Category : workplace culture

Do your employees really care about the latest “eco-friendly” initiative at work? Are they on board with the idea of a mission statement that includes caring for the planet? Would they like to have a say in sustainability in the office? Evidence suggests that the answer to all of these questions is “Yes!”

Workers Love a Giving Attitude

Rena M. Klein at the American Institute of Architects explores a 2008 SHRM study in her article about “Greening the Workplace”. In the study, a strong commitment to sustainable practices was linked to improved worker productivity and higher morale. Energy and resource conservation programs were popular practices, as was support for cycling and other fuel-efficient commuting methods. However, the #1 practice that garnered the most support was reuse of old furnishings.

“Employees were asked which environmentally responsible practices they thought were most important for organizations to carry out. They reported that donating/discounting used office furniture/supplies to employees or local charity was the top environmentally responsible practice.” It’s always nice when what’s good for the environment coincides with what’s good for workers and the local community.

Environmental Responsibility Is a Passion for Young Employees

Sustainability is likely to become even more popular over the next two decades as Gen Y workers will comprise most of the workforce by 2025. According to OXYGENZ (a research project led by Global WorkPlace Innovation), youth believe that the office should be designed with an eye toward eco-responsibility. “Sustainability is highly valued with 96% desiring an environmentally friendly workplace, but not at the expense of design.” Fortunately, the range of choices for office furniture that is well-designed and responsibly manufactured is growing.

Making Smart Green Buying Decisions

Of course, this doesn’t mean buying green is inexpensive—at least for new furniture. Cost can be a significant barrier to implementing an environmentally responsible program. In the SHRM study mentioned above, eight out of ten employees recognized this as one of the reasons such practices weren’t given more weight in the workplace. There is one option that satisfies:

• the requirement of businesses to keep costs low;
• the needs of workers who want (and deserve) ergonomic and finely crafted office furniture; and
• the desire of everyone involved to make sustainable choices.

Purchasing refurbished office furniture is that solution since the refinishing process consumes comparatively few resources. Employers can get their hands on the best name-brand furnishings restored to like new condition at a fraction of the cost of new. Buying items made with pre and post-consumer recycled content (like our panel extenders) is another smart choice. Our products are especially sustainable because they help businesses extend the useful life of their existing desks and cubicles.

Office jokes are among some of the funniest out there, mainly because we’ve all been there. Here is one of our favorites:

“Two office workers are talking. The woman says, “I can make the boss give me the day off.” The man replies, “And how would you do that?” The woman says, “Just wait and see.” She then hangs upside down from the ceiling. The boss comes in and says, “What are you doing?” The woman replies, “I’m a light bulb.” The boss then says, “You’ve been working so much that you’ve gone crazy. I think you need to take the day off.” The man starts to follow her and the boss says, “Where are you going?” The man says, “I’m going home, too. I can’t work in the dark.”

Of course, a well run office doesn’t make employees look for any excuse to go home! Obex panel extenders can turn each workspace into a customized area for the designated employee, making them feel at home and comfortable. Think about ways you can make your office more appealing for your workers!

Oh, and share your funniest office joke in the comments.

Does your office do the employee birthday “thing”? If so, here’s some things to keep in mind:

DO: Acknowledge an employee’s special day. If you are their boss, make sure you mention it, and maybe a long lunch would be nice. If you are a coworker and are close, a little card or token is acceptable – if you just know them from across the office dropping in and saying “Happy Birthday” is sufficient.

DON’T: Go over the top. It’s a workplace, not party central. The last thing everyone needs is a constant barrage of elaborate birthday parties. A singing telegram is the very last thing an employee wants – you have to work with them afterwards so don’t humiliate them!

DO: Let the office be involved appropriately. Having a cake each month to celebrate everyone’;s birthday that month is ideal for large offices.  If you work in a smaller office, get the whole office to go out to lunch or drinks after work.

DON’T: Make it all about getting to booze it up at work. Keep the alcohol until after you’re done for the day. Arrange for a Happy Hour after work, so there’s nothing embarrassing going on on company property.

Does your company allow birthday celebrations, or encourage them at work? Tell us your stories!

Do you have the cubicle crazies? By that we mean the obsessive need to get OUT of the cubicle at regular intervals, for fear you’ll become a hermit and start keeping a pet rock as a friend?

