What makes a good office

[thyme4change]

I am on the committee to chose our next location and will be part of approving the design. My choices will be limited because we just had a meeting with all the powerful people who assured us everyone would be so happy with their vision - so I can only deviate a little.

What types of things do you like in an office setting? Is on-sight food or gym worth it?

If you had to pick one, would you want more space or more privacy?

If you work in corporate America, tell me about what offices you worked at where the physical location had something you liked. **Please don't tell me about the awesome people - I can't change that. Also, if you are retired and want to rub in your lack of officing, that won't help me.

[Tennesseer]

I worked out of a corporate location with eight connected buildings and about 2,000 employees. We had a super employee cafeteria.

[giramomma]

On-site food depends on the location. If the building is not close to anything, then a cafeteria might make sense. In 0-20 minutes, I can walk to like 50 different restaurants from my office. Plus, another 8-10 food carts in non-pandemic times. So. A cafeteria would not make sense.

I would prefer privacy over space. I'm assuming, though that with privacy would come some space. If privacy means my office is the size of a 3/4 bathroom, well, no thank you.

My floor is set up well. We have group meeting rooms containing furniture that can be moved around to accommodate a variety of layouts, and offices with up to 3 people in them. We also have two restrooms on the floor (one for men, one for women).

I also am fortunate that I have a window in my office, but you cannot open my windows, which really stinks.

Lighting is another big one for me. Florescent lighting all day long bothers my eyes.

I'm meh on a gym, but having daycare options close to work would be amazing. At my point in my life, if I can't find a preschool that's convenient for us, I just won't put Miss M in. I no longer have the patience to spend 1.5 hours a day driving my kids to school, preschool, etc. and then getting myself to work.

DH and I also do alternate modes of transportation as much as possible. So, we take public buses, because cheaper than driving and paying for parking. DH also bikes into work. It's 7 miles one way.

So, I would take ease of accessing other modes of transportation into account for a work location as well, if it's something employees might use.

[billisonboard]

Center left at southern end of the lake is a large white building. For a while I had a north facing office in that building. 

[Lizard Queen]

I prefer privacy, but it depends on how much collaboration is required.

I like to be able to see outside without too much effort. Hated being stuck in cube-land, unaware of what the weather looked like outside unless I got up to go to the copier or something.

[Tennesseer]

Mar 30, 2021 11:24:02 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Center left at southern end of the lake is a large white building. For a while I had a north facing office in that building. 

This is where I worked. All the white flat-top buildings. Additional buildings and employees added after I retired. So more than 3,500 work there now..  Cafeteria faced the golf course as did a few of the other buildings.

[nidena]

If you have a gym, locker rooms with showers should be a must to go with them.

In my office, I'm happy that we have free coffee and tea.  

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

Day care near by would be amazing. If there is no cafeteria, would like a small coffee shop or place to buy a snack.

I prefer privacy but need real privacy. Cubes that don’t have any sound proofing are the worst. You can’t see what’s around but everything can be heard. That’s the worst of both worlds. If the sound can’t be blocked, then prefer an open plan so you can see who’s around.

I did like the bullpen concept (a large cube with 4 desks inside and sometimes a table in the middle). Some of my coworkers didn’t like this since it made it harder for them to focus (people would stop by and you could hear everyone’s phone calls)

[Lizard Queen]

Yeah, the phone call thing is my #1 issue. I don't want to hear other people, and I don't like others hearing mine. Fortunately, I hardly ever have to do phone calls for work anymore.

[billisonboard]

Mar 30, 2021 11:58:44 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Mar 30, 2021 11:24:02 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Center left at southern end of the lake is a large white building. For a while I had a north facing office in that building. 

This is where I worked. All the white flat-top buildings. Additional buildings and employees added after I retired. So more than 3,500 work there now..  Cafeteria faced the golf course as did a few of the other buildings.

We had about 1% of that full time and then a couple hundred two weekends a month.

The center of the building was a basketball/volleyball court. Lunch time was frequently competitions with the neighboring Marine Recruiting Office staff. Went from that to a ship with cooks providing free lunches. Quickly put on about ten pounds.

[wvugurl26]

Privacy is good. Cube land is bad enough I couldn't deal with those big open spaces. As much natural light as possible would be a plus.

A cafeteria is nice to have. There are a few options around my office but getting out and back in is at least 20 minutes and sometimes you are pressed for time. Coming back in also requires 2 layers of security and it gets to be a hassle. It's also not the best neighborhood. Some days you just want to get food and not be bothered.

