Your work office space
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<p>fark who knows, I know one part still used a bloody dos looking system! </p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Mokey" data-cid="603118" data-time="1470344846">
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<p>I should add that team culture is part of my role, and every day I see the damage that process over people, change for change's sake, and complete lack of consultation and/or engagement does to morale. I would say to any management team considering 'investing' in workplace environment - take care. If you are determined to move to a completely new model, ensure all staff are kept informed every step of the way with the WHY. (And you'd better have a good why, not we read it in a magazine and thought it sounded cool). If you have the capacity, TALK to staff prior. Ask what good looks like for them for noise, space requirements, meeting rooms, hot desking etc. You might find you can accommodate them in some/all ways, and angst is minimised, output isn't compromised. Plus, if there is the perception that staff have been involved in the process/listened to, trust is built and healthy dialogue and relationships proceed.</p>
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<p>I know some of this sounds wanky, but I cannot stress enough the importance of a great culture within an organisation. Bad culture destroys businesses with poor productivity, high staff turnover and rocketing costs.</p>
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<p>This is something I am dreading at the moment. Job hunting in London and some of the organisations give of the vibe of terrible culture. I have just come from the 'most engaged' company in Australasia (according to an annual survey) with a great culture, and it does make a big difference.</p>
<p>Funny thing is that some of the things being complained about here actually work well as long as the company has a good culture. The open office, lots of small meeting rooms easily bookable, people collaborate well. Lifestyle friendly and flexible e.g. if you have a plumber coming around you can just log in from home and not take time off (we used a virtual desktop environment so that was super easy to do).</p>
<p>We never even bothered trying hotdesking as we saw first hand how it didn't work in our 'old' environment before this company split away.</p>
<p>Change is upfront and honest and communicated.</p>
<p>Here, I have already bummed out in a couple of interviews here by saying that I see the role as a facilitating collaborative one, when they see it as being a 'policeman' and forcing people to do things. Totally different cultures eh?</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Rocky Rock Rockbottom" data-cid="603287" data-time="1470439333">
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<p><span style="font-family:meiryo, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;">This results in a synergistically holistic paradigmatic shift of axiomatic change channeling I mean challenging towards inactivity-based working protocols oh shit that’s all the buzzwords I know,</span></p>
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<p>You're hired! CEO of Fucksticks Inc!</p>
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<p>The point about the people you work with is probably most important. At least, if management are shunts, you can still have a bit of a siege mentality against them. The money won't sustain a team full of people that you don't get along with.</p> -
<p>I share an office with our Director of Marketing and we have an ongoing battle over the aircon, she's going through menopause so she's always hot and I hate the cold so I like the room to be hot. But we actually get on pretty well and we have a door we can close when we need to get work done.</p>
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<p>I can't think of anything worse than hot desks. That early bird piston wristed gibbon that every office has will always get the good desk! I don't care how many studies are done hot desks can't be good for productivity. We have 5 marketing girls and even with their door closed they still have the ability to annoy every one else in the office. Funnily enough, in my former job as a consultant hot desks was one of the things we recommended to clients (more because they lapped that bullshit up like it was profound than because we were 100% behind it).</p>
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<p>Interesting stuff about workplace culture, I went from having an awesome boss 3 weeks to having a doddering clock watcher who has a single focus which means I have to pick up the slack for the rest of the work. And it just filters down so that the people under me have more work to do as well. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Rocky Rock Rockbottom" data-cid="603318" data-time="1470454608">
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=spock+eebrow+gif&view=detailv2&&id=25AE1E0652EBE718C8A7992CD4E8B17FAD4AC7A6&selectedIndex=7&ccid=92%2FQfXS6&simid=608009444272966625&thid=OIP.Mf76fd07d74ba56b511663221a0ec8b90o0' title="View image details"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/159/371/Spock.gif?1318992465" alt="Spock.gif?1318992465"></a></p>
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<p>"Willis" is the forum-sanctioned word filter for the word starting with "w" and ending in "anker" - in honour of the Kiwi middle distance runner and long-distance porn addict.</p> -
<p>Was interesting today, the new HR Manager was trying to convince me and two others about how great activity based work stations were. (you get your own locker to put stuff in!!)</p>
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<p>We were not amused. I couldn't give a fuck if her old workplace used them, I loathe the idea of not having my own little space and having to chop and change places every fucking day.</p> -
<p>How you can you be against something you have never ever tried.</p>
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<p>I've been subject to so many different things which I thought were idiotic at the time, and I'd hazard a guess that about 75% of them were actually pretty good ideas.</p>
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<p>Now that I'm closer to the other side, and see the planning that goes into the moves, I can actually see where thought processes are. There is a lot, and I mean a LOT, I mean an absolutely colossal FUCK TON of bullshit in management, but some of it comes from pretty well thought out research. </p>
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<p>A change is as good as a holiday.</p> -
