What's your office like?

[Andyrourkerip]

Just general curiosity really. Is it open plan, how big is it, do you hot desk, what sort of perks (if any) do you have?
Ours is a huge open plan office, couple of hundred people , spread out in a large square over one floor. Don't think there's ever free food or anything.
Hot desk, several kitchens where you can make tea or coffee/eat, no canteen or anything, but there's a café downstairs.

NHS, its shit. 4 of us. We have a fridge, microwave and kettle and eat at our desks. Freezing in winter, boiling in summer.

Open plan, no one has an office except the CEO and even she shares it with her PA.

We have lot of break out spaces, meeting rooms and private pods for taking calls.

Each floor has a kitchen with fridges, a dishwasher, one of those hot/cold taps, a coffee machine that is free and a variety of free tea bags. We also get free milk.

There is a subsidised canteen with seating areas that does breakfast, lunch, sandwiches, hot drinks and snacks. We also have microwaves there so you can go down and heat your own food.

We have cycle storage and showers in the basement.

We have integrated wifi so your laptop and phone can connect to wherever you are in the building.

My office is as nice as an office can be without working in tech and everyone sitting on bean bags eating soya yoghurt

I used to work for a law firm that would include everything - breakfast included, whole fridge of soft drinks and treats, you could get your dry cleaning / ironing done, they had a “relaxation” room. In reality, they just make it really easy to get your life admin done from there so you never need to leave and can work longer hours.

Ha! I used to work in Canary Wharf and there was an actual dry cleaning pick up and delivery in our office. For similar reasons I suspect.

It's alright.

Open plan with maybe 40/50 desks, but less than half are ever occupied. No music, which I hate.

But then, I used to work in the worlds most beautiful office, and it was the most unpleasant place to work, so I really should appreciate the boring office a little more than I do.

One big room with one big table and a small cupboard/office for when you need some privacy. There are only 9 of us and we're not all in the office every day. The main perk is coffee. Lots of different really great coffees (this is related to what we do though!)

It’s ok. 4 of us share an office in an oldish building (1950s). Like a previous poster’s office, it’s freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer! We each have our own desk. Kitchen just a few steps down the corridor with fridge, microwave and kettle. Free tea and coffee. Big boss occasionally pops to Greggs for bacon rolls for us all but no free food other than that (unless Julie has been baking!).

Mine is open plan and you have teams of people who do very noisy jobs (coming and going, lots of phones, instructions being shouted but lots of down time when not busy) sat right next to teams of people doing stuff that needs total concentration. It’s like a giant greenhouse and the air con is knackered, so it feels tropical in the summer and by winter, you wouldn’t be surprised to bump into a polar bear in the kitchen. I say kitchen, but it’s actually just a few cupboards with a water machine and an empty vending machine that the company hasn’t collected yet, a broken microwave that they won’t replace and a fridge that is full of forgotten science experiments.

Government - nothing for free - building crumbling around us, no facilities near by and parking horrendous . Our team ( about 13 of us) shares one office. But, best job I’ve ever had as work is challenging, colleagues and work culture is vibrant and motivated and managers supportive ( worked in nicer buildings with better facilities but bad management made it horrendous place to work)

Good to hear the replies! Ours is freezing too ATM, I wear a woolly jumper every day. We have Flexi hours so many people leave at 3, I prefer working from 3-5 as much quieter.

I would absolutely hate working in an office that played music all day. Or even worse, commercial radio <shudder>

Government building in amazing location with great view. Really expensive parking because of said location. Hot desk with about 3-4 others, we all want the window desks. One single toilet on our corridor shared with 20 people of both sexes. Tiny kitchen. No air conditioning which I don't mind. But very noisy if you open windows due to location... Freezing in winter, we've got portable heaters. Terrible mobile signal and very limited wifi.

Looks like an amazing building to work in, the reality is quite different.

Mine is like yours.

Oh definitely no radio @ShirleyPhallus

At its best we had a shared office Spotify playlist- we all had similar tastes though.

I struggle with silence. And I don't love sitting with my AirPods in either. There's something communal about music.

Ours is exactly the same, in a school. Really grotty, hot in summer, freezing in winter. It's tiny, we're crammed in.

Ours is big, but laid out in a square with the lifts in the middle and desks round the outside. So lots of corners and nooks and crannies, hard to mix with people you don't work directly with as it's a bit "HR sit here, Comms sit here..." If you want to start rumours about yourself just sit in a different section for the day!

We have lots of well appointed kitchens and tea points, and a canteen. Lots of nice toilets. Superb aircon. No food/refreshments provided at all.

People come round and clean frequently and water the plants.

We don't have any appointed quiet spaces and there aren't enough meeting rooms, even though we hybrid work and the office is never more than 20-40% occupied on any one day. Only the ceo has their own office but doesn't use it (but of course we can't use it!)

