What would a perfect office be like for you?

[wheresmymojo]

I'm taking part in a focus group at my employer next week about how to completely re-work our office space to give us what we would like and need in the post-COVID world.

We all work 2-3 days a week in the office.

Our employer is awesome so we'll be able to put forward pretty much anything we'd like (within reason, probably not a Prosecco fountain).

I want to make sure I represent some specific groups

• Physical disabilities (whether visible or invisible)

• Neurodiverse people (I have ADD but know less about what people with other neurodiversities might want)

• Parents / new(ish) mothers

What would make an awesome office environment for you?

What would be on your wish list?

Office or Hotel?

Blimey!!

If offices are like this these days, it's no wonder some people wanted to go back to the office!!

I can’t believe some of these suggestions, I wish I worked somewhere so nice! Our office is ok but this is another level 😮

Closed.

Lots of plants, windows that open, plenty of storage and space on desks, and if you have to hot desk working cables / docking station etc

A kitchen area that is easily cleaned and managed

My biggest issue aside from noisy colleagues was always the temperature on an open plan floor. Freezing from the air con in summer and then too warm in winter. My perfect office would have 3 zones, a warm zone, a middle zone and a cold zone. Then people can sit in their preferred temperature area rather than be miserable like I was. I really feel the cold and it makes typing so hard.

My work has a "pregnant and breastfeeding mother's room". It's great to have this facility on site. It's a lockable room situated in in quiet area of the building and has a comfy sofa so you can have lie down. When I was pregnant I suffered extreme fatigue, and would go and have an hour nap at lunchtime. It also has a a sink and a fridge, so that mothers who express milk have somewhere to store it and clean up

My big wise would be areas where the windows open. My entire career has been in sealed buildings designed in the 70s during the so-called energy crisis. I hate the stuffy feeling.

Every so often the complaints get so bad they bring in an air quality testing group who always say it's ok, but no one feels convinced.

And don't get me started on working in there when the system is down.

The one rule I would absolutely insist on is that if you are the one whose desk is in the direct firing line of the aircon unit, then you are in charge of setting the temperature. There are few things worse in summer than sitting in an icy blast when everyone else is in shirt sleeves and skimpy tops, saying how hot it is.

I really believe I have one of the best offices to work in. I would send a link but that would be terribly outing. Things that make it special:

Open plan but a library style room for quiet working and little pods for meetings, private space. They have an interactive tablet on the door so you can just walk by and type in your id number and time and then it's yours for that slot. They have video screens for meetings and comfy chairs.

Lots of kitchens/coffee points scattered around with sound protection so you can just say hey you fancy a coffee and go. Stocked with free fruit, yogurt, and healthy snacks, refilled daily, and fizzy and filtered water comes out of the taps.

Amazing reception staff who are just the loveliest people. They will organize your dry cleaning, accept your packages and take care of returns, super welcoming to everyone, and give you that feel good vibe when you walk into work the morning.

Sustainability initiatives like recycling, responsible stationery, green energy etc. and activities like clothes donations and collections for food parcels organized regularly

Breastfeeding room with all the amenities

Games room for time out

Once a week beers on the roof terrace provided by company as soon as it is warm enough - amazing views of city and a great place to hang out generally (and pre Covid a great place to take friends and relatives on a weekend to show them the view.

We have hot desks since Covid to keep the number of people in the office at the same time to a reasonable number. We have an online booking system which works well. The only annoying thing is the people using it who will e.g accidentally take an important cable home and then you arrive the next day and your station won't work. Still a lot of problems to iron out there.

The building has a few technical problems. If the elevator breaks you have 20 flights of stairs to walk up. But it's great if you have a step counter.

The heating and air conditioning is an eco friendly system which basically means it doesn't properly work. The idea behind it is great, but in winter you really have to dress for winter and in summer you dress for summer.

Another small annoying thing: every door needs to be swiped with a keycard and goes beep. Walking through what feels like 20 doors a day drives you mental. Beep beep beep beep beep. And god forbid you forget your card and get locked out an area you want to return to. We are not a lanyard kind of place. I got a card holder for my phone as I take it everywhere - would have been a nice touch if the office had provided them.

@ImFree2doasiwant

Where do you work OP?? Or at least, what do you do? As a local authority employee this sounds like something from the future!

Same here. I can't believe some of the things people have. In normal times we have an office that hasn't been redecorated/refurbished for decades, heating that doesn't work, instant coffee and a dishwasher we're not allowed to use, so you get everyone doing there own washing up, mostly under a running tap, so you get a queue of people waiting to wash up and ten times as much water is used as if we used the dishwasher. Nothing at all in terms of bike storage, showers, food and drink, etc etc.