My building also has 2 small convenience type stores. Water is a good perk. Some of the water fountains in my building have been fitted with a filter.

Sufficient space for collaboration and training is important.

We have a walk/jog trail around the property perimeter but inside the fence. It is nice to get out and walk.

I'm not sure how big the office will be so these may not apply. My complex has a gym, a credit union, day care, medical unit and my favorite, a post office. Some of those may be a covid victim never to reopen.

ETA: some of our new offices have small booths basically for phone calls. I'm uncertain if they have appropriate sound proofing.

[chiver78]

my current place has open concept, and I hate it. I can't focus on anything bc all I hear is everything else. and don't get me started on having to go for a walk bc the smell of my neighbor's daily yogurt about 3' away from me (but on the other side of a shoulder-height divider 🙄) made my stomach turn 🤢🤢 I actually got to the point that I would hang out in our floor's Cafe all morning with my laptop. it was way quieter, and the tables are standing height. win-win.

one thing that was well-planned, though - we have "collaboration rooms" that are not bookable like meeting rooms. you can use then for a personal call, impromptu small meetings, etc.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Windows.   It's nice to be able to see sunlight, especially in the winter.  I have a hard time staying motivated/awake when my brain doesn't see any daylight for 3-6 months.    Plus it's nice to have a window to look out of for a change of scenery.

[Lizard Queen]

My current office is the best. I have a door, it's pretty big for an office, and I look right out the window. Only thing is my office mate can get grumpy, but he's over in the living room so I can shut the door.

[raeoflyte]

Our home office is set up so that offices are in the center, with cubes on the outer rim of each floor, all windows. Managers/teams are easy to find, open concept but not too open. Short cubicles which I don't love, but the sunshine/light is great.

Free fountain soda machines on each floor makes it the perfect office for me, especially when I'm on the diet pepsi floors.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Mar 30, 2021 12:32:34 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

My current office is the best. I have a door, it's pretty big for an office, and I look right out the window. Only thing is my office mate can get grumpy, but he's over in the living room so I can shut the door.

My office mate tends to sprawl, head-butt, and beg. 

[mcsangel2]

I think an onsite cafeteria or similar option is an awesome perk. I once worked in a corporate office 25 years ago that had a legit full cafeteria in the basement that I will dream about.

Privacy vs space is more complicated. I think the answer is, whatever allows more people to have window views and more natural light. I've worked the gamut of spaces - open concept with desks no dividers, small cubes with 3.5 foot walls, cubes with 5 foot walls, cubes with 7 foot walls but no door, big bullpen cubes with a person sitting in each corner, and a private office with a door. The best ones were my current and last ones where I was in the last row of cubes (facing front like school desks) where I am/was next to a big bank of windows. So I get natural light and views all day long (well, in the beforetimes. I've been at home for a year). And no tall cube walls means my views and light are unobstructed.

If you have the space, the best might be private offices or private cubes with walls where one wall is glass, facing windows, with blinds to raise or lower as preferred.

[tskeeter]

Mar 30, 2021 11:02:34 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I am on the committee to chose our next location and will be part of approving the design. My choices will be limited because we just had a meeting with all the powerful people who assured us everyone would be so happy with their vision - so I can only deviate a little.

What types of things do you like in an office setting? Is on-sight food or gym worth it?

If you had to pick one, would you want more space or more privacy?

If you work in corporate America, tell me about what offices you worked at where the physical location had something you liked. **Please don't tell me about the awesome people - I can't change that. Also, if you are retired and want to rub in your lack of officing, that won't help me.

The worst office spaces I worked in was a cube farm with no sound control.  Like I want to be forced to hear the person five cubes away chewing out their kids every hour or two.  I really don’t want to know the details of my coworker’s lives, their squabbles with their spouse, struggles with their kids, their medical concerns, and the like.

One of the best spaces I worked in had several small, fully equipped conference rooms.  Big enough for about four people.  These were handy because they allowed us to take conversations between small groups of people out of the cube farm.  They could also be used as “hotelling” work space by employees visiting our location.  Or, in our work from home world, temporary work space for employees who must occasionally work at the office.

A critical office feature is a climate control system that actually works well.  That is zoned so that spaces with windows can accommodate the heat gain on a hot, sunny day and the heat losses when it’s 30 below and the wind is blowing, without freezing or cooking folks who don’t work right next to windows.

Office or cube spaces should also be wired so they can support under desk electric “toe warmers”.  Most interconnected cube wiring systems aren’t rated to supply the amount of electricity several electric space heaters will consume.

