It seems like you are not alone!

According to new research, one in seven emails sent by the average emailer have been defined as gossip.

The study was collated from hundreds of thousands of emails from bankrupted American energy company Enron.It found that a typical employee was sending around 112 emails a day, and of those, 15% were written about other people.

The Georgia Institute of Technology revealed the gossiping emails were sent throughout the company, however those employees that were more towards the bottom end of the pay scale were more inclined to gossip . They also revealed that the gossip was also three more times likely to be negative rather than positive.

This study was backed by another recent piece of research by Mars Drinks Office Connections, with a survey of over 2,000 office workers.

They found that the average office worker spends 27 minutes and 27 seconds a day gossiping with colleagues., with HR professionals gossiping for even longer with a daily average of  29 minutes and 26 seconds. It’s HR professionals too that are more like to share a secret with co-workers; with 37.61% of HR professionals confiding in work colleagues compared with 33.6% of other workers.

Popular Topics….

When it comes to gossiping popular topics include: celebrity gossip, the weather, food, relationships and money and health issues; and the preferred method of communication for over half of those surveyed was face to face chats, with a quarter preferring emails and one in eight opting for the phone.

In light of this research, it’s pretty clear, that we pretty much all have been known to have a gossip in the office and I’m pretty sure that it’s going to stay a staple of office life, but bear  in mind that secret you have just shared with your colleague may not be staying secret for too much longer….

Image Credit: Daxco @Flickr

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1. Welcome to the Life In The Office blog

Like to Gossip in the Office?

A recent study from Kimberly Clark Professional, deemed one of the most comprehensive studies into germ hot-spots in the workplace has found that places where workers eat and prepare their lunch are the grimiest!

The study, named The Healthy Workplace Project, was carried out by hygienists at Kimberly Clark,  and involved collecting 5,000 swabs from offices with more than 3,000 employees; which included call centres, law firms, healthcare companies and manufacturers.

The Healthy Workplace Project was carried out in consultation with Dr. Charles Gerba, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Arizona, and found that the following office surfaces that were tested had high levels of contamination (300 ATP):

• 75 percent of break room sink tap handles
• 48 percent of microwave door handles
• 27 percent of keyboards
• 26 percent of refrigerator door handles
• 23 percent of water cooler buttons
• 21 percent of vending machine buttons

These high levels of contamination were measured by counts of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), which shows up in surfaces coated with organic residue, including mould cells.

Alongside these places of contamination, over 50% of all computer mice and desk phones were found with ATP Levels of over 100, indicating increased awareness of hand and surface hygiene is still required when it comes to office cleaning.

What to do?

The study clearly highlights that office workers are potentially being exposed to dangerous bacteria on a daily basis throughout the office. Whilst employees are aware about germs in places like the toilets, many are less conscious around communal areas like kitchens and lunch areas.

It goes without saying just how important it is to take on a good contract cleaning company, who will ensure that the workplace is disinfected and cleaned thoroughly daily, however responsibility must also be shared with the employers and employees.

If employers provide their workers with the knowledge and means of germ reduction, hygiene can be vastly improved.
Hand sanitisers and wipes should be made available, and an education of the basics of hygiene.

Richard Millard Platform Leader of  The Healthy Workplace Project at Kimberly Clark Professional said of the study “This study demonstrates that contamination is all over the workplace and has the potential to reach people where they eat and prepare food, as well as elsewhere..No one can avoid it entirely, but by washing, wiping and sanitizing, employees can reduce their rates of cold, flu and stomach illness by up to 80 per cent.”

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/umich-msis/

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Offices Rife With Bacteria

Google’s Head office in London’s Covent Garden has been given an amazing redesign by architect Penson Group. In true Google style they’ve really gone to town to create an environment that creative and tech types would love to work in.

EDIT: More photos here http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670431/google-s-quirky-new-london-hq-fit-for-mr-bean#6

Visual Fun

As the pictures below show, the designers have been given a free hand – creating unusual and differing rooms for the Googlers to work in. The theme according to Design Week, was to create ‘visual fun’.

The office even includes ‘hidden’ gardens balconies for relaxing in, probably with great views of London. I’m sure they’re hoping for a better summer in 2013 to get plenty of use out of these areas!

Other highlights include a room which seems to be styled like a green submarine, complete with soundproof submarine-style door. Looks like a great place for a confidential meeting or two.

Not just a pretty face

As you’d expect, this Google office isn’t just about fancy design and cool colours on the walls. The office has it’s own gym for staff to work out in before, during or after work. A dance studio has also been built which we can only assume will play host to dance classes, maybe some Zumba too? For the staff who use these two facilities or even the ones who bike and run to work, there’s a bright orange shower room to get clean in.

All these elements help Google to keep staff on site for longer, something they’ve had amazing success with in their US head office. Googlers typically work just as hard as they play!