<p>Office space is one of, if not the highest cost for businesses. So open plans became a thing to reduce costs. It was marketed to employees differently.</p>
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<p>The problem was open plans suck. So now we've got Activity Based Working environments which are supposed to ameliorate a number of drawbacks inherent in the cubicle farms of open plan design. At least ABW recognises that different teams have different needs. Done well it's quite good. The best I've experienced yet is CBA's new digs in Darling Habour:</p>
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<p>All you need is a comfortable chair, some space between you and anyone / everyone else and a power point (because the battery life on my laptop is shite).</p>
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<p>The biggest problem is wandering around finding a suitable spot.</p>
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<p>Fundamentally if your role is best suited to sitting at the same desk; the organisation should provide that too. Because an unhappy, unmotivated worker is worse than the additional capital cost.</p> -
<p>WTF is Activity Based Working? Isn't all work supposed to be based around some form of activity?</p>
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<p>And before anyone comes up with anything smartarse, I know I've missed the point somewhere - just don't know where.</p> -
<p>I'd be quite happy with an Inactivity Based Workspace. Something with a TV and a fridge full of decent food and drink would be nice.</p>
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<p>The main reason hot desking is desirable by some companies is because many of them have realised that they pay a lot of money for floorspace that contains empty desk while their staff are not in need of actually sitting at one. A mixed model is the best. Staff that spend a majority of their day at the desk get a fixed spot and those that are in and out of meetings/ clients visits/ site visits/ pub etc get to hot desk.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MajorRage" data-cid="604046" data-time="1470641918">
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<p>How you can you be against something you have never ever tried.</p>
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<p>I've been subject to so many different things which I thought were idiotic at the time, and I'd hazard a guess that about 75% of them were actually pretty good ideas.</p>
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<p>Now that I'm closer to the other side, and see the planning that goes into the moves, I can actually see where thought processes are. There is a lot, and I mean a LOT, I mean an absolutely colossal FUCK TON of bullshit in management, but some of it comes from pretty well thought out research. </p>
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<p>A change is as good as a holiday.</p>
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<p>I agree. I've seen it work too compared to a like type of office within the same business.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MajorRage" data-cid="604046" data-time="1470641918">
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<p><strong>How you can you be against something you have never ever tried.</strong></p>
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<p>I've been subject to so many different things which I thought were idiotic at the time, and I'd hazard a guess that about 75% of them were actually pretty good ideas.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Now that I'm closer to the other side, and see the planning that goes into the moves, I can actually see where thought processes are. There is a lot, and I mean a LOT, I mean an absolutely colossal FUCK TON of bullshit in management, but some of it comes from pretty well thought out research. </p>
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<p>A change is as good as a holiday.</p>
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<p>Easy. A hotseat desk set up would be terrible for me. Out of necessity I have papers, post it notes, files and folders etc and having to get them out and put them all away again each day would be idiotic and unproductive. There are some offices it will just never work in. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="604170" data-time="1470696691">
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<p>You always need those things until you don't!</p>
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<p>It's just in the learning</p>
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<p>Everything I have mentioned above I use on a regular basis throughout the day. Also, I get dropped in on throughout the day for a bunch of confidential matters and half the time I'd be getting up and walking to meeting rooms. </p>
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<p>I don't have a problem with it working for other people and other workplaces but it's not going to be true of all and learning isn't going to change the fundamental nature of the work.</p> -
<p>The process changes the fundamental nature of work. Things get done differently. You don't do the same things that happen each day and that in itself is the positive outcome to the change.</p>
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<p>Everyone always know better before change.....</p> -
<p>Not always - as I said earlier: certain protocols mean desks are wired in a particular way for some of our staff. They cannot hotdesk.</p>
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<p>For the same reasons, Nepia may need allocated filing space for hard copy work. While we like to <em>say</em> that everything can go electronic, in some cases the savings for hotdesk won't pay for the costs of implementing scan/OCR and related systems. Sometimes there are legislative reasons as well.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="604179" data-time="1470697561">
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<p><strong>The process changes the fundamental nature of work. </strong>Things get done differently. You don't do the same things that happen each day and that in itself is the<strong> positive outcome to the change</strong>.</p>
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<p>Everyone always know better before change.....</p>
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<p>You should get a job as a management consultant. ;)</p>
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<p>I actually think if you spent a day shadowing me you'd instantly realise your management speak is not applicable.</p>
