The corporate world can be tough. With conflicting demands, excessive workloads, and distracting coworkers, it’s no wonder many employees are stressed out. In fact, a recent poll shows 46 percent of office workers think their job is bad for stress levels. For those working more than forty hours a week, it can be even worse.

One strategy for combatting stress is to schedule short breaks throughout the day to recharge and refuel. Mounting empirical evidence supporting the benefits of mental downtime that suggests this method replenishes attention, improves productivity, and can even enhances creativity. Cal Newport, author of the bestselling book Deep Work, extolls the virtues of taking periodic deep breaks to prevent mental burnout. He suggests short walks, daydreaming, and reading as examples of good activities for recharging.

How can businesses encourage employees to step away from their harried schedules and take these regenerative breaks? One strategy is to design spaces for introspection within the work environment. This can be accomplished leveraging two different approaches.

Via interiorarchitects.com

You may not realize it, but your work environment -- from where your desk is located, the temperature, even how long you are sitting -- can all factor into how industrious and collaborative you and your team are.

Stephanie Douglas, director of workplace strategy at Teknion, a design firm that specializes in office spaces, says that going into 2017, “much of the dialogue around workplace has focused on the 'things' -- space, furniture, technology, policies -- and we're seeing the conversation shift to really focus back on the employee."

This emphasis on the employee's experience -- especially with regards to health and wellness -- is going to inform many of the workplace trends in the year ahead.

Via stamfordadvocate.com

The function and purpose of the physical corporate workspace is evolving. Technology has made ‘where’ we work irrelevant in many cases. The workplace of the future is more about ‘how’ we work, bringing people together to collaborate, innovate, learn and socialize. It’s about communicating, nurturing and supporting a company’s culture and mission. Couple that institutional evolution with an increase in worker expectations, their desire to contribute and engage in a meaningful enterprise and the emerging generational appetite for advancement through more frequent changes and you’ll quickly realize that the business of design is no longer ‘business as usual.’ To compete with top talent, Financial Services Firms must place a greater emphasis on the employee experience.

There are as many different approaches to employee amenities as there are unique corporate cultures and missions. Not surprisingly, many focus on food. Sophisticated coffee service has become a baseline expectation sometimes even staffed by a professional barista. Many offices incorporate lounges with self-serve ‘mini-marts’ stocked with quality local market foods, energy drinks and treats. Traditional ‘me spaces’ decrease in favor of enhanced ‘we spaces,’ sophisticated work lounges replete with stylish, comfortable furnishings and finishes. Fitness centers and employee cafeterias get a similar approach, integrating healthy eating options with a fitness tracking program sometimes supplemented with onsite access to clinical healthcare professionals. All of these things may sound expensive, and some can be. So why are corporations making these types of investment?

Via Gensleron.com

In the workplace—or even retail or healthcare setting—autonomy and resilience require a supportive environment, potentially achievable through an infrastructure evolution driven by emerging building technologies and construction methods.  Imagine wireless internet and charging capabilities for all your devices without any connection to wall or floor outlets. Imagine furniture performing all the functions of an electric connection— table tops as conductors, table legs as receivers for power transmitted through the floor.  Mobile tables could be almost anywhere, providing power on an as-needed basis.

How likely is this scenario? With LAN and WAN connections, it is currently conceivable. A workforce could be fully autonomous with this kind of infrastructure, able to move through a work environment completely untethered, restricted only by architecture. Although workflows typically require some degree of enclosed space, that could be addressed by the initial space construction or retrofit.

Via interiorarchitects.com >