Problems with noise at work? A lot of it is in our heads

Problems with noise at work? A lot of it is in our heads 0

When it comes to working in an office, hell really can be other people. Many staff can have enormous difficulties coming to terms with the sounds that form the backdrop to their working day, especially if they work in open plan areas. The problem of noise at work is particularly acute right now because most UK employees now work in open plan offices and at workstations that are on average about 20 percent smaller than they were ten years or so ago. Yet, on the face of it, the business case for working in open plan offices is pretty clear cut.

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Sleeping on the job is now acceptable behaviour

Sleeping on the job is now acceptable behaviour

sleeping under a convertible deskRecently, Cornerstone OnDemand tested which learning and training courses are of most interest and truly matter to employees to help them navigate the world of work. Among the top five most popular courses, there was a resounding demand for those that centred around wellbeing. And the training that claimed the top spot was ‘The Science of Sleep: Sleep hygiene’. More →

The Age of Blorp, a dead tulip, no muggles allowed and some other stuff

First the good news. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has rejected the proposals for Foster+Partners’ godawful 300 metre tall ‘Tulip’ viewing tower in London. The reasons given for the refusal from the Mayor’s office include the fact that the thing didn’t represent the sort of “world class architecture that would be required to justify its prominence”. A nicely dressed up way of saying it’s a terrible idea, a terrible piece of architecture and has absolutely no place in London. More →

Ergonomics regulations are no longer fit for purpose

Ergonomics regulations are no longer fit for purpose

ergonomics guideThe past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. We can apply LP Hartley’s legendary opening lines from his novel The Go Between to many of the ways the world of work has changed over the last quarter of a century. And perhaps especially to The European Display Screen Equipment Regulations which were first introduced in 1992 as a way of improving the posture and wellbeing of people working with computers in the office.

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Offices still failing to support collaborative work

Offices still failing to support collaborative work

collaborative workTeam-based collaborative work is increasing as people in the UK now spend 55 percent of their time working with others, according to new Steelcase research. This global trend toward collaboration is critical for organisations which need to quickly generate new ideas and solve complex problems; yet, the new study suggests many workplaces do not support this team-based work. More →

New BCO specification guide addresses “exponential times”

New BCO specification guide addresses “exponential times”

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has published its new Guide to Specification, which provides guidance on industry standards for workplaces across the UK. The Specification Guide, last published in 2014, sets out to help office developers address the key issues for the UK workforce in the coming decades, namely wellbeing, technology and sustainability. The authors claim that the new edition addresses the “exponential times” in which we now live, with sections focusing on wellbeing, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and sustainability. More →

Workers want offices that inspire themselves and others

Workers want offices that inspire themselves and others

New research from Ambius, claims that more than half (56 percent) of Brits have felt what they call office envy after visiting another organisation’s workspace. Despite the majority (55 percent) communicating this ‘lack of office inspiration’ to their office manager or employer, most saw no change as a result. The survey of 1,000 UK office workers also claims that employees are conscious of how their office looks on social media. Just one in five think their office space is beautiful, and as a result, only 22 percent would be proud enough to post a picture of it on Instagram, or other social channels. More →

Family firms focus more on corporate social responsibility

Family firms focus more on corporate social responsibility

corporate social responsibilityCompanies owned by families pay more attention to issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR), such as sustainability and environmental issues, according to research from Vlerick Business School, but the research also found that attention to CSR decreases as the company is handed down to the next generations. Dr. Kerstin Fehre, Professor of Strategy at Vlerick Business School, alongside Dr. Florian Weber from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, studied family firms and the attention they gave to CSR compared to non-family firms. The study, published in the journal Business Ethics: A European Review, used over a hundred of the largest HDAX listed companies in Germany and analysed messages to shareholders published in annual reports. More →

Cosm wins Red Dot Award as best office chair

Cosm wins Red Dot Award as best office chair

Cosm, designed by Studio 7.5 for Herman Miller, has won the Red Dot Best of the Best Product Design Award in the office chairs category. The award rounds out Cosm’s first year on the market, taking home a suite of awards for the new design. Herman Miller introduced Cosm, designed by Studio 7.5, in Milan coinciding with Salone Del Mobile, April 2018. The chair was launched fully to the market in Autumn 2018.  Today, Cosm chairs have been sold to more than 1,700 companies in 90 countries around the world. More →

The scale of the problem for workplace design

The scale of the problem for workplace design 0

There is a typically telling and intelligent Pixar moment in the film A Bug’s Life in which an already well-lubricated mosquito goes up to a bar and orders a ‘Bloody Mary, O Positive’. The barman plonks a droplet of blood down on the bar. The mosquito sinks his proboscis into it, sucks it down in one go and promptly falls over. The mosquito doesn’t need a glass because that is for animals who have a problem with gravity. For insects, the major force in their lives isn’t gravity, but surface tension. More →

Volkswagen to apply agile working at new Berlin campus

Volkswagen to apply agile working at new Berlin campus

agile working at VW's We Campus in BerlinVolkswagen has opened its new ‘We Campus’ in Berlin and claims that the agile working principles used in its design will transform the working lives and output of the 900 people at the facility. The campus will bring together about experts from Volkswagen and other firms who have previously worked at different locations. Volkswagen claims that the centre will be an essential part of what it calls the We ecosystem, which includes an electric car sharing service WeShare which has been launched in Berlin with 1,500 e-Golf cars. Volkswagen also plans to create new future-oriented jobs at the campus. More →

Meetings ruined by late arrivals and setting up tech

Meetings ruined by late arrivals and setting up tech

MeetingsA report from Moo claims that people are wasting time by waiting for all attendees to arrive at or dial-in to meetings. Engaging in small talk with colleagues and tackling technology followed closely behind. The findings include the claims that nearly half of British workers spend up to ten minutes trying to find a meeting room on average, and around the same number spend up to 15 minutes waiting for other attendees to arrive or dial-in.

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