Listening to Music while Working at the Office…Good Idea, or Not?

Listen While You Work: Productivity Killer?

Music at the OfficeHere at Workspace Solutions, we work hard every day coming up with ways to increase your office’s efficiency.   There is no doubt our offices have changed over the years, and so has the debate about office workers listening to music while on the clock.

Years ago, this issue may have been decided by the boss who could control the lone office radio, or the office speaker system.  Most office music in those days consisted of instrumental selections since it was believed adding a vocalist would break worker’s concentration.  There was even a paid music service, called Muzak back then, that “scientifically” programmed its music to increase worker productivity.  Not sure how good that worked since this service is no longer available.

A small device called a “Walkman” was developed by Sony in 1979.  This device played cassette tapes and popularized the use of headphones.  Workers could now listen to their favorite tapes without disturbing anyone around them.  They were free to move around the office as well, without taking off their headphones.   When CD drives began showing up in our PC’s, it was an easy way for employees to plug their headphones in and start listening.  CD drives are not as common as they once were, and listening habits and technology have moved on.

Today, there are several ways an employee sitting at a computer can listen to music.  They can use their phones or mp3 players to feed their tunes to their ear buds, and they can use their computers to stream music from the internet.  This allows workers to choose their own taste in music, selecting sounds they feel help them work more attentively, or cutting fatigue, both things that music seems to be able to do.

So, now that you’ve lost control of the old office radio, should you let your employees listen to music at work or not?   The most logical way to decide this is on a case by case basis. Judge each employee on their own merits. If a worker is productive and accurate, then who cares if they listen to music or not.  If they are not doing their job successfully, it may be time to suggest they pull the (ear) plug, and try it without the tunes.

Does Music Kill Collaboration in the Workplace?

A few other issues should be noted.  One, as we move to a more open office environment, where collaboration is important, an employee can use their music to create an artificial barrier.  With ear buds or ear phones on, they may not be able to get into the office conversation, since they can’t hear it.  Others may not approach them since they know they are listening to music, and won’t hear them anyway.

The opposite of this occurs if one worker’s music is playing too loudly and distracts co-workers.  If you did a quick survey of musical tastes of your employees, you would discover they are all different.  What motivates one worker can irritate another.  So, if you allow music in the office, it should remain personal.  Speakers or loud headphones should not be allowed.

It does seem that listening to music while working can be a positive work habit for some workers, while not that good for others.  It’s one of those things you’ll have to work out so that everyone wins.

Share with us.  What is your office policy about music?  And what are your favorite work sounds?

Gather Your Big Ideas with Allsteel and Workspace Solutions

Back in the idyllic 1950’s, people in the suburbs used to visit one another by meeting along the back yard hedge. What if you could put a hedge in your office, you know, a place that encourages your staff to meet regularly to discuss and exchange ideas? Collaborative work settings are a vital part of contemporary office design. Ideas grow when shared, and ideas create the next profit centers within our businesses. Without ideas, it’s hard to move ahead or even keep up with our competition. Old office walls and cubicles made for privacy, but privacy keeps ideas from sprouting and taking root. How you design your office dictates how your employees will interact with customers, and each other, so it’s important to think of your office layout the same way you think about any technology you invest in to improve productivity and growth.  Workspace Solutions has been designing collaborative offices for years. Now they have new tools from Allsteel to take your office to the next level.

Allsteel has two new lines designed to increase employee collaboration: Gather, and Involve. Learn more here, or contact Workspace Solutions for a demonstration. Gather around the Hedge in your office, and get everyone Involved in the future or your business.

Workspace Solutions is the Allsteel dealer for Northern Indiana, including South Bend, Elkhart, Warsaw, and Fort Wayne. Workspace Solutions can also serve you from their office in Indianapolis.

Which type of Worker is most likely to Develop Chronic Back Pain from Work?

Which of these two people are most likely to develop chronic back pain later in life?

A. Lumberjack

B. A Secretary in a modern office

The answer, of course, is B.  An office secretary, or business executive, or anyone who spends most of his or her time at work sitting, is far more likely to develop back and neck pain than a physically active worker.

Here are three of the major workplace contributors to back pain:

  • Slouching forward in your chair
  • Holding your telephone between your ear and your shoulder
  • Lack of movement during the work day

So, why are you still just sitting there. Get active now!  Here are some ideas from San Francisco State University’s Dr. Erik Peper

1.)   Support the natural curve of your spine! Office chairs should have lumbar support, a natural forward curve at belly button level. You can also put a pillow or rolled up towel behind your back to achieve this effect.