Environmental considerations too

It’s not just the office inhabitants Google considers when building or redesigning on of its offices. In May 2011 Google announced it wouldn’t use any materials placed on its ‘red list’ – a selection of environmentally unfriendly materials including mercury, lead, PVCs, etc.

The office will be fully open in September 2012 when we can expect more photos to appear. Looking forward to it already

Image Credits: Design Week

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Google’s newly redesigned Covent Garden office to open in September

Look at your desk, what do you see? Paper? Lots of paper maybe? According to Reduce.org the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year!

Does your company have a ‘paperless office policy’ or maybe a ‘tidy desk policy’? Increasingly companies are moving to a paperless state, requiring staff to print as little as possible and shred/recycle documents once used for a meeting or report.

But can an office truly be ‘paperless’?

It’s a very big task, to remove all paper from an office would mean no printed reports, no work sheets, no records. All these things must be moved to a digital format. There’s plenty of companies that will help you with digitising your existing ‘offline’ documents. Here are just a few companies that provide these services if you’re looking to go down this route:

• http://www.archivems.co.uk/scanning.asp
• http://www.documanageguide.com/guide/digital-document-management-what-you-need-to-know
• http://www.digitaldocumentmanagement.co.uk/
• http://www.flickthru.co.uk/

What benefits can a paperless office bring?

There are many reasons a business might want to go paperless. The most obvious of these is to be environmentally friendly or ‘green’. Green credentials are being looked for by many companies when selecting another company to work with, just in the same way that they might check for ISO accreditations or corporate responsibility information.

You’ll also find that in the long run you’ll save money. Printing is expensive, paper and toner all add up not to mention the space you use to store all your printed documents – office space is expensive.

A better office environment is likely to be a result of a paperless office, once you’ve rid the office of clutter, papers on desks and box or filing cabinets then all that’s left is the desks, vending machines, plants and people. A far cleaner and nicer environment to work in.

The pitfalls of paperless

Technology will obviously play a big part in any paperless office and there’s bound to be initial costs with setting up and system like this. You don’t just need a scanner and someone willing to sit and scan every document you’ve ever printed. Remember that you need a proper document management system, these allow you to search through the text you’ve scanned in, not just look at a picture of each page.

People are bound to be a challenge. Turning an office of ‘regular printers’ into an office of people who’s first instinct is to email or save their document on a computer network is an ongoing task, and often something that needs regular monitoring and training.

System downtime or even system failures can lead to you losing all your documents. Another good reason getting a professional document management company in to look after your historical records is a great idea. They’ll know all about backups and even backups of the backups. The same goes for your day to day computer network and the files you store there. Your IT department or outsourced IT should be doing very regular backups to save you in case the worst happens. You don’t want to enter the office to find a flood or fire has destroyed all you historical data.

Paperless offices so far…

Whilst the idea of a paperless office has been around for many years (1975 was the first mention of it – an article in BusinessWeek magazine), there are very few completely paper-free office environments today.

Paper usage in offices since the year 2000 has decreased by just 1% per year according to the National Association of Paper Merchants, not very dramatic and possibly a measure of just how few offices achieve the holy grail of ‘paperless’.

Paperless office resources

• Inc.com have a ‘guide to going paperless‘
• The Type-A Way Blog has a ‘guide to the paperless office‘
• A guide to ‘how paperless offices work‘ by HowStuffWorks
• Microsoft have ‘6 tips for a paperless office‘
• The Guardian asks ‘will we ever achieve a paperless office?‘ 
  
• The BBC also question ‘is the paper office possible?‘

So to answer the question posed by this blog post, no – a paperless office isn’t realistic for most companies. A more sensible approach may be a ‘less paper office’ – something discussed by the GreenBiz blog here.

Let us know in the comments if your office is paper heaven or paper hell. Are you planning to go paperless or do you think there’s a limit to it and that you’ll always need a small amount of paper in any office?

Photo credits: Paper stack by Sean MacEntee (Flickr), Printer by Bru76 (Flickr)

Paperless Office Resources: Is a paperless office realistic?

The development company behind London’s now iconic Shard has said up to three companies are interested in becoming the first to take up office space in the enourmous tower.

Official opening

The official opening took place on 5th July and saw huge lasers shining out from the Shard itself. A very impressive sight to match a very impressive building.

It’s big in Europe

As the tallest building in Europe, the Shard has certianly had its fair share of attention, unfortunately not all of it’s been positive, with Londoners giving it a mixed reception.

The arguments against the Shard seem to focus around its size, dwarfing every other building in the surrounding area, and its ‘exclusive’ feel. Want to buy an apartment in the Shard? You’re looking at £30 – 50 million – not exactly achievable for the ‘common man’. However, the design – a huge thin pyramid – hasn’t been the focus of too many complaints.

