Search Results for: working lives

Why a Google office simply does not work for everybody

Why a Google office simply does not work for everybody 0

by • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

The open plan office versus closed debate rages on, and rather than running out of steam in the face of all of the evidence and reasoned argument put forward one one side or the other by many industry thought-leaders, it seems to have nine lives. Those grand and ground-breaking  new offices occupied by the world’s tech giants seem to be particularly popular examples of why highly open and transparent workplaces do, or don’t work, especially those headline-grabbing offices created around the world by Google. This public debate has led to some very interesting and insightful discussions in various forums (to which I have contributed), inspiring me to synthesise the key themes into four reasons why a Google office is not necessarily the right type of office for your organisation. Many thanks in particular are due to David Rostie and Kay Sargent for their valuable online contributions to the debates which inspired this article.

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Ten demonstrable truths about the workplace you may not know

Ten demonstrable truths about the workplace you may not know

by • Comment, Facilities management, Features, Workplace design

workplace designThe science of the workplace has gained a lot of interest over the last few years, highlighting recurring patterns of human behaviour as well as how organisational behaviour relates to office design. In theory, knowledge from this growing body of research could be used to inform design. In practice, this is rarely the case. A survey of 420 architects and designers highlighted a large gap between research and practice: while 80 percent of respondents agreed that more evidence was needed on the impact of design, 68 percent admitted they never reviewed literature and 71 percent said they never engaged in any sort of post-occupancy evaluation. Only 5 percent undertake a formal POE and just 1 percent do so in a rigorous fashion. Not a single practitioner reported a report on the occupied scheme, despite its importance in understanding the impact of a design.

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The self-employed enjoy higher levels of wellbeing and happiness, but work still needed

The self-employed enjoy higher levels of wellbeing and happiness, but work still needed

by • News, Wellbeing

Policymakers and business leaders must work to improve wellbeing among the self-employed, a new report by the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE), has said. Instead of exploring self-employed wellbeing through the conventional prism of economic success, the report, The Way to Wellbeing, adopts a new approach. It considers people’s overall life satisfaction, based on their subjective assessments of various aspects of their lives – including jobs, income, health, family life and leisure. The report found that wellbeing was higher among self-employed people by using subjective assessments of different aspects of their lives. This is the first time a major report of its kind has taken a holistic view of wellbeing – looking at jobs, health, family life and leisure – to build an overall picture of life satisfaction, rather than just using a narrow measure of economic success.

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Misunderstanding of mental health means millions of employees delay seeking help

Misunderstanding of mental health means millions of employees delay seeking help

by • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Misunderstanding of mental health means over seven million UK staff delay seeking helpAlmost 60 percent of UK employees are unable to identify key symptoms of the most common mental health conditions resulting in treatment delays for millions of workers. A new study from Bupa examined employees’ understanding of key psychological and behavioural symptoms of six of the most prevalent conditions in the UK, as well as identifying widely-held misconceptions. The research reveals that inaccurate assumptions have caused almost seven million people to delay seeking support for a mental health problem. Early diagnosis and treatment of conditions can improve recovery rates which is why medical experts at Bupa want to raise awareness of the accurate symptoms. (more…)

The hype surrounding wellbeing concepts can blind us to their true value

The hype surrounding wellbeing concepts can blind us to their true value

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Digital detox. Does the phrase make you roll your eyes or grab your attention? Lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the idea of switching off from technology, particularly your smart phone (if people still call them that as they are so ubiquitous) has become a media fad. A litmus test for this might be how much air time BBC R2 give the subject. Over the past few weeks it has figured a lot, particularly Chris Evans referencing it in a Japanese themed week and a Friday morning interview with the neuroscientist Dr Jack Lewis who shared his tops tips for a digital detox. No doubt the Daily mail is jumping on the bandwagon as well.

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The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

The future of the workplace emerges from the mists at Neocon

by • Features, Furniture, Workplace design

Chicago is one of the world’s great cities. Its dramatic lake and river setting, its magnificent architecture and its raw energy inspire the locals and businesses to achieve great things. People work and play very hard. Competition is fierce both in business as in the way the people relate to each other, and befits a city heavily influenced by waves of immigration down the ages. Apart from somewhat overly aggressive and noisy driving, if there is friction, you don’t sense it and it isn’t obvious. Most locals seem genuinely open and friendly, including to strangers, and happy to get on with their lives without troubling others. Perhaps they’re all being buoyed up by the great street music which is everywhere.

