The Boston Globe
The perk was first proposed by PTC in 2020 as a solution to convey individuals again to the workplace.
One in all Boston’s most uncommon worker perks is hiding in plain sight within the Seaport District.
If you happen to’ve frolicked lounging on the steps behind the Institute of Modern Artwork, hoisted a glass of rosé on the new ReelHouse Oyster Bar, or hopped the water shuttle from the Seaport to North Station, the perk has been proper in entrance of you.
Workers of software program firm PTC have free entry to dock area on the Fan Pier Marina. This summer time, a few dozen of them are benefiting from the chance to drive their boats to work, tie up, and stroll two blocks to the workplace on Seaport Boulevard. It’s the third summer time that the Boston-based firm has supplied free docking for mariners. The staff who make use of it motor in from house ports in Salem, Scituate, Hingham, and Newton.
“The primary time I heard in regards to the slips, I mentioned, ‘That’s not actual,’” says Stuart Aquadro, a director of inside gross sales. Now, Aquadro makes use of the dock area a couple of times every week to cross the harbor from his house in East Boston. “There’s no white knuckling it by way of site visitors,” he says. Often, Aquadro makes a 3rd journey over on the weekend to do some grocery procuring on the Dealer Joe’s within the Seaport.
Workers who don’t personal boats can hitch a trip in, too. Peter LeBlanc, a senior director at PTC, says that he hasn’t but obtained spousal permission to purchase a ship, however he sometimes makes the one-hour journey to work from the South Shore with a colleague, Stuart Heavyside, who retains his 35-foot powerboat in Scituate.
The perk was first proposed in 2020, throughout a dialog on PTC’s roof deck that included the publicly-held firm’s chief govt, Jim Heppelman. The dialog was centered on issues that may convey individuals again to the workplace; PTC, which sells software program that’s utilized by architects and designers, had simply moved from Needham right into a gleaming new headquarters constructing within the Seaport. “I used to be actually half-joking after I mentioned, ‘Similar to now we have a parking storage and bike parking, we should always have a spot for boats,’” remembers Michael Campbell, on the time an govt vice chairman on the firm. Campbell would generally are available from Scituate on his boat, however he’d both pay for a day’s dockage close to Authorized Harborside, or discover a secret spot the place he may tie up without cost.
Heppelman informed him to look into how a lot it will value. Campbell sought out a quote, and he remembers a cold February day after they mentioned whether or not one slip can be adequate. He received the OK for 2. The Fan Pier Marina’s rack fee for one season’s rental of 70 ft of dock area is $30,000, however Campbell says he was in a position to negotiate a little bit of a reduction. (It’s sufficient area for 2 medium-sized powerboats.) The parking perk got here on-line in the summertime of 2021 — together with different back-to-the-office lures, like free lunches. A spot on the marina might be reserved the identical method an worker would ebook a convention room, utilizing the corporate’s Microsoft Outlook calendar system.
On the finish of a Thursday earlier in July, I went right down to see the slip for myself. Aquadro and Heavyside had their boats there (“Sea Salt” and “Midlife Disaster”), and a 3rd PTC worker was utilizing an additional spot that occurred to be accessible. It was a peaceful day within the harbor, nice sunshine, slight breeze, the sound of ferry horns within the distance. Heavyside mentioned that there are 4 or 5 workers who use the slips so much, and one other 5 – 6 who use them extra sporadically. The corporate’s CEO, an avid fisherman, lives in New Hampshire, so he isn’t one of many slip’s common customers, “although he usually comes down to sit down with us,” Heavyside mentioned.
Heavyside and Campbell say that the boats usually get used as al fresco convention rooms, or for socializing after work. “Each single time I took my boat, I’d fill the cooler with drinks, and whoever was in my final assembly, I’d say, ‘Let’s go right down to the water.’ Or it’d be an attractive day, and we’d have conferences on the boat. Simply having the ability to be exterior in that atmosphere is a motivator,” mentioned Campbell. Typically, boat conferences would contain the CEO or different high executives, along with workers at decrease ranges. “There was a mingling that didn’t at all times occur within the workplace,” Campbell mentioned. A minimum of as soon as, Campbell mentioned, he was in a position to supply a colleague from Minnesota a fast trip to the airport on the finish of a day of conferences, “so he may benefit from the afternoon, as an alternative of sitting within the Ted Williams tunnel.” Typically, the boat homeowners entertain PTC’s clients.
Boating could be a sooner various to attending to work by automotive or public transit, but it surely’s removed from the most affordable method, even with free parking. Campbell says that on an ideal day, he may make the journey from Scituate to the Seaport in below 40 minutes. The standard drive on a weekday can generally attain two hours. His common journey was extra like an hour, however that would stretch to 90 stomach-churning minutes when seas have been exceptionally tough. “Given the brief boating season right here, I usually strive not to consider how a lot I spend on gasoline,” Campbell mentioned. However he estimates the spherical journey value about $150 in gas, and that he’d commute by boat 12 to fifteen instances a 12 months.
Heavyside mentioned that getting access to the water is a part of what PTC was searching for when it moved from the suburbs to the town simply earlier than COVID: a extra vibrant firm tradition. On the Thursday after we spoke, he was planning to go to a dinner with colleagues, after which spend the night time in his boat cabin. Aquadro mentioned that having the corporate headquarters be so near the harbor with out entry to it will “be like having an workplace on a golf course and never {golfing}.” He not solely enjoys touring to work by boat, after which doing a little grocery procuring, but additionally has three lobster traps within the harbor that sometimes present dinner.
Whereas PTC doesn’t supply free parking to workers who select to drive to work, there’s a program that covers one hundred pc of commuter rail, ferry, or T prices, Bluebike memberships, or subsidizes among the value of automotive parking.
Campbell, the worker who initially proposed the thought, mentioned that he isn’t conscious of every other corporations that provide dock area as a perk. “We set a precedent, relatively than citing one,” he mentioned. However he added that he has “buddies on the South Shore who work within the Monetary District who’ve taken this concept to their corporations.”
Final fall, Campbell left PTC for an govt position at one other tech firm, Bentley Methods. Although he’ll sometimes come into the Seaport on his 36-foot Pursuit powerboat to make use of the shared workplace area at a close-by WeWork, he has to pay for his personal dock utilization.
The free slip, he mentioned, is “one of many many issues I miss about PTC.”