Here are a couple of easy ways to combat the cubicle crazies and get that much needed break.

1. Make your cubicle a place you LIKE to be. That will make it more welcoming and you won’t feel so trapped. Try to keep it down to essentials and only have stuff in your cubicle that you need.
2. Make friends. If you are included in the weekly gossipfest by the water cooler and get invited to every party with cake, you won’t feel so isolated!
3. Eat lunch anywhere but in your cubicle. It’s vital to get out at least for half an hour or so and breathe non-cubicle air!
4. Don’t be shy. work on projects with a partner so you have an excuse to get out of your cube and pop in to theirs a few times a day.

Your cubicle shouldn’t doom you to a life of playing solitaire in between tasks. Make your cubicle a fun place, then schedule regular retreats to the outside world. You can beat the cubicle crazies!

Cubicle workers can have a hard time staying fit! After all, sitting for 8 hours isn’t exactly a work out, and when you add 4 cups of coffee and the odd fast food lunch, you should be concerned for your overall health!

Hitting the gym is impossible – no extra hours in the day between family, work and commute – so how can you burn calories and stay healthy even when stuck in a cubicle? We’ve found at least five ways.

1. Number one is obvious. Don’t stay in the cubicle all day! It can be hard to break away from the computer and even breaks are often spent online. Forgo your Facebook check-in and take a lap around the office instead. Getting up and moving every hour or so – even if it’s just a quick trip to the copy machine and back –  is a great way to keep your metabolism engaged.
2. Stand up. Even if you are in your cubicle, you don’t have to sit the whole time, Stand up when on calls, pace in a circle when reading a hard copy draft, anything to keep you moving. You can burn up to 225 calories an hour just by standing up and moving while at the office!
3. Invest in a “desk-stepper”. If you have to sit and type for long periods of time, a desk stepper is ideal. It fits under your desk and allows you to work your legs while seated – up to a 90 calorie burn every 20 minutes! It’s also a good investment if you are prone to stiffness, leg problems, or have to worry about poor circulation or clotting.
4. Get co-workers to work out with you – even if it’s showing up to work ten minutes early and taking a fast walk around the building before clocking in, or doing calisthenics at lunch. It’s amazing how having a partner can motivate you!
5. Drink as much water as you can. Make a deal with yourself – before every cup of coffee or soda, you have to down a bottle of water. You’ll find your cravings melt away and you get used to drinking water!

What are your best ways to stay healthy in a cubicle environment?

Do you have a cubicle pet? Of course, bringing Spot or Fluffy to work is probably not an option, but many workplaces don’t have a hard and fast policy against other types of pets.

Here are just a few ideas for you to add to your workplace to make it seem a little more homey and fun!

1. A fish. A small fish tank is easy to maintain and many fish are hardy enough to survive with daily care and even across a weekend if needed without a lot of attention. A fish can bring some color and interest to your cubicle!
2. A lizard. Likewise, a small terrarium is an easy to maintain and keep up with option. Just throw some extra crickets or mealworms in and make sure the water bowl is full before leaving on Friday!
3. An air plant or cactus. Of course, you may have a green thumb and want something more challenging, but mossy air plants or small cacti are very easy to take care of and can be a cool way to decorate without a lot of commitment.

Dress up your cubicle with a “pet” and see how much more fun it is to go to work every day!

Are you familiar with CubeSpeak? It’s the lingo of the cubicle world – which is, in CubeSpeak, the “Cube Farm!” (See, you learned something already!)

If you don’t know CubeSpeak, you might be “404” – meaning you are clueless. The term comes from the web error message code “404” (File Not Found) which means that the document requested couldn’t be located.

Can you guess what “Adminisphere” means? If you think it’s the level above the rank and file, where suggestions go to disappear and decisions come down from that make no sense in the real world, you’d be right.

Are you the top dog in the IT department? Then you would be the “Alpha Geek” for certain. You can fix it even if it’s more complicated than “turning it on and off again!”

If you’ve ever left your phone on vibrate then had it go off unexpectedly, triggering a spastic fit complete with gape mouthed facial expressions, you’ve experienced “Beepilepsy”

If another company come up with a better spin on an idea you already had, you might have been “Betamaxed” (Android Betamaxed iPhone right out of the market!)

Does your boss hold meetings to determine who is at fault for a missed dealdine or dead project? He’s just “Blamestorming”.

