Following our post on office privacy, we’ve received a few emails saying that we missed one of the most important new requirements for the office that “has it all” – the sick bay!

Suffice it to say there is an obvious use for a designated room for unwell staff to retire to in order to take a moment, swallow a tablet and have a rest before returning to work.

Less predictable uses included:

• TV room for watching Countdown, and compulsive daytime sporting events such as a  Murray semi final at Wimbledon.
• A place for pregnant women to lie down for 45 minutes in order to recharge their batteries.
• A place for working parents to recouperate for half an hour, having been kept up the previous night by their troubled offspring.
• Other popular uses included lunch time pilates, relaxation courses, head massages, pedicures and lifestyle counciling.

At FindaLondonOffice, we have a small sick bay, which at present is being used to accommodate a colleagues minature Cocker Spaniel! Our colleague could not bear putting Fifie into kennels whilst he is on a family holidays in the South of France.

Is your monitor harming your health?

Chances are, anyone occupying London office space uses computers in most, if not all areas of productivity. We feel that there is an information deficit in the way that many choose to address this. Ergonomic considerations should be made when considering IT infrastructure and the way your office is fitted out.

You’ve probably come across some guidelines but many of them are full of jargon:

VDU, VDT, DSE or Monitor?
Actually, all of these things are exactly the same, the screen that sits on your desk.

People blame all manner of health problems on their monitors, such as short sightedness and eyestrain. The reality is that monitors do not affect your level of vision in terms of short or long sightedness. With the demise of CRT (Cathode Ray Tube – those old boxy things) monitors, eyestrain has been near eliminated, LCD (TFT or flatscreen) panels are a lot more friendly on the eyes. This is because on the old style monitors, the picture was constantly changing, even if nothing was changing on screen. With LCD monitors, the image is static until something changes. This means your eyes have to do a lot less work to keep up.

Real problems of computer use
The real issues with computer use mostly lie in terms of aches, pain and disorders such as repetitive strain injury. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, good ergonomics in the workplace are absolutely vital in terms of productivity, motivation, and even from a legal perspective.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no legal limit on how long you can work with a monitor, but you and your employees or colleagues do need to take regular breaks. This does not mean take time to stay seated, get your secretary to bring you a tea and check your Facebook. It means resurfacing for air, at the very least walking around to restart your circulation!

What you need to do

• Analyse your workstations, including all equipment and units.
• Work out system that makes breaks more realistic, use software to remind staff to move every so often if you have to!
• Communicate with your staff to work out any individual needs, particularly medical issues such as epilepsy or RSI sufferers.

Confined office space is a demotivator for staff AND clients

We have talked about making the most of your office space, especially how office space design is a significant influence over productivity. It is easy to see the conflict of interest that this entails.

Crammed Office

The sardine effect

Businesses are squashing more workers into tighter spaces due to the pressure to cut costs. There is a growing feeling of unhappiness among employees who feel they are not getting sufficient personal space. If you are wondering what the situation regarding crowding is in London, please hop on the tube during rush hour! I have full confidence that you will have a new, more sardine like perspective.

Remember this when you are looking for an office, it is important to maximise the use of your space, but also keep in mind that turning your office into a battery farming experiment is a bad idea!

Over the last few years, the amount of office space available per employee has fallen by over a third. Planners now consider every square foot of office space right down to the size of the toilet! Your budget allowing, you should consider leaving some headroom, it is especially useful for if you plan to expand in terms of staff number as well as giving your current employees more space.

Telecommuting
If your business fits into the category of one that uses hot desking and flexibility through telecommuting, it might be somewhat more acceptable to employee tactics suck as reducing space between desks, dropping partitions and cutting storage.

Implications
One only has to look at the animal kingdom to see the effects of overcrowding, it is natural to get bad tempered and defensive in a confined space. In an open plan environment, a lack of room can make people feel threatened due to a lack of privacy. This even foster an unhealthy feeling of competition amongst workers through being always on display. Ultimately, it could go as far as causing absenteeism and staff turnover levels to soar.

The bottom line
The biggest cost in business is going to be your staff, so why waste that money by demotivating them with an awful work environment?

My previous post suggested companies looking for new office space can make substantial savings if they are lucky or shrewd enough to find an office that has already been designed and fitted out. I receieved quite the response on this subject and the majority were similar enquiries:

• How much can I actually save by doing this?
• Open plan may be preferable anyway if the saving is not significant.
• What is the cost of decking out each individual work station?

Well, without wishing to glibly answer how long is a piece of string? I have come across a  canny office design and fit out contractor called PPC, who have made a name for themselves advising tenants  how to adapt new office space all over Central London to meet their requirements. As they are always completing a variety of projects, they are able to give good cost comparisons.

I mentioned my previous blog post to them and they have kindly agreed to give indicative cost estimates free of charge to FindaLondonOffice Blog readers. Mention FindaLondonOffice to them to receieve your free estimate. You can find them at http://www.ppcllp.com/.

You may recall the post on why choosing the right style of office is important. It touched on a frequently overlooked fundamental; ergonomics. Although the design of your office has a bearing on productivity, perhaps one of the most important aspects is ergonmics. Back problems are responsible for a large amount of work abscence and even as you are reading this now, there is a good chance your ergonomics could do with improvement.

We have put together a quick FindaLondonOffice guide to better ergonomics:

You don’t need to break the bank to improve your office space ergonomics, in any case, you can usually improve for free.

Computer Monitors

Place monitors a good distance away from seating, ideally, staff should keep their monitors at a minimum distance of 22 inches from their eyes.

Tilt monitors slightly up from the bottom. The top of the monitor should be further away from your eyes than the bottom as this will reduce both eye strain and neck discomfort.

Consider switching to LCD (flat panel) monitors if you happen to still have any old CRT ones in use. CRT monitors refresh their image constantly, a slow refresh rate can cause eye strain and headaches. If you absolutely must use CRT monitors, set the refresh rate as high as possible, 75Hz or higher is ideal. In any case, ensure that the resolution, brightness and contrast settings are optimised so that the picture is sharp and sufficiently bright.

Lighting

It is important to get sufficient levels of lightning. A well designed office space incorporates suitable lighting through use of ambient and natural light. This has been proven to boost brainpower in comparison to artificial sources of light.

For spaces with a plethora of workstations, softer background lighting is ideal to reduce glare.

Stationary and Utilities

Arranging tools so they are easily accessible sounds simple enough, however, moving a printer can be enough to save several hours over the course of a few months. Consider the location of all your tools.

Foot position

Use a footrests or even small boxes. Feet should be firmly planted on the floor and knees should be slightly higher than chair seats.

90% of Microsoft employees said their office space design had a direct bearing on their productivity.