2.)   Adjust the height of your chair so you can keep your feet flat on the floor and your knees at 90-degree angles. You can also rest your feet on a prop, like a footrest or even a phone book, for extra support. Crossing your legs tightly reduces circulation in your legs and causes varicose veins, which look dark blue on your skin!

3.)   Remove or lower the armrests so your arms are at 90-degree angles. This will encourage you to hold your shoulders low, which your good for your upper back.

4.)   Keep your monitor about an arms length away and at or slightly below eye level. This will encourage you to sit back, instead of lean forward and reduces neck strain.

Stand Up and move around

Sitting (or even standing) in one position for an 8 hour workday can be very hard on your body!

1.)   Take short breaks, once every hour to use the restroom, get a glass of water, walk down the hallway, or just stretch. Sitting for long periods of time will weaken the muscles in your back. Stretching for just 60 seconds will counter the bad effects of long periods of just sitting.

2.)   Research suggests that about half your hours at work should be spent standing up. If you have a sit-stand workstation, alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day.

3.)   Strengthening your core muscles with exercise, such as yoga, pilates or sit-ups works  your stomach as well your back, which naturally improves your posture and reduces pain.

Workspace Solutions in Fort Wayne, IN, has ergonomic chairs, workstations and office desks that can help keep office workers healthy and happy.  Contact us to discuss how we can help your employees avoid the long term health issues that come from sitting all day long at work.

What ideas do you have for keeping active and not just sitting at your desk eight hours every day?

The White Board goes High Tech at Workspace Solutions

Just about every business meeting today is centered around a “white board.” Notes, and ideas that surface during the meeting get written down. Presentations are made using diagrams and flowcharts. This low tech successor to the messy chalk board has become an indispensable business tool for the 21st century.

Now, Workspace Solutions and Claridge bring the white board into the world of high tech.

Now you can use your white board as a screen, and project any notes, documents, spreadsheets or photos from your computer onto the wall for all to see. There’s also an LCD version of the screen where you don’t even need a projector. You can then write on your white board, and save all of your notes and drawings in a shareable computer file. You can even email the information on your white board. You can have other employees in other offices anywhere around the world sit in on your meeting, and view what’s on your white board exactly as if they were in your conference room.

Today, you know that you could never have a successful meeting without your trusty white board. Once you’ve used a Claridge Solution board, or their LCD C2Touch screens, you’ll never be able to hold another meeting without it.

See it in action in the video, or come to our downtown showroom and see it in person.  How would you use one of these high tech white boards?

Workspace Solutions in Fort Wayne, IN. Every day we’re working for you.

Claridge Solution Board


C2Touch LCD Screen

Take a Stand at Work. You’ve Got Nothing to Lose but a few Pounds

Well, it was good enough for Ernest Hemingway, but you still need more convincing.

We’re talking about standing up while your work, at least standing up for a few hours every day.  The evidence seems to keep mounting for how bad sitting all day is for your health, but now there is a little evidence that shows the benefits as well.

According to a British exercise scientist, Dr. John Buckley, as quoted in the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, staying on your feet an extra three hours daily would burn off eight pounds of fat each year.

Standing for three hours, Dr. Buckley notes, will burn 144 calories.  It’s also good for your circulation.  Sitting for long periods slows down your metabolic rate as well.

New adjustable desks and counter tops are being designed every day that allow you or your employees to spend part of the day standing while working.  Workspace Solutions works with dozens of the best office furniture companies in the world, and can help you design a work space that can help workers gain health and productivity, while losing weight at the same time.

Creating an Office Space for Collaboration with Hon’s new Flock Collaborative Solutions

Everyone today is talking about collaboration, bringing employees together to share and discuss their ideas.  It improves communications, cuts down on paperwork, and helps spark new ideas.  Collaboration is likely to happen anywhere, or not at all, depending on the layout of your work place.  It is more likely to happen if you encourage it with proper office design and layout.  Since collaboration is still a new concept for many, the nations’s top office furniture companies are just starting to offer specific products that they have designed and tested to increase the collaboration process in your office space.

The Hon Company, sold inFort  Wayne and Northern Indiana by Workspace Solutions,  has a new line entirely dedicated to collaboration.  It’s called Flock Collaborative Solutions because the idea is that workers will flock to these areas to share their best ideas.  In the same way as cubicles naturally keep people apart, collaborative areas must lure people into their spaces.  They must also facilitate the needs of the collaborators, or the desired collaboration won’t take place.  Companies like Hon, and office designers like Workspace Solutions, have been carefully studying what type of furnishings and designs not only bring people together, but help them work together to create the desired results.  At the same time, they are aware that such spaces must still fit the décor and decorum of your office.  Many companies have learned that their collaboration area is useful as a recruitment tool, since perspective employees are excited about the prospect of a strong collaborative environment, and are even already experienced these in college.

