A great concept in any office - not just a publishing office - a space where people can chill, calm, motivate, tune out, distract - whatever is needed to actually increase productivity.
Hopefully most work spaces have alternative spaces to hang out. Could be a library. A rooftop garden. A lunch room. A wall of windows somewhere. Outdoor paths.
Does your work environment offer break spaces, alternative work spaces (tired of your desk? Work in a quiet conference room!) ???
This was timely meaningful to me today. I had a “rough” start to the day today - nothing awful - heavy rain traveling to work, heavy rain traveling to a meeting, got to the meeting found out I didn’t have to be there, spilled my coffee - that kind of Monday. Had a hard time getting back in the groove when I got back to my desk - a cubicle - which is not the most motivating place ever…finally i packed up 1/2 my desk in a pull cart, threw it in my trunk and headed to a local library that I love - I spread out on a huge wood table where it was quiet but bright and pleasing. In two hours I got SO much done. Today, I needed that alternative work space.
Even if you work at home in a home office - do you have an alternative place to take a break but still produce work?
I can just go to our backyard and get some work done. I’m trying to get out every hour to walk in our neighborhood for just a few minutes. It really helps.
We have a kitchen/break area that is pretty nice, it is sunny, has tables and such, plus it has a supply of fruit and nuts and other healthy snacks, plus there is a large tv wall there (okay, it has financial news on it, but can’t have everything), can go there for coffee or whatnot, maybe talk to a friend or colleague. We also have conference rooms with comfortable chairs we can use as well.
My old job went the open space route and did up the premises really nicely: there were steps where people could sit with their laptops, conversation areas with cozy armchairs, conference rooms with bar-height tables and chairs.
So many options for sitting and working together, but your only option for isolating from other people’s conversations and other noises inherent in open space is/was noise-canceling headphones.
So, not a fan.
To be fair, there are several Innovation Parks throughout the country. I can’t find one webpage that lists all of them (I did at one point several months ago), but I think they are in Charlotte, NC, Tallahassee, FL, and other locations.
I just looked at @terriw’s link. How is it different from any other office park / office campus? It looks like 90% of Orange County, CA. But maybe I’m missing something.
Really? I’m genuinely interested in what looks special about it. I work in a large office building in downtown LA but I’ve been to zillions of depositions and other meetings in places like that in OC (Newport Beach, Irvine, Santa Ana), Silicon Valley, suburban San Diego, other suburban metro areas in CA and other places around the country like Alexandria, VA. It seriously looks like most other office-park campuses I’ve been to. I’m very curious as to what stands out? I may have missed it on the link (I only access CC from my phone).
PS That sort of environment is considered sort of a cookie-cutter, overly master-planned type of environment around here. We crave “real” urbanism (think Jane Jacobs) but we settle for master-planned.
I’ve got one and so do almost all of my colleagues in our old-fashioned office building. It’s very helpful for nonverbal communication. Door closed means either “I’m on a conference call” or “I’m not here today.” Door fully open means “Come on in.” Door left open a crack means “I’m here and working on something urgent. Please don’t interrupt unless absolutely necessary.”
We don’t have any good spaces for informal group meetings, but having our own offices is such a perk that it almost makes up for it.