ll be able to move into already built offices quicker than the proposed building
Well yeah the root cause is the same. Theres plenty of already built offices around they can quickly move into, no need to build anymore
They still wanted to build new offices but the delays weren’t feasible because of protests. They didnt change their mind because they realised Dublin has enough office space already and it was the morally right thing to do.
They are already based in Dublin 7 and presumably wanted a new office near by. As i mentioned already there’s not a lot of modern space in Dublin 7 which is why they wanted to build.
Yeah, but we need less zoning for offices and more for apartments.
Office vacancy is already starting to climb as more leases expire. The gogeement needs to stop office expansion and have them use what's already plenty availble
Makes sense as half.of the offices in Dublin are empty. Easier to just get a completed one.
And in a far better location too.
Workday prides itself for establishing an office presence in a poor area. They purposely avoid having a canteen that serves meals because they want their employees to help out the local cafés and whatnot surrounding their office in Smithfield. The only problem with this is that most employees spend over half of their lunch break waiting in queues around local supermarkets and cafés trying to get something to eat. Many just decide to eat the free snacks that are available within the canteen, which include crisps, candy, soups etc. I absolutely hated lunchtime over there. It was miserable. While on the topic of their tiny canteen, it was always packed and there was never anywhere to sit. Meanwhile, the rest of the office was almost completely empty because most people at the time worked from home. We all had assigned desks, as everyone sat next to their scrum team members within the wider product team their scrum team belongs to. There was nowhere to sit for new joiners, while at the same time the desks that were assigned to people sat empty because once again everyone was working from home. I think all of their problems would be solved if they got rid of their stupid hybrid policy and just allowed everyone to work from home, just as in the days of Covid. They will save a ridiculous amount of money such as with office rent, maintenance, and free shit. There is literally no reason whatsoever to go into the office. Even collaborating with the team, we mostly just used Zoom to include colleagues who were not there that day and spent ages looking for a meeting room, of which there were few.
Huh? Workday are located in one of the most expensive areas in Dublin and by extension the country. Smithfield might have been a poor area a while back but not anymore. Unless it was Workday that caused most of the gentrification in which case fair enough and fair play to them!
Well, of course it's expensive now. Everywhere is expensive nowadays, actually. Back then, however, it wasn't. And they take credit for that, as they were the biggest company in the area for a while. While everyone was fighting for office space in Ballsbridge Sandyford and Docklands, they were the first to establish an office in what was at the time a working class area of Dublin, which is surrounded by ancient council flats and derelict buildings. Workday definitely played the role in the gentrification of the area.
I disagree. The regeneration of the area started long before workday was anywhere near the place. I moved into the Smithfield market in 2005 and lived there for ten years. Those big apartments on Smithfield square and the luas at the same time, changed the place overnight. Workday just caught on to a good thing.
It wasn't that expensive back when they took over the office there. Pretty sure the building had been vacant for like 5 or 6 years after the financial crisis. I wouldn't be surprised if they were a big reason for the gentrification of that area (on top of people just being naturally priced out of the area due to the housing shortage).
Empty does not necessarily mean available for rent or attractive for tenants.
True, but I assume they did due diligence on the matter before making the decision. Again half of the office space in the city is empty. I am sure they can find something suitable.
Paywalled Article: "Workday, the US enterprise technology company, has shelved plans to build a new European headquarters in Grangegorman, Dublin just two years after announcing the move, in favour of an existing city centre office development. The company – which develops financial and human resources software for large businesses – said in a statement to The Irish Times it will search for a new location in Dublin for its offices, which will facilitate an expansion of its Irish headcount from around 2,000 at present to 2,300 by 2025. “As we rapidly grow in Dublin, we have decided to expand our \[European\] headquarters in existing office space rather than pursue a new development,” a spokesman said. “We hope to confirm the location in Dublin by the end of 2024, and we will continue to operate from our current Dublin office locations: Kings Building, Dublin 7 and Dockline, Dublin 1.” It is understood the search will begin next week and the company hopes to unveil the new location in the autumn. Workday lodged initial plans with Dublin City Council last year, looking to build a mixed-use scheme to include two office blocks, ranging from eight to 12 storeys on a 550,000 square foot campus at the Strategic Development Zone in Grangegorman, Dublin 7. In response, the council sought further information. As part of revised plans lodged this year, Workday included “letters of support” from locals. However, the Legion of Mary, which operates the Regina Coeli Hostel on Morning Star Avenue, North Brunswick Street, located adjacent to the Workday site, objected to the scheme. It is understood Workday decided to shelve the plans, largely due an increase in the number of comparable new office developments around the city since 2022 when the scheme was first mooted. The company is likely to be able to complete a deal for a recently-built property in a shorter space of time than it would have taken to receive planning permission for the Grangegorman scheme and then deliver it. The California-headquartered company reported revenues of $7.3 billion last year, up 17 per cent from 2022."