So the bottom line is, it must function properly, and it must look great, or it just won’t work at all.

With the incredible rate of change driven by technology, it shouldn’t’ be surprising to find our workspaces are changing as well.   Hon’s new Flock Collaborative Solutions, from Workspace Solutions shows how we continue to innovate to keep your work space up to date and running at maximum efficiency.

Google’s new London Office Offers us a Sneak Peak at the Future

Google has been  a trend setter in style and management over the past several years. So, when Google builds a new office (this time in London), the rest of us check it out to see if there’s any great new ideas we need to borrow, or at least to see what our office might look like in another ten years or so.  If Google’s London office is any clue, we’ll be seeing more padding on the walls, and a continuation of the trend to encourage employees to collaborate and work from many different parts of the office, technology freeing us from being tethered to our desks.

For fun, anyway, take a look at Google’s new London office in this web article by the website, digital trends.  Click here

What Google ideas would you like to see in your office?

 

Thousands of people in the office furniture business are in Chicago today at the final day of the 44th annual NeoCon — the National Exposition of Contract Furnishings show at the Merchandise Mart.

This is where we find all of the new innovations in office furniture and design that we will be including in our office plans for the coming year. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be sharing some of the new products introduced at the show that we will be carrying very soon.

In general, what’s happening this year? Well, Byron S. Morton, vice president of leasing for Merchandise Mart Properties, described the changes in the market as a move toward the collaboration of “live and work.” One of this year’s office trends is making the office feel more like home.
“What does the iPad generation need — or not need? They need connectivity and don’t need big bulky furniture,” Morton said.
We’ve seen a huge interest in hospital and medical furniture over the past years, and expect new things in this area as well. Re-visit our site in a couple of weeks, and we’ll show you what new things are heading to our showroom.

Is there such a thing as a “too quiet” office?

Hon Open Office furniture from Workspace Solutions

Sometimes, less is more.  It seems to be that way in today’s modern offices.  With ultra quiet heating and cooling system, no more clunking of electric typewriters, and emails replacing rining phones, the modern office is quieter than ever, and that seems to be the problem.  It is now easier than ever to be distracted by a conversation, evenone fifty or sixty feet away from your work station or desk. Being able to hear office conversations more easily has also had a chilling effect on having office conversations.  People know that everyone will hear every word.

Still, the advantages of an open office are many, with an increase in collaboration and idea sharing on the top of the list.

When Autodesk, a software company, moved into a an open-plan building in Massachusetts, three years ago, it installed what is known as a pink-noise system: a soft whooshing emitted over loudspeakers that sounds like a ventilation system but is specially formulated to match the frequencies of human voices.

Autodesk ran the system for three months without telling the employees — and then, to gauge its impact, turned it off one day.

“We were surprised at how many complaints we got,” said Charles Rechtsteiner, Autodesk’s facilities manager. “People weren’t sure what was different, but they knew something was wrong. When the system’s on, speech becomes unintelligible at a distance of about 20 feet.”

Others, like Anne-Laure Fayard  a professor of management at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University are studying the issue. According to Fayard, “Everyone is still experimenting with ways to balance the need for collaboration and the need for privacy.”

Sound proofing materials, and designing for privacy are a considerations taken into account by the office planners at Workspace Solutions.  Having a wide variety of office furniture options from the nations’ top providers, as Workspace does, helps as well.   Meantime, it’s nice to know that research continues into the creation of the perfect office.

How Cloud Computing will affect Office Furniture Design

The cloud is simply a digital file storage system you access through the internet rather than through your network.  Your documents and spread sheets are stored in buildings thousands of miles away from the office and are accessible to you, and other employees, no matter where you are.  So, if you don’t need company servers anymore, maybe it’s time to think about converting the server room to another conference room.  With wireless cloud technology, you can plop down on any computer anywhere in the office, or on the road for that matter, so why do you need your own cubicle?  Work more comfortabley from a large work table, or sit and collaborate with fellow employees and still easily work on or share documents from your laptop to theirs through the cloud.  You don’t need as many non-assigned desks as you do private workstations.  Half you staff may be on the road at any given time anyway, especially your sales staff.  This means using limited space in a more efficient manner, even reducing square footage and high rents with come with that.  This cloud may not bring rain, but it does bring new ways to designe and utilize work space, and Workspace Solutions designers all over it.

If you’re still a bit cloudy on what cloud computing is, here’s a video that can shed some light on the subject.