Search Results for: mental health

January 25, 2019

The state of the workplace right now? Everywhere and nowhere, baby ⁰

by Paul Carder • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Premium Content, Property, Workplace design

My trade is to ask questions about the workplace then make sense of the answers. That has been a particular challenge with the question, ‘what are offices today?’ What seems clear is that the various actors in the workplace ecosystem look at offices through very different eyes. Urban planning and development professionals still view offices as a distinct category of real estate and most real estate professionals view offices in terms of the delivery of floor space. Some things have changed,however. For some time, the hybrid economy of serviced offices has turned the product into a service. But, in many cases this has simply made the leasing of space simpler and more flexible.

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January 18, 2019

Employers must take better action to avoid sick building syndrome

by Steve Loughney • Company news, Facilities management, Workplace design

Sick building syndrome is a collective term to describe when occupants of a specific building suffer from a related illness. Problems can either be localised to a specific room or more widespread throughout a building. The symptoms can manifest as headaches, blocked or runny noses, skin irritations, sore eyes or tiredness and difficulties with concentration. A number of building-related factors are linked to the condition with ageing offices and factories acting as magnets for sick building syndrome. Studies have shown that headaches and respiratory problems among office workers were directly related to the use of air conditioning and inadequate ventilation. Room temperature, light and noise, humidity, carbon dioxide, chemical contaminants (volatile organic compounds – VOCs), air quality and naturally occurring poisons can all inflame symptoms for sufferers requiring more precise control over environmental factors in the workplace. Making sure buildings are healthy for their occupants is a challenge. (more…)

January 15, 2019

Surface Design Show 2019 Preview

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace design

Surface Design Show hosts over 150 exhibitors highlighting the very best in exterior and interior surface design from 5 – 7 February. Taking place at London’s Business Design Centre, the show provides a platform for architects, designers and specifiers to explore interior and exterior surface materials, lighting design, development and innovation. Visitors will uncover thousands of new materials from the latest technological advances in building materials to innovative workplace surfaces and everything in between.

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January 9, 2019

Digital transformation and an uncharted future for workplace design in 2019

by Cherie Johnson and Julie Yonehara • Comment, Technology, Workplace design

In some way, humans have touched every single thing on this planet. We’re stepping into unknown territory. We’re changing everything. Think about that. Now, think about digital transformation. New technologies are changing how we interact with our environment, how we work, how we play and how we live. Tech tools are being more readily adopted as they get better and more accessible and, as a result our attitudes about them are changing. These are big ideas. And, they are rapidly changing our work and the domain of workplace design around the world. (more…)

December 21, 2018

The ten most read stories on Workplace Insight for 2018

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Features, Property, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design

We can’t help but feel that the world caught up with us a bit during 2018. We’ve been talking about the intersection of people, place and tech since we started up five years ago. Of course, we weren’t even the first to do this. As we’ve always acknowledged, we’re standing on the shoulders of the giants who first recognised what was happening a quarter of a century ago. Many of the ‘trends’ with which we are presented are nothing more than the crystallisation of ideas first expressed by people in the 20th Century. They seldom get their due.

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December 18, 2018

As we enter our darkest hours, quality of office lighting needs attention

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Lighting, News, Wellbeing

As we enter the darkest days of the year, office workers in the UK are set to get virtually no natural light. For instance, today (18 December) sunrise in London is at 08:01 and sunset is 15:52, meaning office workers are commuting to and from their offices in the dark. The quality of lighting within many workplaces is often not much better, as despite 80 percent of UK office workers, saying good lighting in their workspace is important to them, two-in-five (40 percent) say they have to deal with uncomfortable lighting every day and a third (32 percent) said better lighting would make them happier at work. However today some Londoner’s will have the chance to get a much-needed dose of light at an uplifting Light Station supplied by Staples at Southwark Bridge tunnel which will be open to the public from 9:00 to 16:15.

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December 17, 2018

Don’t be a turkey, get on the commercial property gravy train

by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Property

Last week, the RICS Commercial Property conference tackled the biggest issues impacting the built environment sector, arming delegates with fragments of the formula for future success. The morning CEO Question Time panel put a trio of CEOs in the spotlight. In addition to airing concerns about the current political climate, rapidly shifting societal attitudes, diversity and inclusion, the ageing population coupled with the ongoing housing shortage, climate change and the complexities involved in exploring new business models to drive and diversify revenue, they all zoomed in on the accelerated pace of change we’re witnessing, crowning it the key challenge for today’s C-suite.

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December 14, 2018

New Deloitte London office: a world-leading building for sustainability and wellbeing

by Neil Franklin • Company news, Environment, Workplace design

Deloitte’s new UK and North West Europe headquarters at 1 New Street Square, EC4, is claimed to be the largest office in the world to achieve leading certifications for being both an exemplar green building and one designed to enhance the wellbeing of its people. The new 270,000 sq ft HQ, which Deloitte occupied in July, is the culmination of a four year programme redefining the workplace of the future for the firm’s people and clients. The space was designed by ID:SR with furniture supplied by Sketch Studios.

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November 28, 2018

Line up of speakers announced for Workplace Trends: Research Spring Summit

by Maggie Procopi • Events, Facilities management, News, Technology, Workplace design

The research-driven Workplace Trends Spring Summit returns for 2019. We have two sessions with invited guest speakers, our keynote and the after lunch debate. Following a recent Call for Abstracts and a blind peer review by our two moderators for the day, Nigel Oseland (Workplace Unlimited) and Mark Eltringham (Workplace Insight), the remaining sessions have now been filled with the highest ranked submissions.

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November 15, 2018

Majority of office workers discontented with workplace environment

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

The vast majority (97 percent) of office workers in UK feel frustrated by their workplace environments, with many feeling the need to escape office life as a result. A new report from Staples has discovered that one-in-five (22 percent) end up browsing LinkedIn job ads for something better when they’re frustrated. As a result, job-hopping is prolific, with workers now predicted to have 11.7 jobs between the ages of 18 and 48. The expectation that the grass must be greener elsewhere is leaving most thinking about switching jobs. However, when they do end up jumping ship, many just experience a short-term fix. According to the study, a third (37 percent) get frustrated in their new office before the end of their first six months. The majority of office workers say they seek fulfilment (89 percent) at work, and for most (77 percent), the quality of their office workspace is a contributing factor in how fulfilled they feel.

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November 8, 2018

Your relationship with your boss may be playing a role in your stress levels

by Martin Turner and Matthew Slater • Comment, Wellbeing

Everybody knows how horrible it is to be stressed out at work. Sadly, across the world, employees are being subjected to increasing work demands and, as a result, work stress is on the rise. As we try to understand the root of the problem, we often end up blaming our boss. But is that really fair? Our new study, published in The Leadership Quarterly, suggests that your relationship with your boss does influence how you respond to stress.

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November 2, 2018

Skills and new businesses drive decade of recovery for UK cities

by Neil Franklin • Cities, News

Improving skills levels and new business formation have been the key long-term drivers of growth for UK cities since the financial crisis, according to the latest Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities 2018 index that ranks cities on a combination of economic performance and quality of life. The latest Index analyses a decade of economic and social data to determine what long-term factors drive Good Growth. PwC analysis shows that the average city in our index has improved its good growth score significantly over 10 years from 2005-7 to 2015-17, and has now more than recovered from the recession and downturn triggered by the global financial crisis.