Monthly Archives : November 2015

What is Color Really? 

Colors are different frequencies of light whose spectrums run from the lowest, which are in the red to orange. The middle spectrum is yellow to green. The highest is the blue to violet frequencies. The human eye is a remarkable natural phenomenon of nature. It sees 10 million distinct colors.

Many businesses and corporations believe in, and swear by the emotional value that colors hold for industries like: Interior design, marketing, businesses and their offices, and even in the prison system to influence and control prisoners adverse behaviors.

The Psychological Effects of Colors

Blue Tones: If one is trying to achieve a cooling, calming effect in a stressful environment, whether in work or in numerous business situations, blue tones are the way to go. Blue tones are soothing and are good for high tension and crowded areas, which makes them great for places with standing lines of customers like banks and movie theatres. Blue is also the number one choice when people are asked what their favorite color is.

Relaxing Greens: Greens are also similar to blues. Greens give an air of reassurance, and of course nature. Green is relaxing and is said to refresh one’s mood and mental stamina. Dark green instills concentration. Add some other colors in as well with the furniture scheme, or the mood could get muddled from too much browns in the room.

Red Tones: The fiery energy of red tones in furniture is great for motivation and productivity. Red is a power color, good for an office of authority. Reds are also emotional as we all know, celebrated as the symbol of the heart, which will add an air of caring to a business or organization. Red is an aggressive color, though, so make sure you don’t go overboard.

White: A clean color, hygienic, and hospital like. White is a no distractions color. White is definitely better when suited to a doctor’s office, rather than a business office. White can come off to customers or clients as being too cold and unimaginative. White also gets dirty far too quickly when it comes to the office.

Black is Black: This color is better for the ceilings of warehouses. It is great for a men’s suit or at funerals, but not for furniture in a business, unless it’s a nice leather couch, but black instead of brown with leather still either gives that dark biker look in an office, or a mortuary waiting room. Black can be great for going to sleep, but it can also be a negative influence to some psychologically in a deeply depressing way.

Dismal gray: This color is perceived as totally neutral. This is why there are no proven psychological attributes of gray that are known. It is a lack of any color in its form – And therefore nothing. Gray can be depressing as anyone from Seattle can contest to. Gray is dull and listless and not appropriate in office furniture unless in small amounts.

The Purple Peace Train: Purple is a peaceful color, and a favorite for kids, just look at Sesame Street and the use of purple to instill non-threatening laughter for small children. Purple is a fun color that tells people that you are a young vibrant company that really knows the times and what other young people want. This is a great Tech color for up and comings. Fun, vibrant, new, just don’t try to pull off purple in a serious environment. It is hard to keep a straight face with purple office furniture. Purple is also attributed to reflection and contemplation, making it a meditative color, perfect for a break room at a contemporary office environment.

Vibrant Orange: Just as Home Depot gets your attention with a loud orange color logo, transmitting home value, knowing how color affects your customers is not just good decorating skills, it is good business! It can be a matter of boosting workplace productivity up to 20% if implemented in the right optimum working environment. Orange instills low cost, regular folks, good values. Orange is also festive and can brighten up a room when needed. If one needs cheerful in an office setting, orange is your color.

Everyone has a deep personal love of color and cultural associations that affect their experiences and perceptions of life. Believing in a subconscious connection with color is not that far-fetched. Influencing your office with color also influences how people see and instantly perceive your company. You normally only have one chance to impress in business. Make sure to give yourself a well prepared psychological advantage. Yellows oranges, reds, and several other popular colors play more of a part in our everyday lives than we sometimes even realize. But in the subliminal world of marketing, that’s a good thing for you and your business office.

Noisy, talky, and Mr. inconsiderate! Know these three coworkers? Some people at work seem to have no consideration when it comes to other people in the office trying to work. Noisy people top the main complaints from office employees, about the distractions at work that reduce their productivity rates.

