Since childhood, we’ve memorized designated lunch times, glancing at the clock every five minutes until freedom and food. As workers, the cafeteria is an integral part of the workplace culture, where we find respite and meet to connect and collaborate with colleagues. According to Steelcase research, 91% of employees say it’s important to have a space where they can recharge. A successful work cafe does just that while providing areas to focus and socialize.
The New Office
You don’t have to sit up straight all day, regardless of what your mom told you. People need to be encouraged to shift postures throughout the day, move around and sometimes even given permission to put their feet up—research shows a more relaxed lounge posture promotes creative thinking. Make sure to provide a broad range of options so people can sit, stand, perch, lounge and move.
Remote or home working more of a preference for baby boomers than millennials
Perhaps it’s something to do with the housing issues many people from the younger generations now have to deal with; i.e. either live with parents or endure an overpriced house share, but those under 35 are reported to actually prefer working from the office to remote or home working. This differs from baby boomers, who would rather work from home.
Creativity is the new productivity in the modern era of work and workplaces
Creativity is often thought of as a quality unique to artistic geniuses. When in reality, it is present in all of us, and something that can be enhanced and nurtured, given the right tools and environment. Creativity is the innate human ability to generate ideas, solve difficult problems and exploit new opportunities — it is the fuel for innovation. Many of today’s most pressing business problems require creative thinking to solve them, and creativity is an essential ingredient for business growth.
Why WeWork’s Flexible Workspaces Are The Offices Of The Future
From millennials to baby boomers, professionals not only want careers they are passionate about but also a work environment and community where they can strive for personal fulfillment. Flexible workspace has emerged as a way to meet those goals. Workers with access to this type of environment are less stressed and have higher productivity levels, according to a study from the American Sociological Review.
Sense-Breaking Makes Sense for Innovation
During the recent mediaX 2017 Conference at Stanford University, titled Sense-Making & Making Sense, I was struck by the significant shift in navigating 21st century technologies and commerce. mediaX is a forum and incubator of ideas with a multi-disciplinary approach to exploring how “… understanding people can improve the design of technologies in the areas of learning, mobility, collaboration, entertainment and commerce.”
WORKPLACE SITCOMS REFLECTING THE FAULTY MODERN AMERICAN WORK CULTURE
Today’s workplace comedies are able to pull in massive audiences and a cultural relevance that keeps them on top of the all-time best television lists. As with most modern workplace sitcoms, entertainment is a top priority, and so is realism. It’s particularly welcome as some of these shows depend on the fickle American workplace culture. They follow the office precedent, they focus on issues like racialized minorities, gender relations, and the Schadenfreude of tearing your colleagues apart.
4 Things Millennials Want Their Offices To Provide
Class-A offices eager to attract and retain tenants are putting in amenities that imbue an impressive, sometimes eclectic, mix of features and perks. Due to a growing and increasingly demanding millennial workforce, property owners and managers are choosing amenities that cater to this generation’s desire for connectivity, community, capabilities and convenience.
Perkins+Will Designs British Columbia’s First WELL Certified Workplace for New and Existing Interiors
Global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will is pleased to announce that the Vancouver office of CBRE Group, Inc. is British Columbia’s first WELL certified workplace for new and existing interiors. The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) awards the project gold level certification based on IWBI’s WELL Building Standard™ (WELL™).
The workplace of the future
Office developments will become more flexible, efficient as well as sustainable, while promoting employee well-being
Apple Disrupts Silicon Valley With Another Eye-Catcher: Its New Home
Apple’s new home in Cupertino — the centerpiece being a $5 billion, four-story, 2.8 million-square-foot ring that can be seen from space and that locals call the spaceship — is still getting some final touches, and employees have just started to trickle in. The full squadron, about 12,000 people, will arrive in several months.
Field Notes: Designing for Today's News Outlets
Perhaps no industry has seen more change recently than media, but what are the real factors shaping the evolution of the industry? And how do we design for them? Sumita Arora, one of Gensler’s Media Practice Area leaders, has a few thoughts.
MOVING BEYOND PRODUCTIVITY: IBM’S REMOTE WORK REVERSAL
Measuring success by lower expenses and higher productivity, IBM should have been yielding high-performance results. The company’s real estate annual savings total over $1 million and its internal research states that this contributes to their remote workers increased productivity.
Workplace Workouts: Stepping off the Corporate Treadmill, and onto a Real One
At outdoor gear company Patagonia, employees have been known to cut out of work to go surfing. Another very well-known tech giant scatters its campus with athletics fields to keep people moving. And at health care provider Kaiser Permanente, workers can use a bike-share program to move about the company’s campus or clear their heads with a trail ride.
The Future of Amenities: Amen(c)ity Tower
Amenities have typically ranged from providing daily conveniences (dry cleaning, food courts, etc.) to recreation or health (gyms, saunas, clinics, etc.). To appeal to a younger generation, building owners are in a race of amenity one-upmanship, with popular amenities like table tennis and complimentary food becoming less of a differentiator than health complexes, basketball courts and hair salons.
We Asked 169,000 Workers About What Makes Their Workplace Great. Here's Their Take
The Shrinking Office: Why the Workplace is Getting Smaller
There is a particularly notable trend in today’s business culture toward the “shrinking” of office spaces. For the last several years, this pattern hasn’t only made an impact in the physical workplace, but also how people work and are being managed, the technologies that enable their everyday tasks, and how each company employs the workplace for its own ends.
A 'greener' office actually improves how well you work
A Healthy Return: The Business Case for Well-Being in the Workplace
Haworth hosts a Q&A with an expert panel on designing offices that support today’s workers without driving them to distraction.
Designing the Office for the New Legal Landscape: Do More With Less
Specifically, “less” for the law firm means reducing their office footprint and leasing costs. Historically, office occupancy represents the law firm’s second-largest expense — after employee compensation — and many firms are adjusting accordingly in several ways.