April 12, 2013
Video: people feel good at work when they know it has meaning
[embedplusvideo height=”151″ width=”215″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/5aH2Ppjpcho?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=5aH2Ppjpcho&width=210&height=146&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep2646″ /]
More evidence stacks up about what motivates people, including in the workplace. One thing that all the research shows about how to help people feel good at work is that motivation is a complex issue. It is not about money or joy or fun or an easy life. The things that are important include the challenge of overcoming difficult problems, a sense of achievement and an understanding that the work they do is acknowledged and makes a genuine contribution. The one thing to avoid is futility and the thing to aim for is meaning even in small ways. All of this research challenges the assumption that people are essentially economic creatures and that we can make them feel better by making isolated changes to their working environment.
April 9, 2013
Office design goes to the movies. Part 7 – The Apartment
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
[embedplusvideo height=”151″ width=”220″ standard=”https://www.youtube.com/v/x356ll3hTxg?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=x356ll3hTxg&width=220&height=151&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep9389″ /]
In which Jack Lemmon exchanges the crushing uniformity of the open plan for a corner office as a reward for allowing senior managers to use his apartment as a venue for their infidelity. This is from 1960, the pre-cubicle, pre-VDU world of large ranks of serried workers in an open plan office with only the privileged few allowed any degree of privacy or the wherewithal to display status. many ways, the layout has much in common with the way many offices are designed now. Office design may have moved on in the past half century but some things are always with us.