[mcsangel2]

Mar 30, 2021 12:55:02 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

Mar 30, 2021 12:32:34 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

My current office is the best. I have a door, it's pretty big for an office, and I look right out the window. Only thing is my office mate can get grumpy, but he's over in the living room so I can shut the door.

My office mate tends to sprawl, head-butt, and beg. 

My office mate likes to lie on my desk and cuddle in front of me so I can't type. My husband's office mate likes to lie on the floor RIGHTNEXT to his shoes so he has to be super careful when he moves his chair.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Mar 30, 2021 13:13:44 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Mar 30, 2021 12:55:02 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

My office mate tends to sprawl, head-butt, and beg. 

My office mate likes to lie on my desk and cuddle in front of me so I can't type. My husband's office mate likes to lie on the floor RIGHTNEXT to his shoes so he has to be super careful when he moves his chair.

Yeah, when mine gets in that position, I have to keep my keyboard on my monitor riser. She also will sit up to groom, completely obscuring most of one of my monitors. 

[myrrh]

I am for as many offices with a door as possible, especially for jobs that involve lots of phone calls (and there are always at least a few of those jobs, no matter the office, I think.) If they decide cubes are ok, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make the walls higher than four feet. I hate the feeling of working in a prairie dog town. (People standing up, peering around to see who's here, who's talking, then sitting down, etc). It also makes standing desks a little awkward (I don't want to feel like I'm constantly staring down at someone or having my work on display if I'm standing to work). At a minimum, all managers should have an office with a door that closes, preferably with walls that aren't paper thin. Privacy is needed for employee evaluations, corrections, reasons for FMLA, stuff like that. Trying to do those things when the only private spaces are constantly booked conference rooms is a problem.

In short, privacy over space. My job is one that requires concentration, and it's hard to concentrate when there's conversations everywhere around you. Then some managers hate when their employees use headphones to help block out the noise. Why? It's so counterproductive. And so much distraction and noise leads to not wanting to talk with anyone or collaborate. Cubicles and open offices - generating anti-collaboration everywhere! 

I may have some feelings about this, lol. 

[bean29]

First office job was a credit union, then GE Medical Systems when GE still owned Hotpoint.  We were in the same buildings as their factory.  We did have a cafeteria.  Then I worked for an Appraisal company with maybe 500 employees.  They had a cafeteria.  It was downtown.  They had parking lots you could park your car on, but you had to walk about 4 blocks.

I then worked for a non-profit in a so-so neighborhood, and then went back to working downtown for a Mortgage insurance business.  They also had company parking but the wait list was like 5 years long.  I worked there 10 years in total I think, 2 different times, and never got on the wait list for a parking spot.  They had an in-house cafeteria (very nice), and Starbucks was practically underneath our building. It butted up to the company parking.  We did frequent runs for SBUX, even though the Cafeteria also sold Coffee - just not the same. They had an in-house gym and exercise classes on site.  I did use the gym and take classes.  It is a great benefit, but I would not say a lot of people look for that.  Parking was next door, expensive but convenient.  If I had been willing to give up convenience, there were cheaper options not too far a walk- maybe 8 blocks?  I also worked in the high rise next door for awhile - we could use the company cafeteria if we wanted, but there were two restaurants in our building.  One was Cousins, and the other was a high end restaurant.  They ran high quality/reasonably priced breakfast and lunch items for takeout.  In the winter, most of us just got food from the restaurants in our building.  I worked downtown MKE for at least 15 years in several stints.  I liked working downtown.  There was a large variety of restaurants and many places to shop on my lunch hour.  The commutes are usually longer, you have to pay for parking, and allow time to get in and out of the structures.

I currently work for a Property Management company.  They don't spend $$ on their own digs.  The building has not been updated since the 70's?  I have my own office, which I like and I have two windows.  They don't micromanage us, so I used to go work out on my lunch hour at the gym 5 minutes from my office.  Class was 45 minutes.  i left work, changed at the gym, took my class showered and returned to work.  I took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The Pandemic killed the lunch time classes.  If they bring them back, I will be exercising on my lunch again.

[swamp]

Natural light. Snacks. Outdoor space to walk around and take a break. No cube farm.

[thyme4change]

Windows is a great thing to keep in mind. I don't think I can get the powers that be to believe offices are a good idea. They are going the other direction. But, the good news is that they are expecting us all to continue to work from home more often than not. Or at least that is what they will tell us until we accept our cube-life fate, and then they will force us back 40/week.

[imawino]

Mar 30, 2021 11:02:34 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I am on the committee to chose our next location and will be part of approving the design. My choices will be limited because we just had a meeting with all the powerful people who assured us everyone would be so happy with their vision - so I can only deviate a little.