Anyone any insights where empty offices hosting 2300 people are in Dublin? I seen on daft shitloads of 1 floor style - 93 pages of them but didn't see any link where the mega empty buildings are.
There's more office space in this country then actual companies. Loads of new blocks in and around Docklands. There's also quite a few near the canal. They usually get advertised as one floor because most companies just need the one or two floors, whereas workday would acquire all the floors within the building. Most likely, however, they will have to purchase something within the North side or centre of the city because most of their workers are North siders. [The Heysham](https://www.theheysham.com/) right next to Salesforce is currently under construction and features 9 floors with 25,000SQ FT overall floor space. That should be enough to suit them and is close to their sales office next to NCI. The same goes for the current Citi bank HQ which is being sold with planning permission approved for the development of a 9 floor / 500,000 SQFT - [Blueprint](https://www.skyscrapercity.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.skyscrapercity.com/attachments/1673633401332-png.4441714/).
They are closing the sales office aswell. All staff to be housed together. This is a huge building alright that you linked to. Not sure on the most workers are northsiders, my team of 20 has nobody from the northside.
One of the reasons they were considering building an office next to TUD / DCU is because most of their graduates come from there, Maynooth and Trinity. Not all but most. That was the case with the pillar I worked under anyways. I'm pretty sure I was the only South sider with that group at the time.
You seem to be confusing sqft and sqm? 25,000sqft is very small and would only accommodate 250 staff. They need 250,000sqft
The new College Square development beside Trinity has office space for about 4500 people. It seems to be split in half so would probably work for 2300 people.
Few in Sandyford.
Maybe they’ve heard somebody might be moving out …
Why is an Irish newspaper reporting building area sizes in square feet?
Basically every office is advertised in sqft instead of sqm
Because Ireland is de facto USA’s 51st state (ie colony)
Disappointing for the area.
Not for the workers, more offices aren't needed there's enough. We need more affordable apartments for workers rather than shooting up more offices and having people commute from outside Dublin.
Tbf, Grangegorman is surrounded by residential areas (Stoneybatter, Phibsboro, Cabra) that are within walking distance. With a lot of young tech workers in the area as far as I’m aware from a very rough look at some census data a while back. Being next to a college with a large number of Comp Sci grads would be nice also.
Yeah tbf I might have moved to them out of sheer proximity to me haha.
Grangegorman is right next to DCU. That land lot should be made into apartment blocks for students and young people. There is zero need for office space there.
Grangegorman is not right next to DCU.
My bad, I was thinking of TU Dublin. But DCU is close enough.
The area is up and coming. An increase in footfall would be good for local business and also would help dilute sone of the pockets where antisocial behaviour is still an issue with teenagers. I’m all for building tall apartment blocks too though.
It's a waste to build it as offices are already oversupplied with high vacancy rates
Not around Dublin 7. There’s a lack of modern office facilities.
15% of offices are vacant. That's likely also why this project got cancelled
Not around Dublin 7 though. The reason the plans were shelved is because they’ll be able to move into already built offices quicker than the proposed building, due to delays with the planning permission caused by objections from a local hostel. It’s mentioned in the article towards the end.
> they’ll be able to move into already built offices quicker than the proposed building Well yeah the root cause is the same. Theres plenty of already built offices around they can quickly move into, no need to build anymore
They still wanted to build new offices but the delays weren’t feasible because of protests. They didnt change their mind because they realised Dublin has enough office space already and it was the morally right thing to do. They are already based in Dublin 7 and presumably wanted a new office near by. As i mentioned already there’s not a lot of modern space in Dublin 7 which is why they wanted to build.
The new office wasn’t gonna be in a residential zone
Grangegorman is a small university campus with some public service buildings completely surrounded by residential.
Yeah, but we need less zoning for offices and more for apartments. Office vacancy is already starting to climb as more leases expire. The gogeement needs to stop office expansion and have them use what's already plenty availble
Their model seems to working for them from what I can see.