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Many fathers are unaware of their parental leave rights

Many fathers are unaware of their parental leave rights

by • News, Workplace

Nearly half (46 percent) of working fathers are unaware they are entitled to take shared parental leave on the arrival of a child, according to new research. The survey, conducted by Aviva, also claims that one in 10 dads (11 percent) took no time off whatsoever when their most recent child arrived. Businesses are therefore being urged to do more to make sure their male staff know their rights, to enable them to spend precious time with their newborn or adopted children. Crucially, the survey of UK parents with dependent children found that 86 percent of fathers would have taken more time off at the arrival of their children, but felt restricted by financial factors and employer constraints.

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Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

Your happiness at work is not just down to your employer

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow”, his career – and the entire culture of Silicon Valley – took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organisation. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the first to hire someone with the sole remit of enforcing employee contentment. In 1999, when Google was still a start-up, French fashion brand Kiabi hired Christine Jutard as its chief happiness officer. She was one of the first to perform the role. But once Google did it, happiness at work became a key metric and other organisations quickly adopted their approach. Three years after Meng’s appointment, fast food giant McDonald’s even promoted Ronald McDonald from brand mascot to CHO.

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How our noisy world was foreseen by the 20th Century’s great minds

How our noisy world was foreseen by the 20th Century’s great minds

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Over the past few years we’ve become more aware of the problems associated with the pace and clatter of modern life and not least among them its noise. Authors like Susan Cain have highlighted not only how distracting noise can be for everybody but how it affects different personality types in different ways. She is perhaps the world’s most high profile proponent of the idea that sometimes we need to work quietly and alone and is the author of Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking and the person responsible for this now famous and archetypal TED Talk presented on the effects of sound and the need for more silence and privacy. But she is not alone in making these claims, nor is she the first person to do so and the warning signs have been around for quite some time. The first calls for people to heed the racket of modern life came at least a hundred years ago as we began the 20th Century transition to office based life with its distractions of noisy things and people.

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A 21st Century take on the idea of the time capsule that tells us something about the way we work

A 21st Century take on the idea of the time capsule that tells us something about the way we work

by • Comment

Last December, National Geographic published a story about the discovery of one of the oldest known time capsules. It was concealed by a chaplain of the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma in Spain, in the buttocks of a statue of Jesus Christ. Hidden inside were some documents that detailed life in Spain in the late 18th Century, along with some thoughts on the political and religious systems of the time. Historians have concluded that this was one of the very first time capsules, given that the creator clearly intended it to be discovered at some point in the distant future. This has been the standard approach to time capsules for hundreds of years; a chance to leave behind some artefacts or thoughts for a future generation to learn about the past.

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Majority of US workers still prefer to work from an office

Majority of US workers still prefer to work from an office

by • Flexible working, News, Workplace design

According to data from the quarterly Randstad Workmonitor survey,, although 82 percent of U.S. workers surveyed say the ability to work from anywhere at any time allows them to maintain a healthy work-life balance, more than half (62 percent) still prefer to work in the office — and this number is even higher among young workers. Sixty-five percent of those aged 18-24 said they prefer working in a traditional office environment, challenging the widespread perception that millennial and Gen Z workers tend to prefer digital interactions over personal ones.

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Faced with era of AI, employers focus on skills and employees crave jobs with purpose

Faced with era of AI, employers focus on skills and employees crave jobs with purpose

by • News, Technology, Workplace

According to Mercer’s 2018 Global Talent Trends Study – Unlocking Growth in the Human Age, 96 percent of UK companies have innovation on their core agenda this year and 92 percent are planning organisation design changes. At the same time, employees are seeking control of their personal and professional lives, with more than half asking for more flexible work options. As the ability to change becomes a key differentiator for success in a competitive global climate, the challenge for organisations is to bring their people along on the journey, especially as the top ask from employees is for leaders who set clear direction, claims the report.

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