Overall it's a really nice office.

I work in a recently refurbished office in the city with desks, group tables and pods for private calls. It's nice. Free tea/coffee/milk and occasional platters left over from external meetings.

The main annoyance is consultants who come to sit in our area with no volume control or ability to turn off their ridiculously loud laptop notifications.

Having someone else's music playing in an open plan office sounds like hell on earth

We have around 12 toilets for what feels like 150+ women. They're nice, but by the end of the day they're quite grotty, it's like grown adults don't know how to flush the chain. Cleaners come at 5 ish by which time I've finished.

I have now own office.

It’s big - large desk, a couple of cabinets, a meeting table and chairs - but I’m in education, so it’s not fancy. My office also opens out on to the busiest corridor in the building, so it’s not quiet or private.

I like it, though. I like working alone, but also being able to be nosey and feel part of things.

I also have recently refurbished, usually clean staff ladies loos and a nice kitchen with all mod cons right next door. I’ve worked in some shitholes before, and clean toilets and a decent kitchen make all the difference!

I work in a 1980s building which is past it's best though at least we don't have any RAAC! The lifts are now permanently broken and water comes through the ceiling after heavy rain. We have 3 banks of 4 desks plus 2 private offices (one for our Director, one empty) and a meeting room. We have a kitchen which is shared between all the departments on our floor.

It's an educational setting on a large campus. There are lots of other buildings and we have 2 coffee shops plus a student run restaurant.

Our office is brand new, all built seemingly with mental health as a priority; lots of space, natural light, break out areas. In fact, it's a little over engineered. We could do with less break out areas and more workstations!

Also, because it's so vast, it feels lonely. Hot desking is compulsory. You're not physically close to the next person, so group chats don't really work. I can't see how that's good for mental health.

Personally I prefer how it was 25 years ago. Desks tightly packed, paper piled high, the phones going, the fax machine beeping, the smell of pubs and filter coffee. You know just that office buzz from working in the City. And someone would crack a joke and 3 banks of desks would join in with the banter. You don't get any of that now. No wonder people are depressed.

Open plan. Old building (government). Had worse but also had a lot better. Heating is hot or cold, no in between. No radio thank god. One woman screams and whoops all day. Dodgy but diverse part of town with shopping very handy. They eat at the desks even though there is a kitchen, and smells linger. One women's toilet cubicle between about 15 women so there's always someone in it. The cleaner is probably clinically insane. A random locked room where the key is missing.

Our company relocated to a city centre location just after covid and the offices, while top of the range functionally - plug and play monitors/mice/keyboards/sit+stand desks they have no warmth or character. Free tea/coffee/luke warm water through a water filter.

Because they have moved to the city centre there is no parking so no one wants to go in as commuting is more expensive and takes much much longer than before (from 30 to now 90mins for me) impacting things like school pick up and drop offs. The new location was setup for hybrid working so there isn't enough seats for full capacity anyway, but Tue-Thu you need to book weeks ahead for a meeting room. Largest meeting room is 10 people which is ridiculously small for workshops.

The desks are supposed to be "active" hotdesking. You come in, stick all your belongings in one of the lockers (that you need to clear every night) and then move about - so if you go to a meeting you are supposed to take everything with you and leave the desk free for someone else to use. Stupid idea, and frustrating readjusting monitor height, chairs, etc all day long. Sometimes you end up stuck in the middle of a team who have all come in for the day together, sit together and it just feels awkward as they all chit chat catching up as they don't see each other daily.

There are lots of open booths (like a fast food diner) that noone uses. And closed booths for private zoom calls with no windows that feel like an isolation cell.

No subsidised canteen anymore so you either need to bring your lunch/snacks in with you on the bus (along with everything else you need as you can't store anything at the office) or eat out and it is expensive (on top of expensive commute).

The old office was falling to pieces and in need of a good refurb but much more accommodating with parking, subsidised canteen and teams sitting together in their own areas.

Open plan ish, 8 desks in our area with about 20 at the other end of the room for a different team. Lots of other teams in different space in the building.

Team of 15, full time office workers have assigned desks, hybrid workers hot desk. Free tea, coffee and snacks. Vending machines in the break room. Food van comes at lunch. Often have pizza days.

Air con and heating are usually reasonable depending on who is in, there are one or two who like it absolutely Baltic or subtropical, and those people tend to viciously commandeer the thermostat so the rest of us just have to suffer their insanity.

6 of us. No window. We share a fridge with the ward staff. Do have a staff room to use with about 25 other staff. We have to buy our own tea, Coffee and milk. Even have to provide your own mugs. No free food unless a grateful patient brings some biscuits it.Toilets are dotted around but are often broke and need a good clean (nhs hospital)