The case for privacy at work

If you find yourself unable to think in your open plan office you may be interested in reading this New York Times article The Rise of the New Group Think that argues the case for private space to be productive and creative. 

Our offices should encourage casual, cafe-style interactions, but allow people to disappear into personalized, private spaces when they want to be alone. 

Research backs it up:

Studies show that open-plan offices make workers hostile, insecure and distracted. They’re also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, stress, the flu and exhaustion. And people whose work is interrupted make 50 percent more mistakes and take twice as long to finish it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&



More about why sitting for too long is bad for you

“Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterwards or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. It appears that what is critical and maybe even more important than going to the gym, is breaking up that sitting time.” 

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/sitting-is-the-new-smoking-20130529-2nca0.html


Best Companies to Work For 2012 - Fortune Magazine

Earlier this year Fortune magazine published it's annual list of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S. Results are based on surveying employees. Sure, not all companies have jets or yachts to share with employees but there is still plenty to learn from reading the company snapshots.

The reasons these companies have been nominated as great places to work by those that work there are:

  1. Good rewards
    • incentives, profit sharing, bonuses, above average pay for industry
  2. Strong and clear company mission
  3. Benefits
    • health insurance, health programs, childcare facilities, generous leave, workplace flexibility, other perks
  4. Physical work environment
    • food, access to services like dry cleaning, even walking tracks
  5. People
    • considered recruitment efforts, long tenure of employees
  6. Culture
    • recognition of excellence, adherance to, and evaluation based on values, fun incentives, games and events, happiness commitees, herograms, "no jerk" culture
  7. Feedback
    • Staff suggestions implemented, feedback mechanisms and forums in place
  8. Visible leadership
    • Leaders touching base with employees regularly or based on high performance of teams
  9. No layoffs
    • The US has faced tough economic times recently. Many companies on this list avoided lay-offs 
  10. Career paths
    • Progression plans, internal promotion, investment in training and education
  11.  Acknowledging role of families
    • Inclusion of families in company events, acknowlegement of their contribution supporting employees

To see all the company snapshots go to: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1.html

 

 

Accommodating the ageing workforce for productivity gains and knowledge transfer

In 2007, the luxury automaker set up an experimental assembly line with older employees to see whether they could keep pace. The production line in Dingolfing, 80km northeast of BMW's Munich base, features hoists to spare aging backs, adjustable-height work benches, and wooden floors instead of rubber to help hips swivel during repetitive tasks.

 

The verdict: Not only could they keep up, the older workers did a better job than younger staffers on another line at the same factory

 

This is a great story about a problem faced by German mororing manufacturers. What to do about an ageing worksforce (and a potential skills shortage?). Audi and BMW have both had success is redesigning the factory line to accomodate workers with innovations from harnesses to support backs and hips to screens with larger fonts. Older workers are also being paired with younger colleagues to transfer implicit knowledge. Service industries: take note.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/7651624/Never-too-old-changes-save-experienced-staff#

Standing while you work? It's called "activity based working" and it's happening right now at Australian Banks

At work ... the effects of prolonged sitting.

At work ... the effects of prolonged sitting.

My previous post included an image of a standing desk at Faceboook HQ, and a while ago I posted a story about a seemingly wacky treadmill desk. What I thought was a fringe trend of tech firms has hit the mainstream at Sydney's Commonwealth Bank headquarters as well as Macquarie Group, GPT Group and Jones Lang LaSalle, Jonathan Swan of the SMH reports.

Doctor endorse the health benefits, and bean counters can cost the savings of the associated hot desk wireless office. Read all about it and a Sydney University study on it at smh.com.au

 

Inside Facebook's new Californian headquarters

Looks like the treadmill desk has made it into the offices of Facebook HQ. I also noticed that the space has realized the central mechanism of facebook -- the wall -- in a physical form, with blackboards, whiteboards, and marked walls everywhere.

View the whole gallery over at SMH: http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/technology/technology-news/inside-facebook...

Treadmill desks and the walking meeting

Life saver? The treadmill desk.

It's worth reading this article about the treadmill desk. Don't dismiss it as a novelty. Its an example of how an idea was born, implemented, how its usage changed over time and how the concept spawned a new idea -- the walking meeting.

Then Levine had another idea. If people could work while they were walking, why couldn't they have meetings as well? And so the concept of the walking meeting was born. His plan was that a designated walking track could be marked out in an office using carpet tape. Two people walking together could both wear coloured badges so that everyone else knew they were in a private meeting and shouldn't be disturbed.

... remarkably a Minnesota financial recruitment company called Salo heard about his ideas and decided to put them into practice ... "we found that walking meetings not only tended to be more productive than sedentary ones, they're also, on average, 10 minutes shorter."

Read the whole case study at smh.com.au