What types of things do you like in an office setting? Is on-sight food or gym worth it?

If you had to pick one, would you want more space or more privacy?

If you work in corporate America, tell me about what offices you worked at where the physical location had something you liked. **Please don't tell me about the awesome people - I can't change that. Also, if you are retired and want to rub in your lack of officing, that won't help me.

Such a good question, and something we are grappling with as well.  Upon eventual return to the office we don't expect everyone back full time so we want to downsize our office space and go to a more hot-desk plan (or hoteling, or touchdown spaces or whatever anyone wants to call it).  But this seems unpalatable to many of the staff.  They want to come in 1, possibly 2 max days a week but still have their very own private office sitting there unoccupied 60-80% of the time, but full of all their stuff and just waiting for them to come in.  I get it, office space can be very personal and emotional, but that's just not a reasonable solution.

Anyway, as many have said natural light is a fairly important feature and everyone in our office seems to crave silence. Their own private, doored, silent space and and endless amount of meeting spaces and collaboration spaces as well.  I know you can never please all the people all the time, but when crafting a new office plan it seems you can't please any of the people any of the time, and it's really quite frustrating. 

[jerseygirl]

I worked for about 5 years in an old house on the grounds of my company - typical office building with manufacturing on first floor
Loved the old house. My office was one of the former bedrooms and I had a cedar closet. Two windows and very quiet
Our boss had the dining room, kept his books, files etc in the corner cabinets
The kitchen was fun to have. We had big holiday luncheons in the converted garage.

[Anne_in_VA]

I’ve worked in a variety of office styles from cube farms, individual offices, windows, no windows, large open space with no walls, just rows of desks.  My favorite was a private office with a door.  I didn’t have a window as most of the window offices were for directors or above, but I didn’t mind.  We had a gym on site with lockers and showers.  Several companies I worked for had an onsite cafeteria or grab and go type store for food and snacks and everyone utilized those a lot.  One cafeteria was excellent and heavily subsidized which was great.  They even had home made desserts and warm cookies every afternoon!  

I hated working in the cube farm office as everyone could hear every conversation and no one really wants to know everyone’s personal business.  We had several cubes in a row with 3 to 4 foot high walls so you could see who was at their desk at a glance.  That was very noisy and awful.

Small collaborative areas were good.  They had a door which allowed small groups to meet without being out in the cube farm area, or to make a personal call, etc.  

[jelloshots4all]

At my last company I had a "Canteen" vending service installed.

  www.canteen.com/?utm_source=reachlocal&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=semcanteenmainvendingcampaign&scid=3918490&kw=34650025%3A0&pub_cr_id=85212402905716&network=o&device=c&targetid=kwd-85212492432506%3Aloc-4133&loc_interest_ms&loc_physical_ms=105379&tc=7ab7ee1d581f17cbd9c18e7ef68779ee&rl_key=14b75a7b3e2cc0ae641d1345787ffa78

Our manufacturing plant/offices were in the middle of farm lands.

The Canteen system was very well received (over the wheel of death vending machines).  They came 2x a week to restock, and people could submit suggestions.  Most of our employees worked in the plant and only had 20 min for lunch.

The variety was great and fresh.  The employees were very happy and the prices were reasonable.

[TheOtherMe]

At the last tax office where I worked, each floor had a kitchen.  Depending on how many people worked on the floor determined the size of the kitchen.  The kitchen had at least 2 refrigerators, at least 2 microwaves and a sink.  Also a free soda machine and free bottled water.  Coffee was free and on Friday's managers rotated bringing in snacks.  The best was bagels.   

However, it was a cube farm unless you were a partner.  My manager had a door, but her walls were not as tall as me.  

I only had a private office once.  However, it was a small firm and family owned.  The door had to be open unless we were meeting with a client.  I would close my door at lunch since I usually brought my lunch.  The boss would just walk and in and say something along the lines of "not working".  I wasn't on the clock.  We had to clock in and out and were required to take 60 minutes for lunch.  My next door office mate and I finally started leaving the office for lunch to get him to stop being in our personal business.  Both of us like to make personal (ie doctor appointments, etc.) calls on lunch, but he seemed to know when that was happening.  He would just stand there and wait for the call to be over.

[giramomma]

Mar 30, 2021 15:02:11 GMT -5 bean29 said:

First office job was a credit union, then GE Medical Systems when GE still owned Hotpoint.  We were in the same buildings as their factory.  We did have a cafeteria. 

Was this on Electric Avenue, before they moved to Waukesha?