The office shouldn’t be a stressful and dull environment. You spend the greater part of your life in the workplace and it you shouldn’t be made to feel like you’re entering hell every morning. Every office should have some leisure space so that employees and employers alike can relax and recuperate. Studies show that a leisurely environment stimulates the mind and that it helps combat fatigue and stress.
Stuck for ideas? Here are five cool spaces you can incorporate in your office. Work hard, play hard – isn’t that the motto, after all?
A spacious lounge
The simplest of all the leisure spaces, the lounge allows you to sit back and take a break while watching some television or listening to music. Make sure that the design is fresh and modern, full of bright colours that help improve mood. Comfortable furniture is a must – don’t cheap out in this area. A refreshing lounge area is a good investment which will make you more money than the meagre savings you’ll get from buying bland and monotonous furniture.
A game room
Perhaps a billiard table, a ping pong table, air hockey and some video games? Don’t worry, your employees won’t be spending all their time here, but the knowledge that there’s a place to blow some steam is itself quite refreshing. It relieves stress, encourages a healthy interaction between colleagues and provides a little fun in an otherwise tedious or frustrating work day.
A garden
Again, you want your employees to be able to relax and get some time to meditate. A garden is as cliché a tool for relaxation as it gets, but there’s truth to every cliché. The natural scenery helps people unwind and just think. Meditation is good for the mind, and many epiphanies and solutions can be arrived at when your mind is not obsessively thinking about a problem.
A gym
A little on the eccentric side, a gym will keep your work crew healthy, energised and motivated. If a gym is out of the question, there’s an office in Hong Kong with a race track that goes through the office for people to run on. Exercise keeps people in high spirited, happy and most importantly, motivated. Studies show that those who exercise regularly are way more motivated than those who don’t, achieving better results in the work, social and family spheres.
A bar
If a gym isn’t eccentric enough for you, then this sure will be. Perhaps it’s not overly efficient, but a bar is definitely a cool leisure space for the office, not many would argue the opposite. What better way to unwind after a long day of work than at the company bar, throwing back a couple of beers and letting loose?
Remember that a well rested work crew is an efficient work crew. Don’t force your employees to work in monotonous, cramped cubicles without anything to distract them and help them relax. The thinking used to be that efficiency was driven by nothing but focus and hard work, but it’s now been discovered that with a little freedom and keeping your workforce happy, they’ll enjoy being at work rather than dreading, which means even greater productivity. Just look at Google and Microsoft. So the next time you’re looking at commercial property for sale for your office, make sure you purchase something that can accommodate leisure space.
Linda Campbell is a freelance writer who likes browsing commercial property for sale – she someday wants to have his own company…with a ping-pong table in the centre of the office.