An article in the Journal of Applied Psychology on, Stress and Open-office Noise, concluded what many of us already knew from experience – “Noisy coworkers can make it impossible to work.” The study of forty office workers found that workers in noisy open space type office settings, had reduced motivation factors; in other words, low productivity! Open space office formats, are notorious for being noisy but interactive workplaces. But even if you’re trapped in your own personal box in a standard cubical farm office layout, noise is still a factor in distracting and reducing productivity when excessive noise travels across the office room. Here are three reasons why office noise can reduce your productivity.

1. Lost Concentration

A 2015, BBC News Business article, quoted Professor Gloria Mark of the Department of Informatics at the University of California as saying that. “Email, social media, notifications, and countless other digital distractions are eroding our ability to concentrate on individual tasks in the 21st Century.” I think all of us can agree that our well-meaning social media electronics get in the way with what could be productive work lives, especially when we get too attached to them – OR IN WORSE CASE SCENARIOS, WAY TOO OBSESSED!

There is a time for social media and it isn’t in the workplace. Social Media is best enjoyed at home relaxing after work or on the weekend. The only internet action that should be going on at work, is either accessing something for a client or researching something for your work, not playing Candy Crush, or posting something on Facebook like: “Hey Kickin it at Work bro!, I’m Sooooooh Booooored.” Shut it down and remove the temptation to social media.

Cellphones are just as bad. Unless it’s a work phone, turn it off! If it is a work phone, keep personal phone calls off of it. Many of us have kids in the workplace, but the one’s that do, also know of all the needless “Can’t Wait!,” supposed emergencies that kids call into your work for on your cellphone, just because they want to go to their new friends’ house for movie night. Don’t think your boss doesn’t notice it too, or that it doesn’t influence him on your quarterly or yearly work review.

2. Hindered Communication

The second most irritating concentration and customer service breaker is not being able to hear what either your coworkers are saying, or more importantly, what your clients or customers are trying to ask you over the phone. Technically, if an office needs a quiet zone or a phone room, there’s an excessive amount of noise going on in that workplace.

This is why it is better to at least insist on upholding some sort of moderate noise level. No one expects total silence in a busy office, but there should be some standard of expectations on your part, if expected by your employer to work to your fullest productivity level. It is only fair that you have some say in your working environment. This is why it is best to quietly try to solve any noise problems yourself before resorting to going to management.

Pull the offending excessive noise making worker aside first, so as not to create any opposite sides between other coworkers. Talk it out low keyed and rationally. If that doesn’t work, then in extreme measures, strength in numbers may be required in order to bring the problem up with management. Keeping calm is always the best policy when trying to communicate with others in the workplace. It is always important to get along, both for productivity, and the entire office morale.

3. Divided Community

The workplace is like a miniature community, even if it is a large corporation. Work sections are normally put together in specialized groups, and those groups divided into teams. When excessive noise becomes a negative argumentative issue between two individuals or group, infighting becomes more prevalent in the workplace, and then productivity goes out the window.

Music is a wonderful thing, and it is tempting at work to kick up the tunes and get your work on. But the truth is music is a matter of taste. The feud between Rock and Rap has been going on since before some coworkers have even been born. The last thing a workplace needs is a running competition between two workplace factions who face off over Jamming vs. Bumping. Unfortunately, music can be very divisive. It can also be a major distraction and a productivity killer for other workers as well.

Excessive loud talking is also a persistent productivity drain at work. There are always those one or two people at work, that just don’t seem to get it that they can have a conversation without shouting it across the room while everyone else is trying to concentrate. These people are not hard of hearing, just hard headed. They just can’t seem to respect anybody else’s right to be able to focus on their work in peace. No one can possibly keep up with their productivity level with two bozos’ loudly talking about their antics over the weekend.

No one ever wants to get into a confrontation at work with another employee, but your job relies on your ability to produce, so it is unwise to just let it go while your production suffers. Stand up for yourself, but do it in a way that highlights your problem solving skills to your coworkers and employers, rather than get caught up in a problem at work over noisy coworkers continuing to ruin your productivity and peace of mind.