We work remotely from Chuck E. Cheese — our 9-to-5s should be fun, too
Working remotely really is all fun and games.
Young people in Toronto are logging onto their jobs from a local Chuck E. Cheese to offset days of meetings and memos with pizza and silly arcade games.
The unusual concept is the brainchild of 25-year-old tech and artificial intelligence worker Aryeh Bookbinder.
A few weeks ago, he went to a northern Toronto location to try it out as an office space for the first time — alone.
Bookbinder called ahead to let staff know there was no weirdness behind his weekday work visit to the restaurant “where a kid can be a kid.”
Still, “it was definitely a little bit awkward,” Bookbinder, who sought to rekindle 1990s nostalgia from Cheese’s heyday, told The Post.
“They were definitely not exactly sure what my intentions were, but they said, ‘Listen, as long as you’re not bothering anyone and as long as you’re a paying customer, you can try it out.'”
The solo trip paid off: Bookbinder found himself in an incredibly positive work environment with “great Wi-Fi.” Since kids were in school, the location was empty and distraction-free with no flashing, noisy arcade games or screaming children to fluster him.
After the successful trial, Bookbinder — who runs the guided-tour site Liminal Assembly — officially made the Sheppard Avenue birthday party hub his office space and promoted it online.
Soon after, Bookbinder said he was joined by a hodgepodge of 20 Gen Z and millennial professionals on the last Monday in April.
They paid $45 apiece to cover the costs of pizza and coffee, as well as the ironic rental of a school bus that would gather them at a mutual pick-up spot and take them to the restaurant.
The group then departs the eatery around 4 p.m. to avoid the afterschool rush.
“I was a little worried at first. I didn’t give my manager a heads up, like, ‘Hey, I’m working from a Chuck E. Cheese that day,” Katrina Lat, a 31-year-old account and strategy manager who loves arcade games, told The Post.
However, the odd combination of being around other plugged-in strangers trying to get tasks done in a kiddie space improved her performance.
“I did actually have a very, very productive day,” said Lat, who was so dialed in at one point that she didn’t notice the Chuck E. Cheese mascot standing right behind her.
She attributed the big day on the job to the fun — and somewhat nostalgic — environment.
“It was a nice change of scenery and then nice to be in a place that connected me with my childhood.”
Bookbinder agreed, saying the gathering of employees from separate companies was “shocked at how productive they were.
“Everyone was sitting at their own table; some people took meetings in the corner,” he said. “When there were breaks, people went away from the group to the arcade area and came back.”
Chuck E. Cheese’s Instagram account even commented on a post of the event, writing, “Work hard, play harder!”
Now, more than 100 people tried signing up for Bookbinder’s next work-from-Cheese event slated for June 24 — this one cheekily titled, “Fever Dream Co-working.” The goal is to hold monthly gatherings; however, the location’s manager has requested them to limit meetups to groups of 20.
Still, the entrepreneurial Bookbinder was thrilled to see his arcade adventure leveling up and helping workers do their jobs better.
And all it took was a trip to a tyke-focused wonderland.
“What’s more powerful than a childlike imagination?” Bookbinder asked.