My suggestion would be two dishwashers and sufficient communal crockery and cutlery to fill both of them.

People put their washing up in dishwasher 1 and whoever fills it up, or at a certain point in the day, it gets put on, then the second dishwasher then gets filled and again, gets switched on when full. By this time, DW1 should have finished so people can use the clean crockery out of there. Used at the right rate, no-one ever needs to empty a dishwasher, but you might need someone who's job it is to check and maybe do some emptying, so you don't get to a situation where they're both full and there's nowhere to put dirty pots.

This sounds like heaven! Any space for a burnt out junior dr? Working in hospitals you are lucky if you get a few minutes on a crappy computer with keys missing/so slow you can’t do your job or get to sit on a bin instead of standing up in a meeting because there are no seats!

Except for the crèche/doggy daycare, my office has everything that this thread talks about plus a music system playing soft music. It's an ace place to work. I work for a very very popular high street fast food brand.

My own desk (hot desking sucks, I am turning into the bag lady and rarely comfortable at a desk).
Decent coffee.
We have showers but no hairdryer and nowhere to plug one in in the ladies so I either spend the day with damp hair or have to dry it in the IT server room if I run or cycle in.
Somewhere to hang sports kit up to dry during the day. The guys who cycle into our office regularly also requested a wardrobe in the gents so they could leave clean shirts and toiletries etc.
Golf umbrellas to borrow for lunchtime walks (although they mysteriously vanish in our office).
Toaster and a microwave.
Somewhere to eat lunch that isn't your desk.
Mugs, glasses and cutlery provided (see bag lady comment!).
Outdoor seating space for lunch or even short meetings when the weather is nice.
An office dog!

An office with a door I can shut and where I can have my dog with me.

Maybe I should just stay home

oh, and a reasonable number of car parking spaces (depending on location). I have a Client who moved their office from 2 stops on the train out of a city centre to the back end of beyond to a lovely shiny new office that has a fraction of the number of parking spaces than it does desks and it is horrendous because it's practically impossible to get to by public transport.

Books
Pastries
Cupcakes

I'd like my own desk (not enough desks/computers to go round in my office) and a window. Simple pleasures eh?

You guys have amazing offices, I love the cafe/canteens, the kitchen tables, sports facilities and on-site creche.

Not sure why you'd need a room for new mums to breastfeed, surely they'd not be bringing infants to the office? But yes, a room to express with fridge and refreshments sounds amazing. I'd wonder what the demand for this would be though, statistically so few mums breastfeed beyond what period maternity leave lasts, perhaps it would be a good incentive for bf mums to continue after they return to work.

I like the idea of lockers rather than drawers so you have space to keep things at work not have to shlug deodorant, hair brush etc round in bag, if every for and drink are provided provide for all intolerances, I have some strange ones that often get lumped in with others and then not catered for. Places that can genuinely be quiet of you need to focus.

I'm loving all the ideas!

My contribution would be this: a separate microwave designated for heating/cookign fish products. I had to heat my tomato soup after someone had heated (for what smelt like an hour) fishy soup and I was not impressed (

No hot desking. If I have to come in to the office, I want my own desk.

If I really have to hot desk, a decent sized locker. But I really hate hot desking and have never met anyone who likes it.

Definitely no collaborative workspaces with high tables and stools. I have a bad back, I can't sit on those things but they seem to be everywhere these days.

Somewhere quiet and comfortable to eat my lunch where no-one else will come in and talk to me.

I have ADHD and really need the downtime at lunch. I only get 1/2 hour break where I am and now it’s too cold to walk down and sit in the park I have nowhere to eat. Everywhere is freezing and our ‘kitchen’ is miniscule with the world’s most uncomfortable chair wedged on one side. You never get any peace because people are in and out making tea and interrupting (and I do love my colleagues but I just need a break from all the noise - there’s enough of that all the time in my head!!)

So my one and only request would be a small quiet space to eat lunch. No-one has a desk to themselves apart from the boss but that would be amazing too.

It's cold here tonight so I've thought of another bugbear. Well lit, safe, gritted routes between the bus stop and the front door. Somehow bus passengers get forgotten while the powers that drive never forget to re-use the route from the car park.

@AndMatt

Proper temperature control that works for the whole floor, rather than hot on one side of the building and cold on the other.

I'm really not bothered about all the extras but d prefer not to have to go to work in summer clothes all winter and put a jumper on when you go indoors in summer

This ^^ The aircon where I work is ridiculous. What is wrong with just opening a window?