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OBEX Panel Extenders
  • Home
  • Products
    • Barriers for Health and Safety
    • Mobile Freestanding Screens
    • Dividers and Screens for Schools
    • Cubicle Wall & Panel Extenders
    • Desk & Table Mount Privacy Panels
    • Free Standing Desk Mount Privacy Panels
    • Ceiling Hung Screens
    • Ceiling Sound Baffles
    • Split Screen Panels
    • Desk & Table Mounted Modesty Panels
    • Tack Boards
    • Whiteboard Privacy Screens
    • Designer Collection
  • Installation
  • Options
    • Privacy Panel Options
    • Tack Board Options
    • GSA
  • Photos
  • Contact Us
  • (760) 542-7444
  • Home
  • Products
    • Barriers for Health and Safety
    • Mobile Freestanding Screens
    • Dividers and Screens for Schools
    • Cubicle Wall & Panel Extenders
    • Desk & Table Mount Privacy Panels
    • Free Standing Desk Mount Privacy Panels
    • Ceiling Hung Screens
    • Ceiling Sound Baffles
    • Split Screen Panels
    • Desk & Table Mounted Modesty Panels
    • Tack Boards
    • Whiteboard Privacy Screens
    • Designer Collection
  • Installation
  • Options
    • Privacy Panel Options
    • Tack Board Options
    • GSA
  • Photos
  • Contact Us
  • (760) 542-7444

Monthly Archives : April 2018

Home/2018/April

Find the Time to Be Kind: Tips and Examples of Kindness in the Workplace

18 April 2018Mark Canavarroworkplace culture No comment

You’ve always got the time to be kind.

That’s the opinion of various experts and business leaders we talked with as we pondered what seems to be the lost art of acting generously toward coworkers. The idea may be counterintuitive for A-type personalities whose daily objective is to press hard for goals, benchmarks and bonuses.

However, says workplace leadership expert Dianne Crampton, we often forget that kindness can be a catalyst for better performance through empathy, putting oneself in the place of your coworkers in order to identify with their situation.

“The bottom line is that improving empathy and kindness is tied to increased productivity and ultimately improved business revenue,” Crampton said. “So, as a principle required for high-performance work groups, empathy and kindness improvements are both measurable and then trackable in the business bottom line. No fluff.  Not touchy-feely.  Just solid psychological, good business sense.”

Organization development consultant Lisa Sansom, a coach and consultant at LVS Consulting, echoed Crampton’s sentiment, noting that kindness in the workplace also boosts employee retention and participation.

“Kindness in the workplace is important for building positive workplace relationships, setting a strong corporate culture and increasing employee retention and engagement,” Sansom said.

But how exactly do businesses go about achieving those lofty goals of increased performance, retention and engagement?

We reached out to business owners and HR reps to find out. We received some intriguing responses offering ideas for practicing kindness as well as examples of kindness at work in the office.

The Experts Offer Up Easy Ways to Express Kindness

To be kind, you must be intentional about it. Very few employees are willing to bring their schedule to a halt to take a few minutes to ponder what they can do to enliven their colleagues’ spirits.

The time spent on kindness, though, is well worth it.

Say Thank You

Dana Case, director of operations at online legal filing service MyCorporation, says kind workplaces have one common thread: consistent expressions of gratitude.

“One of the most appropriate ways to practice kindness in the workplace is to say, ‘Thank you,’ to fellow employees and make it a regular practice,” she said. “It’s a simple sentiment that goes a long way in making everyone feel valued.”

Be careful, though, says Sansom; if you try to formalize a system of thank-you’s or kindness in general, these transformational moments could become forced and lose their punch.

“It’s possible to institutionalize kindness but, in my opinion, this takes a discretionary fun effort and turns it into a corporate obligation,” she said. “Be kind just because – not because someone else told you to or because everyone else is doing it.”

Send a Note

Alexis Monson, co-founder of Punkpost, a service that lets users send custom thank-you notes via their app, says acts of kindness don’t have to be grandiose, either.

“To spread happiness, gestures don’t have to huge and elaborate,” she noted. “Simple and thoughtful is all you need.”

A note written to a co-worker expressing heartfelt gratitude for a job done well or their willingness to cover for you in a jam can go a long way.

Using a service like Punkpost – or even a handwritten note — is something that can make a difference in a co-worker’s life, she said.

Listen

Another excellent bit of advice came from Fit Small Business HR Analyst Lauren Hedrick, who emphasized the importance of listening.

We’ve all been the person who tunes out our colleagues because we’re focused on an upcoming deadline or issue. Taking the time to set aside the momentum of your work life to genuinely fix your attention on the person in the cubicle next to you is powerful.

“We warm up our cars and we allow our computers time to load their apps,” Hedrick said. “Should we not give a moment to our human peers to let them know we seem them, care about them and enjoy working with them?”

