Office courtesy
New smart sensors are a multifaceted fix for office woes
It may sound like the miracle pill of the 9-to-5 world, but hear us out: New sensor technology can save energy, track employees, and perhaps even improve worker morale. A startup company called Enlightened has developed wireless heat and motion tracking systems to make a heat map of employee movements and more effectively adjust office […]
Your freezing office is killing productivity
Can’t seem to concentrate because you’re shivering in your chair while your co-worker a few cubicles away is sweating bullets? It could be the symptoms of meeting an impossible deadline, but more often than not, it is just an effect of bad building design. A combination of factors is responsible for situations in which a […]
Are outdoor offices too open for workers?
How often have you looked outside your window at work and wished you could be out in the open rather than cooped up inside? If architects Ju Hyun-Kim and Euno Cho have their way, you could be working at an outdoor cafe table instead of a cubicle. In Hyun-Kim and Cho’s vision for a truly […]
The key to a healthy workplace? A good boss
What do people want in a boss? It’s an important question for employees and employers alike – especially since bad bosses may jeopardize one’s health. And too many Americans say they serve under poor leadership. In fact, around three-quarters of U.S. workers consider their boss the worst part of their daily work grind, according to USA […]
New app lets coworkers anonymously rate each other
We rate our restaurants, our exes, our professors, our workplaces — why not our coworkers? A new app, Knozen, launched by Marc Cenedella, former TheLadders CEO, aims to do just that. As Business Insider reports, the free app “pits two coworkers against each other and asks the user a series of questions” to gauge their personalities. […]
Channeling FIFA fever can improve employee productivity
It sounds counterintuitive. Workers watching the FIFA World Cup means less work gets done, right? Not necessarily. If you assume workers are adults who plan their tasks around matches, productivity need not dip. Eighty percent of the world is watching the World Cup, and, according to a survey, a majority of employees watched or listened to […]
Privacy vs. partnership: Tweaking the office open-floor plan
As many cubicle workers can attest, the in-vogue office open-floor plan doesn’t always contribute to productivity. In fact, it can hinder it. While open-floor plans have been popular in interior design over the last decade or so, their efficacy is now being questioned by designers and planners — not to mention, the earplug-wearing workers long disturbed […]
Office temperature troubles: New app tackles top worker complaint
Office temperature control: It sounds simple, but, as workers in frigid offices around the country can testify, it isn’t. More often than not, workers bundle up in the summer thanks to HVAC systems that waste energy and over-cool office occupants. As FastCo reports, a new app called Comfy is adjusting that imbalance. Comfy is an […]
Green office buildings don’t necessarily promote worker happiness
Working in a green office doesn’t necessarily boost employee happiness, according to a recent study reported on by ArchDaily. The study suggests that while employees are “generally satisfied” working in LEED buildings, their happiness isn’t any greater than those employees’ who work in non-LEED buildings. (LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, […]
Employees too guilty to take breaks at work, new survey says
Despite the majority of workers spending more than eight hours on the job each day, over 25 percent of employees don’t take a break other than lunch. Their excuse? A new survey from Staples, reports Yahoo Finance, reveals that one in five of those employees surveyed say that guilt prevents them from taking breaks at […]