Monthly Archives : June 2013

Did you know that a desk mounted panel can be installed in more than one way? If you want more private space for your face, the panel goes on top of your desk. However, you could also install it upside down on one of the many benching workstations that are so popular these days. This way, it can serve as a “modesty panel” to give workers more privacy below their worksurface. This is a good way to conceal cabling or cords that hang down. It could also help divide under-desk floor space for employees who sit directly across from each other. That’s helpful if workers use this area for impromptu storage.

Tips for this type of installation:

• Pick the right product. The edge-mounted desktop privacy panel is the one to choose for installation on a flat surface.
• The translucent polycarbonate tiles are a subtle and unobtrusive material option for this type of installation. They go with any color scheme.
• Choose a 12” panel height for a basic modesty panel. Go with a 24” panel if you want to partially shield components placed under the desk from view and reduce the appearance of clutter.
• Measure and double-check the underside of the worksurface to ensure the legs and other features won’t get in the way of the universal brackets. The brackets can be installed at any point along the length of the panel, so be aware that there’s a lot of flexibility. They also aren’t very deep (just the right length to hold the panel firmly in place). But a lip that sticks down on the underside of the tabletop an inch or two from the edge could interfere with installation in the standard or upside down position.
• Realize that the brackets will stick up a little bit on the edge of the desk if they are installed upside down. Use strategically placed objects on the worksurface to distract from the brackets. An inbox, a picture frame, or a small potted plant will do just fine. Or, some employees might want to put tiny Lego action figures atop the brackets – you never know!

Menshealth.com recommends setting a company policy to have all employees switch their cell phones to vibrate during the workday. According to a Washington University in St. Louis study, ring tones deeply impact our ability to focus. The more familiar the song used for the ringtone, the more distracting it tends to be. In the study, cognitive function such as recall and decision-making performance were affected more substantially and for a longer period after students’ concentration was broken by hearing their college’s “fight song” for half a minute vs. hearing a standard ringtone.

Would the same thing happen at work?  Perhaps not. According to the researchers, phones ringing all the time, every day in an office is the kind of thing you can get used to. So, setting phones to vibrate would lower the overall noise level, but might not make that big of a difference in concentration. Of course, sometimes it’s the loud conversation that happens after the coworker answers the phone that really gets under your skin….

Fox Business has published yet another article about the top workplace distraction complaint among US office employees. It should come as no surprise that workplace noise from loud coworkers is the biggest pain in the ear. According to survey data accumulated by Ask.com from more than 2000 workers, 61% of employees say noisy workmates are harming their productivity. The trend toward offering employees the option to work at home apparently won’t fix this problem. It turns out, most people would rather be at their workspace in the office than at home when they are trying to concentrate. That’s not surprising since many people have lots of distractions at their house as well.

Employers may wish to consider what they can do to improve noise control in personal workstations on site. More than 85% of survey participants said they are most productive when they are at the office alone. It’s not possible to recreate the feeling of being completely isolated (unless you want to install soundproof cubes). But you can use cubicle wall extenders and desktop privacy panels to reduce distractions.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a look at several types of space dividers that were featured at NeoCon 2013. There are also a couple of award winning designs in the seating categories that incorporate privacy screens. It seems that the office environment (and the individual workstation) isn’t the only place where more privacy is desirable.

Even in reception and casual gathering areas, people are drawn to furniture that makes them feel more secluded. In these spaces, there isn’t necessarily a table, desk or bench to hold a privacy screen. A full-height mobile divider might seem like too much separation. So, office furniture manufacturers are mounting panels and screens on the back of lounge and bench seating. Steelcase is leading the way in this area with two designs that won gold at NeoCon.

Holding Privacy in High Regard

The Regard lounge seating from the Nurture collection is designed for use in healthcare settings. This is where patients may be sitting full of the jitters in anticipation of their turn in the doctor’s office. Or, family members may spend time here waiting anxiously for good or bad news. This isn’t necessarily a time or place where people want to chat with others. So, the Regard sofas can be equipped with dividers to give visitors some personal space.

Little Lakes of Privacy

The “Lagunitas” in Steelcase’s Coalesse collection is a new kind of workspace. Much like the “Gesture” chair, this seating is intended to support the way the younger generation likes to work. These benches provide a place for employees to lounge as they operate a tablet or other mobile device. The pillows on each bench can be configured for alert or relaxed work postures. The benches can be grouped together to create a collaboration area. Or, they can be spread further apart and equipped with privacy screens for solitary enclaves that provide solitude for concentration.

What other non-traditional ways can you think of to mix office furniture with privacy screens? Let us know your ideas in the comments.

This week, we’ll be looking at a big name in the NeoCon 2013 competition hosted by Contract Magazine. Herman Miller earned an innovation award for its Metaform Portfolio. The recognition is for the lightweight polypropelene that makes up the modular blocks in this systems furniture. Because each “block” weighs less than 20 pounds, employees can actually reconfigure their workspace on the fly. That’s a massive shift in thinking about office design. Instead of providing different spaces for head down and collaborative activities and having workers move from one spot to the next, employees can move the furniture around them. Facility managers may not think this “no tools, no rules” approach is necessarily a good thing, but it will certainly open up new possibilities.

