What makes your Office a nice place to work?

[Kbear]

I've been challenged with making our office a nice place to be, I've ordered fruit delivery and a water cooler, interesting teas and a new coffee machine but is there anything else your office does for staff, little treats etc that make it a bit nicer for those who are back in? Thanks for any ideas

Deodorant, dry shampoo and tampons etc in bathrooms :)

Surely deodorant is a product just for one person to use rather than to leave hanging around a communal area?
I used to work somewhere that had bread, butter and plenty of milk for cereals plus they ordered our choice of sandwiches in.

Dogs in the office! An office full of pooches is calming and taking them out for a walk or having a 'walking meeting' with them clears your head

But I appreciate it's not for everyone 😊

I had a job years ago that still had a tea lady. She came with a trolley morning and afternoon, made teas and coffees and handed out biscuits and crackers.
I loved it.

Natural light and a good culture are the best things. Also everyone having double screens

im quite lucky I work in a small office within a large medical centre so there’s only 5 of us. We keep the office nice and this will sound mad but we have uplighter lamps instead of using the horrendous bright overhead lights. It is actually so much nicer. Staff always comment that our office is cosy and relaxing

I bring my dog to work and there are lots of other office dogs - but I work in the agricultural sector so no-one bats an eyelid!

A one minute walk from home?

Otherwise:

Free coffee
A/C

I'd hate a double screen! But yeah good culture can't be bought with free stuff!!

A proper break space. Not on some godawful industrial park with no facilities.

I run an office building and some things I include are:
Sanitary products, deodorant and dry shampoo in the toilets
-A range of tea and coffees
-Seasonal treats (eg over summer it's a range of ice lollies and frozen coffees, at Easter we do a battle of the Hot Cross Bun where I buy a range of different flavours, at Christmas I get some coffee syrups and mince pies, pancakes on pancake day etc)
-Out door workspaces in the warmer months
-Loads of plants
-a quite space. It's only small but it's a space where no one is allowed on calls or video calls, no chatting etc. It's literally about 4 desks that are separate from everyone else and we have sound cancelling headphones for users
-Phonebooths. Just like the public street phones but swanky. It's soundproof for private person/work calls, can hold one person standing and has a small shelf thing for a laptop/notebook
-Proper breakout spaces/kitchen spaces. Somewhere with seating where you can chat, cook, eat etc without others complaining about the smell/sound of eating.

Agree with this. Fruit deliveries and beanbags are just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic if the corporate culture is bad.

A team of colleagues who get on , we have a great laugh aswell as clearing our work . We also have a lovely manager who delivers posh coffee and cake on a regular basis .
We also have the usual water machine etc .
We aren't micro managed either which is too stressful.

Small rooms rather than one huge office space with 50 desks in it.

An allocated desk (or at least an allocated set of desks for each team, so we end up sitting together).

Space to sit at lunchtime, especially somewhere that I can relax with a book, a game or knitting - most places just seem to have a stand-up kitchen and you take the food back to your desk.

But yes, a good culture in the office is probably most important.

It's a sign of a good office that they want to do this.
But surely you should be asking your staff for suggestions!

Great colleagues and company culture. Kitchen where we can all sit and have lunch together. Each have our own desk, no hot desking. Good aircon, free tea and coffee and can ask for eg oat milk as well as cow's milk. That's enough really, it's a great place to work. If you haven't got the great culture then no amount of free tampons and fruit will make up for it.

Everywhere very clean

good quality, practical furniture

good combination of desk/breakout/meeting space

free tea and coffee

enough/motivated cleaning staff who don’t mind loading and unloading the dishwasher

no gimmicky anything

lovely colleagues who smile and say hello, and get on with their work. Supportive, highly skilled managers.

We have tea, coffee and biscuits - kind of assumed that was usual (apart from when I worked in schools).

My workplace is amazing, but that's because of my colleagues. Really friendly, kind interesting people. Very very low staff turnover.

All of the above plus nice plants.

• Lovely friendly people (all bar some of the dept I work in or perhaps I perceive them differently)
• If you can praise for good work, what someone brings to the team. (I kind of miss this but it was the only thing in one business when all we had was a toilet and horrid looking sink as facilities)
• Current company when on site provide both breakfast and lunch options, no kidding, from bacon baps, croissants to salad boxes, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and wraps - plus coffee machine, unlimited cans of pop, there's also a cereal bar, biscuits, squash provided.
• Treated equally as best as can in the workplace. People who live localish get the rough end of the stick and people across other parts of the UK because of the new ways of working get to travel on works time, and generally there is a lot of friends and family connected to people in important positions which makes it quite awkward. Never been so effected by nepotism until now, even working for small business never prepared me for this.
• Nicely decorated, prideful building. Staff area kitted out with breakout facilities and games room. Air-con. Pretty much a palace.
• Birthday day off.
• Over the standard holiday allowance.
• A high salary. (But to the point I think where is this payrise and bonus coming from, where is the catch)

I'm allergic to dogs so would hate this!

I don't understand why people working in an office would need deodorant and dry shampoo?

A decent manager, silent colleagues and air con. Definitely no forced socialising.

If you go for a brisk walk at lunchtime or have a walking meeting, it's nice to spray a bit of deodorant after your walk! Especially for those in a warm climate.

Clean, Natural light, Big desks and space, Good ergonomic chairs, Noise reduction - noise absorbing flooring/ceiling, accoustic panels, Ventilation, Well chilled drinking water, Large good quality monitors, preferrably two., Dont insist on video on for zoom calls, Lockers if hot desking is needed.

Breakfast break away from desk / canteen serving cooked breakfast / toast / cereals with subsidised prices. Lunch - canteen with good selection of fresh made sandwiches, toasties, salad bar, soups - subsidised.

Flexible working where possible - including encouraging taking full TOIL days. 1/2 day Fridays (or 9 day week)

You sound like a fab office manager!!

.