A Few Reminders About Kindness

As we mentioned early on in this post, you have to avoid formalizing kindness. Employees will sniff out the corporate nature of enforced generosity and they’ll most likely lose interest.

Sansom said another important aspect of kindness is to remember that you need to be discerning about what you say and to whom you say it. Don’t bare your soul to someone you barely know.

“Kindness can be different for different people. What you may see as kind might not come across well with someone else,” she said. “So, unless you know someone well, it may be wise to stay away from anything too personal at the start.”

As you get to know your colleagues, managers and/or employees, you’ll recognize the best way to be kind.

Another benefit of building empathy and kindness in the workplace? Conflicts are more likely to be less severe.

“In work cultures that measure high in empathy, conflict rarely escalates but is quickly rolled back to the root cause,” Crampton said. “There is a recognition that problems usually arise over confusion on how to do something or the way a system works rather than problems that employees have willfully caused to antagonize one another.”

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A Look at Three Office-Friendly Technologies From CES

7 April 2018Mark Canavarrooffice design, workplace culture No comment

The Consumer Electronics Show concluded this past January with tons of fanfare surrounding the consumer products showcased in what is the premier tech show of the year.

Lost in all this techie talk was the fact there were some innovative products focused on improving the office.

We did some research and discovered some very interesting products that could provide your office with cutting-edge tech that will make your workplace a little more interesting.

In our conversations with exhibitors who hawked their creations to the country’s top investors and businesses, we found everything from the Google of video footage to innovative community phone chargers to ultra-durable power strips that can withstand power surges and the every-day abuse of the workplace.

Stepping Up Your Security with IC Realtime’s Ella

Let’s say you drive to work one day, put in a solid eight of hours of work and, when you head to the parking lot to drive home, you notice somebody sideswiped your car at some point in the day.

Normally, you’d have to connect with your building’s security department and ask them to pore over hours of footage to figure out who hit your car.

With IC Realtime‘s Ella, you can search your footage by using keyword searches just like you would when looking for something on Google.

For example, if you see black paint at the impact point, you can search “black car” and Ella will search through all the footage and isolate clips that include a black car.

The service also recognizes letters and numbers. So, if FedEx is late on a delivery or you never receive a shipment that was supposedly delivered, you can search “FedEx truck” and Ella will pull up all footage of FedEx trucks that pulled up to your delivery dock during the hours you specify.

“There was a lot of interesting buzz, for sure,” a company rep told us. “The Wall Street Journal included Ella in their list of the best tech to see at CES.”

Design Meets Device Charging: Humavox NEST

We’re not saying that charging your phone at your work desk is archaic but using a cord to charge your phone can be annoying for those who work in small spaces.

Humavox NEST has solved this problem by creating technology that can turn virtually anything into a charging station by incorporating near-field radio frequencies to charge phones and tablets.

Here’s how they explain the problem they say they’re solving:

“With the growing number of devices, charging has become a daily hassle that must be resolved with a simple, natural charging solution. But when thinking of what would be the most natural charging experience for users, we realized that it’s not unanimous, (it) changes with different products and between different users.”

Current NEST designs available on the Humavox website reveal personal-sized charging pods as well as community bowls where multiple phones and IoT devices can charge.

This novel idea for charging stations would be a great fit in communal areas where employees take breaks, brainstorm or meet, all without the need for charging cords.

Power to the People: Juice Mobile Power

Imagine the following scenario. You’ve got an event going on at the office — new employee orientation, for example — and dozens of people are crammed into a meeting room. The combination of phones, tablets and laptops needed to take notes means that some people are left without an outlet.

That’s the type of scenario some office managers had to be thinking about when they stopped by Bretford’s booth at CES and saw the company’s newest power solution: Juice Mobile Power.

Juice provides DC power for up to 20 mobile devices. One main power source plugs into the wall, and, from there, you can connect multiple power lines that roll out like a red carpet. The power strips are low-profile, durable and, as the company’s website says, they provide simple power solution without any retrofitting.

Here’s how a company representative explained the problem that Juice Mobile Power solves:

“Juice Mobile Power is the solution to this problem – the cost of rewiring a given room, whether that is an office conference room, an event space, or a classroom, is thousands of dollars and lots of time and energy. Juice Mobile Power takes the existing power available in the room and spreads it in a mobile, safe, adaptable way so people can stay charged and productive.”

There’s not much difference in the way that Bretford approaches power and the way we approach existing cubicles. We provide a simple solution that doesn’t require any work stoppages or costly disassembly of existing cubicles or desks.

Our panel and privacy extenders can be added to existing desks and walls in a matter of minutes. In many cases, we can add our panel extenders without interrupting your team’s workflow.

To learn more about our office solutions, call us at or head to our website.

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