Are You Ready for Your Future Office?

Jelena D

7 years ago

If there’s one thing we’ve been complaining about, it’s our hectic lifestyle&period; Commuting to work can be extremely stressful and arriving at your desk with a workload already waiting can seem rather daunting&period; Fortunately, times are changing and ideally for the better&period; Believe it or not, the offices of the future will be very pleasant places to spend time in&period; Some of the improvements are already happening, while the others await us just around the corner&period; &NewLine;Here are some trends that employers have started to introduce into the workplaces of today&colon; &NewLine;Sitting is the new smoking &NewLine;If we can have smartphones, why shouldn’t we have smart working stations too&quest; Companies that have implemented these on their office floors are certainly ahead of the game&period; Sedentary lifestyle is a slow killer, exposing you to higher risks of&colon; cancer, osteoporosis, back/neck pain, type 2 diabetes, and so on&period; Indeed, sitting jobs are very dangerous, so responsible employers have already reacted by installing sit-stand working stations, or desks with adjustable height, with the right anti-fatigue mats to secure proper body position&period; &NewLine;Going green &NewLine;In the past, nobody paid much attention to whether their company was recycling, but the situation couldn’t be more different now&period; These days one of the deciding factors for prospective employees is whether an organisation is dedicated to creating a sustainable environment&period; Offices are now literally becoming more green – more plants are being introduced to separate the office space instead of walls to improve an employee’s overall sense of wellbeing&period; &NewLine;More comfort, less formality &NewLine;You’ve probably all seen Google’s extreme offices across the world, but comfort is defined differently for various organisations&period; Bean bags and slides don’t really work for everyone &&num;8211&semi; could you imagine a lawyer sliding down a pole to deliver briefing notes to a colleague on a lower floor&quest; There’s no need to go to extremes, but it is certain that the offices will be more millennial-friendly&period; This simply means they will be designed to encourage collaboration and communication as opposed to restrictive desk culture&period; We can still expect some funky lounge and meeting areas, but the focus is to make offices feel more informal and less rigid&period; &NewLine;Hot desking &NewLine;Organisations are now trialling hot desking in an attempt to reduce overhead costs of desks and computers for each individual employee&period; Studies show that not all employees will attend work each and every day, so why have resources going to waste&quest; It is also designed to increase cross-team collaboration but some people are against the concept saying it makes employees feel less valued&period; &NewLine;3D printed buildings &NewLine;In just 10 years or so, 3D printed buildings could soon become the norm&period; This will reduce the amount of labour required for construction but architects are sceptical&period; They believe this will encourage identical building designs that look dull and ordinary, in effect creating a step backwards in modern architecture&period; &NewLine;Voice calling the office &NewLine;Imagine working in your office, going through papers, and getting ready for your presentation&period; You simply say to Alexa, ”Prepare the teleconference with Jack”&period; You could use it to send reports, set your timetable, and so on&period; The only downside lies in the fact that you need your own closed space for this&period; Alexa might get confused if it overhears Priya from Accounts instead of your request&period; &NewLine;Sense of belonging &NewLine;As you have probably noticed, the offices of the future aren’t just about the latest advances in office design and technology&period; It’s about improving the wellbeing of employees as happy workers are more productive workers&period; Humans have an instinctive desire to be social and belong to certain societies, groups, or clubs&period; Some companies are going the extra mile to encourage a sense of belonging within the office to ensure workers perform at their best&period; &NewLine;Lights &NewLine;It has been scientifically proven that natural light is the best for our eyes and productivity&period; Some of us work better in the morning compared to after the lunch break and into the afternoon&period; Employers are starting to take notice of the fact that our concentration varies during the day&period; To solve this, organisations are installing adjustable time-sensor lights – glowing brighter in the periods when our concentration is lower&period; And wherever there is an opportunity to install windows or skylights to allow natural sunlight, companies will be rewarded with higher productivity&period; &NewLine;Thinking rooms &NewLine;We can expect more open offices, but companies may be neglecting the need for quiet zones required for concentration&period; For this reason, you can expect to see special rooms which will be used in cases when workers feels the need to isolate themselves&period; Removing yourself from others can help promote problem solving for critical issues, or coming up with new ideas&period; &NewLine;Extra facilities &NewLine;We’ve all grown accustomed to gyms and lounges, but how about a hairdressers, dentist or laundromat&quest; It’s a clever tactic to encourage employees to spend more time at work and less time away from the office&period; &NewLine;We can’t say we aren’t looking forward to all of the above, can you&quest; Generation X has done a good job by refusing to accept just anything for the sake of production and profits&period; In the era of cutting edge technology, it comes as a surprise that the focus in the future trends isn’t just about the latest gadgets, but it’s about improving the working atmosphere&period; &NewLine;