If you realize the new guy down in accounting is as smart as he is good looking, you just might need to “Bookmark” him for future reference!

Does the boss want to fire people, but doesn’t have guts to do it himself? Beware the efficiency expert, also known as a “Chainsaw Consultant”

Your computer is your Chips and your programming is your Salsa, so when the IT guys says “First we gotta figure out if the problem’s in your chips or your salsa,” you know he’s trying to track it down!

Whatever you do, don’t diss your boss in company email. That would be considered a serious CLM (Career Limiting Move)!

Does your boss not appreciate everything you do, and takes pleasure in making your life miserable? Congratulations – you’ve just been “Dilberted”.

Admit it, sometimes you “Egosurf” (Google yourself and obsessively read each entry).

We’ll bring you some more CubeSpeak at a later date. But for now, at least you aren’t totally “404”!

About 40 million working North Americans work in cubicles. Some like it, some don’t – and the correlation between those who feel positive about their workplace and those who don’t is directly related to how their workplace is managed, more than it is the mere fact of being a cubicle worker.

The modern-day cubicle has been formally denounced by the man who actually came up with the idea – Robert Propst. Cubicles were put forth by Propst in 1968 as a way to increase office productivity by providing personal work-spaces with plenty of shelving and increased work-surface areas. He hoped that this would help out office drones who were having difficulty with more open work-spaces that gave little storage or utility space and were so open distractions were common.

With cubicles, he felt, employees would have more room to work; partitions could be used to pin up projects and to provide the privacy that the earlier open offices lacked. Surprise – the original plan also called for adjustable desk levels, similar to today’s “newfangled fad”, with the idea that workers could benefit from the chance to spend some time standing up.

Overall, cubicles were supposed to be beneficial to the worker. After all, health can be largely dependent on your environmental comfort, which is determined by whether your immediate space meets basic physical, functional and psychological needs. A well appointed cubicle with panel extenders of appropriate height would give each employee space and privacy to work, without completely cutting them off form their fellows.

Sadly, economics completely screwed up Propst’s dream. Office space costs climbed, and instead of being focused on worker benefits, cubicles were used to maximize real estate. They became tiny and cramped, and designed to cram a lot of people into a limited area. Instead of being the flexible units that Propst intended them to be, cubicles became rows of cages, and the term “death by cubicle” emerged. TV shows, comic strips and movies made sharp commentary about cubicle life, pointing out that people were being trapped in boxes while being encouraged to think outside them.  Productivity fell, as did worker health, satisfaction, and stability.

But death by cubicle doesn’t have to be a thing. Cubicle panel extenders and a larger footprint can make cubicles worker friendly again!

It’s Friday, and let’s talk about one of the most annoying things in the office around the holidays. No, it’s not the canned music that seems to start up in early November, or the cubicle decorations that get out of control – it’s the office sweater party. Amarite?

Every cubicle worker knows about the ugly sweater party. It’s a horrible perversion of the traditional Christmas Party, the one for which everyone could dress up nice and get tipsy and maybe a little office romance would finally spark.

Of course, maybe that’s the point. No-one is getting it on with someone wearing one of the ugly Christmas sweaters…. I mean, have you seen these things? It’s like an elf threw up on your grandma’s nightgown.

What’s your holiday pet peeve? Tell us about it. we know you’ve got one. Maybe it’s something that bugs you a little all year round, but Christmas just takes it to Defcon 4 status. Talk to us!

It’s time for another Friday Chat – and our theme this month is holiday pet peeves at the office – specifically, the holiday office party and gift exchange.

A lot of offices have “mandated” attendance at various holiday office parties and gift exchanges. They can’t exactly demand you show up, but there’s certainly a lot of pressure. What happens when you decline to participate? Do you get shunned by co-workers? Put in your boss’ bad graces? What about the holiday office events makes you nuts?

We’ve noticed several posts lately about ridiculous demands made on lower level employees, requiring them to bring a fancy food item, a secret Santa gift with a minimum value price tag, and so on. Don’t even get us started on assigned times to show up at the holiday office party, or restrictions on certain foods and beverages!

Then again, some offices ban displays of holiday cheer completely. How does your office deal with the holidays? Are you overextended trying to keep up, overwhelmed with the continual chaos, or unperturbed?