One of the configurable features of Metaform is the addition of privacy screens that can be slotted into the top of each block. It’s a pretty sweet furniture system. Of course, you’re looking at a price of several thousand dollars per unit. So just adding OBEX privacy panels is going to be a lot more cost effective unless you plan to replace all your current workstations.

At consumerprivacy.us, there’s a good blog post that tracks privacy concerns from the early days of office computer work through today. It points out that the 3M study we posted about a few months ago isn’t telling us something new. Employers have always been concerned about leakage of sensitive information and office workers have always been less productive when they feel too closely observed. According to the consumer privacy blog article, “As early as 1987, a US government report found that monitoring the quantity or speed of work contributes to stress and stress-related illness.” It’s just a fact that if part of your brain is worrying about being watched, you have less attention to devote to the task at hand.

Is Protecting the Computer Screen Enough?

Not really. The blogger recommends doing more than adding a privacy screen to the computer monitor. There need to be areas even within the workplace that boost the sense of personal privacy while muting sounds. Here’s his proposed solution: “You can create the same environment by creating small, closed offices with doors that have a work counter and sound-absorbing, acoustical wall surfaces that can be used for heads down work or sensitive phone calls.” On the surface, that sounds like a good idea.

Sadly, this would probably lead to some groups hogging these little private offices all the time. Introverts might crave this refuge from the noise of the open office. Or, corporate climbers might think staking claim to even a tiny, temporary office is a way to increase their prestige. Simply having a door that will close has replaced the corner office as the marker of rank in many workplaces. Scheduling time slots for this space would probably start some really vicious interdepartmental wars.

What Other Alternatives Are Available?

There are many “pods” and “touchdown” stations being promoted by office furniture manufacturers these days that avoid this issue. They offer a space enclosed on three sides, but no door. That way, there’s a certain amount of privacy, but not the ability to completely shut oneself away from the rest of the workforce from nine to five. A less expensive and more egalitarian option would be to make desk mounted privacy panels available to all employees who want them. That way, they can choose their own level of privacy instead of vying for a turn in the pod.

It’s always interesting to see how the view of the office cubicle changes based on the experience workers have with alternatives. We dug up an old Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from 2005 titled “Confessions of a Pod Man: A voice cries out from a place even lowlier than the cubicle”. In this humorous editorial piece, Mark Patinkin describes how he and his coworkers gaze with envy at cubicle dwellers with their high walls that provide privacy (and give them a vertical surface to hang stuff on). In his pod, he shares space with three other people – separated only by 6” tall dividers to keep their stuff separate. Mark describes getting to know his pod-mates charming quirks and the Herculean effort it requires to ignore tooth tapping and other noisy habits. His pod of coworkers has a little celebration when one of their number actually graduates to a cubicle. What’s funny about this news clip is that Patinkin is describing the modern open office with its emphasis on collaboration and “getting rid of the walls”. Perhaps office space designers should ask the opinion of a veteran “pod person” who has been longing for a cube of his own for the past 25 years…

It’s time to look at another entry in the Best of NeoCon 2013 competition hosted by Contract Magazine. This entry is from Peter Pepper Products, a company that’s well known for its trendy and eye-catching office furniture accessories.

From the Ski Slope to the Workplace

For this year’s NeoCon, the firm is entering the Slalom EcoFlex Partition System into the competition. It appears that PPP is the US distributor for the product. This particular piece is by designer Elettra de Pellegrin from Italy. The Slalom is named after the type of ski trail with poles placed close together for skiers to navigate between. In the same way, this flexible panel can weave its way between workplace obstacles to divide spaces in many different ways. Dividers can be connected in an intersecting fashion, in curves, or at right angles. The panels are modular (you can connect up to four in a row).

We see this product being useful as a temporary way to create collaborative environments in the open office or to make touch-down areas for mobile workers. They could also be used to manage the flow of traffic or keep noise levels under control in busy areas. You could even construct a maze!

Here’s What We Like About the Slalom EcoFlex Partitions

• They come in several heights to create a variable landscape
• They are available in many different colors to add visual interest to the office environment
• The surface can be customized with graphics for branding purposes
• The panels are finished with fire retardant, eco-friendly fabrics to comply with workplace safety and sustainability programs
• They boast a sound absorbent core to provide acoustic control (absorbency decreases the “leaking” of sound from one space to another)
• The products are recyclable at the end of their lifespan

Come to think of it, the things we like about these full-height freestanding panels are the same things we like about our OBEX panel extenders and desktop dividers. Maybe we should make a curvy desk divider next. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

On this blog, we’ve written a lot about how to deal with noisy coworkers. But dealing with nosy coworkers can be even more challenging. We found one tale of nosiness posted on Yahoo Answers that made us shake our heads. The questioner asked what to do about her mom’s coworker who is always in her business. This coworker crossed the line way past giving unsolicited advice in some pretty disturbing ways. However, most of us just deal with the occasional coworker who apparently just doesn’t have enough going on in their own life.

The answer posted includes some very good tips for dealing with a run-of-the-mill busybody. Here’s an excerpt: “Sometimes a nice way to begin the confrontation process is to just thank the person for being a caring person. If their goal is to feel like a caring person, and you satisfy that, they may not feel the need to be so nosy. If it increases the nosiness, a specific thank you for their advice/observation can be given, so they know that the specific advice they gave “got through.” Then they might feel like their obligation to get their point across has been satisfied.”

How do you deal with nosy coworkers? Is the answer none of our business? Let us know in the comments.