Life at Check DC: Potions, People and Geniuses
SHARE
Prologue
Potion: /ˈpəʊʃ(ə)n/ noun
- A liquid with healing, magical properties. An instrument for magicians
People: /piːp(ə)l/
- Members of a particular community.
Genius: /ˈdʒiːnɪəs/ noun
- A highly talented, creative, or intelligent person.
The people of Check DC are geniuses making magic with their potions.
First Draft
Asides being the world’s best multidisciplinary agency -
Okay our CEO said we’re being too forward, so let’s try again.
Second Draft
At Check DC, we do a lot of great work, so much so that we get international recognition almost all the time. But this article isn’t about that. This article is about the amazing team who make the great work we do possible.
We’ve come a long way from a team of 4 working in a home/office space in Gbagada, to a rapidly expanding team of people, not just in Lagos, but other parts of the world (we GLOBAL baby)!
We’re a bunch of erm….. really interesting people working everyday to create good stuff (design, development, strategy, communications) and in honour of Worker’s Day, we wanted to share EXACTLY what some team members think about what they do, the company, and our culture. We promise, we didn’t hold a gun to anyone’s head — we just sent out a few questions and let them answer!
Our first question was really simple:
Describe what you do at Check DC- like a Gen Z would.
Here’s some of the answers we got:
Betty: You eye, you hex designer
Xam: Na design I dey do oo
Precious: I do usually move stuff around on Figma
Fiyin: Making boring shapes look cool
Jesutomisin: Generally, doingz. Writing and such
DB: Code, vibe, experiment
Tonye: I don’t know how to answer that question. (We can forgive her, She’s HR)
From the responses, you can tell that we’re gradually all becoming accustomed to Gen Z speak, even though Gen Z’s get teased here. But it’s all love.
Now onto the next question:
What’s one thing you definitely never look forward to at work?
Doyin: Client meetings
Josh: Long hours of brainstorming sessions
Betty: Nothing actually ( Wow, God of Betty, do our own too)
Xam: Endless feedback, “abeg release me from the shackles of this task”
Precious: Friday meeting (I’ve not finished my work)
Fiyin: Long ass meetings and Chisom’s mood swings
Chinwe: Meetings
Godwin: Meetingsssssss
Jesutomisin: Omo, slack. That app dey stress me. And omo, some meetings.
Okay, okay so we all hate meetings. That’s a no brainer, show us a person who loves meetings and we’ll give you $50.
Looking past the long, dreary meetings, there’s still so many awesome reasons why the people of Check love it here, but don’t take our word for it, take the team’s word:
What’s cool about working here?
Josh: Enough bragging rights lol “You know Nigerian Mockups yeah, we did that shi** (I mean he’s right)
Xam: Omo everything, the fact that I can learn new things and my ideas are also used makes Check cool and that’s not even the beginning
Fiyin: Nobody is here for themselves. We’re an actual team and everybody cares about everybody.
Godwin: What’s not cool about working in the best agency in the country?
Chinwe: Flexibility
DB: Flexible hours and interpersonal relationships.
Liking food is a big part of our culture — in fact there’s a running conspiracy theory that it’s an employee requirement, but very little evidence supports this claim. That said, here are some opinions about the food they enjoy the most at the office:
DB: Every Chisom’s birthday — the quality food AND quantity of food? It’s enough to go round almost twice.
Josh: Mama Niyi’s Jollof rice of course!
Xam: You see that beans, omo it is the best and when you now combine it with bread and zobo>>>>>>>
Besides the food, we ALL love enjoyment. Everyone we asked about what they looked forward to the most, said either holidays or birthdays (Check DC people don’t play when it comes to this) or both. A few people also highlighted Wednesday evening Papieees, a bar/restaurant thing we do twice a month.
It all sounds rosy, but it’s not always rosy. There are definitely areas we could do better.
Fiyin: Communication can be better. Helping new team members settle in (we move fast, and it would help to give new hires time to catch up)
Chinwe: Encouraging work-life balance, Unrealistic timeline expectations
Or as Godwin put it: Calm down, let’s not rush.
Top management, please take note 👀
When asked what they would change if they were CEO for a day, the general consensus was nothing, so clearly Chisom is doing a good job (either that or he bribed them). There were a few suggestions that we thought were hilarious:
Betty: Make Josh and Tomide Check’s official clowns
Precious: Change resumption time to 2pm (Motion seconded by the entire Comms team)
Fiyin: I will add internet allowance abeg.
Chinwe: 4 working days
A lot of our teammates have been with us for a while now — guess that’s what happens when the jollof at work is sweet or when your bosses aren’t toxic. As such, we wanted to know some of the best memories they’ve formed over time:
Betty: My birthday party, H1 party, Christmas party and the day Sam’s trousers tore (Betty why are you giving half gist?)
Xam: The Christmas Party, Secret Santa stuff. (Of course Sam would love Secret Santa- he got some of the best gifts. Yes gifts- plural)
Fiyin: First time Charles told me he feels safe leaving the team in my hands.
Tonye: Maybe the Easter package we received this year? Yea!
Godwin: When I got a cake for my 3rd year anniversary. (I mean that was nothing compared to Godwin’s 4th year anniversary, but it’s not our story to tell)
Who’s slicing onions please?
We also wanted to know, at the end of it all:
Why do our employees actually enjoy working here and what makes us great at what we do?
DB: We just have awesome team members (especially Dev). And what makes us good? Before anything else QUALITY ALWAYS comes FIRST
Josh: I love my crazy ass team mates! The team’s relentlessness, we mostly never settle!
Betty: Omo everything makes me love working with Check, the list is endless but mostly I love how intentional everyone is
Xam: Omo everything, see I cannot begin to talk, but the fact that everyone is treated with respect is one of the major reasons I’m still here.
Precious: The people first of all and the work we do is enough reason to love working here!
Tonye: The level of dedication we have to getting the work done.
Fiyin: Everybody cares about everybody. It makes us really good at what we do!
Okay, okay. 🥺. Group hug, everyone. How beautiful.
The consensus? We’re a multidisciplinary team made up of the coolest people that have extensive skills in different areas. This variety in ability is what makes our team tick! We have lots of fun together and still make time for work (jk, jk the work ALWAYS comes first). However, what makes us different is that we’re truly a team and everyone looks out for each other and always puts their best foot forward.
And that’s it. Hope you enjoyed reading about Check ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶s̶ as much as we enjoyed writing this piece.
Don’t forget to start something today!