Stunning office space

It’s clear that the offices will be taken by only the very largest multinationals, with such a prestigious building and central location I don’t blame them. Meanwhile coming to a meeting in one of the offices at the Shard must be a very exciting and maybe even daunting experience. We can only imagine how big the office cleaning bill must be, let alone the windows cleaning bill!

Let’s hope that the Shard offices continue to attract the brightest and best to London, with continued investment by Quatar it may not be the last huge tower block to spring up in the capital.

More information

If you’re interested in becoming a tenant in the Shard your first stop should be their Offices section on the website http://the-shard.com/offices/. Its single image shows just how impressive the reception area looks.

You can also view an interactive gallery of before and after shots of London here

Photo credit: Dave Catchpole (Flickr)

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London’s Shard to get first office tenant

The results of research has found that if you’re a woman who works more than 35 hours per week you’re more likely to put on weight than those who work less than 35 hours. The Centre for Health and Economics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia studied 9,276 woman during their research. The woman were all aged 45 – 50 and the study lasted two years.

How can working more make you gain weight?

The reseacrh suggests that the women who put on weight put the needs of the office before their dietary and nutritional needs, causing them to eat less healthy. Spending 35 hours at work leaves less time to cook healthy, home prepared meals – take aways and snacks on the go fit into a busier lifestyle more easily.

Working long hours can also have a negative effect on your sleep and sleep patterns and previous research has pointed to a lack of sleep as a trigger for weight gain. You’re also less likely to make time for our of work activities like exercise , and I’m sure we don’t need to explain how a lack of exercise effects your weight.

What if I work a lot more than 35 hours?

If you work over 49 hours per week the research also found you’re more likely to drink and smoke, not beneficial to your health or weight. Of this group as many as 65% were drinking to levels described as ‘risky’ and over a third (36%) participated in no form of exercise whatsoever.

Keeping a good work life balance isn’t always as easy as it seems, but this research highlights how important it can be when your weight and overall health are concerned.

Photo credit: Yoppy (Flickr)

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Working women more likely to put on weight

This might sound a little extreme, moving office just to change your culture but it’s a very serious recommendation. Offices are becoming more than just somewhere to house staff and equipment, they can play a key role in how your staff interact and even how productive they are.

Altering company culture

A recent meeting of key property personnel in Manchester (hosted by M.E.N Media) highlighted just how far some businesses have gone to alter company culture. The Co-operative group moved offices and found that within 3 months the whole culture within the office had changed. For them it was removing private offices for every employee, even the Chief Executive works in an open plan area.

Relocation trends

The meeting also discussed the current trend for relocating and the types of companies more likely to be involved in a move. The trend appears to be moving away from the technology and financial industries and towards healthcare and insurance.

The office relocations that change cultures are most commonly linked to a change in the way staff are seated – open plan is very popular and is often cited as one way to improve collaboration and team working. For ideas about how you can improve your office you can browse our huge office design post here.

Photo credit: Lars Plougmann (Flickr)

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Changing office culture by changing offices

Imagine that your boss informs you that you’ll no longer have your own cubicle, all private offices are to be removed and even your phone will be heading out the door.

That’s the scenario for staff at Microsoft’s Singapore office. A redesign by HBO+EMTB Group which sees the office branded as ‘Microsoft’s New World of Work’ is meant to increase productivity levels and  improve collaboration between teams.

What are the benefits of having  no cubicles or dividers?

In this case the office has been made fully open plan, they’ve gone one step further and have even removed assigned desks. You turn up for work and choose where you’d like to sit. Apparently these types of initiatives are meant to appeal to all ages and backgrounds, something that traditional ‘cubicle life’ does not. Microsoft have recognised that whilst the younger generation often have a lot to offer the technology sector, the older generations can bring a great deal of experience and knowledge.

But no phones, surely that can’t be  a good thing?

The traditional desk phone has been replaced by wireless headsets, each employee still has their direct phone number, but they don’t have to be at ‘their’ desk to answer calls. As a significant percent of the office staff works from home this means the barriers between home and work are broken down.

Laptops instead of desktops

You can see from pictures of the office that no desk has a desktop PC – all staff either use laptops or tablet devices – something i’m sure they’re able to source with ease, this is a Microsoft office after all. Having no desktop PC probably makes it easier to clean the office, there’s no clutter to move around desks, and so may also make it a more healthy environment to work in.

For more photos of the new office see the TechRepublic photo gallery

Main photo credit: Microsoft

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Would your office be better without cubicles?

According to a recent study, it’s mens!

The research conducted by scientists in America took samples from 90 offices in New York, San Francisco and Tucson, Arizona and found that men’s offices contain significantly higher numbers of bacteria than women’s.

They identified over 500 types of bacteria, most of which originated from human skin, noses, ears and “ intestinal cavities”, and found that office workspaces and surfaces used by men were consistently more contaminated that those used by women.

Researchers of the study wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science..”The differences between contamination levels in the offices of men and women may be explained by differences in hygiene. Men are known to wash their hands and brush their teeth less frequently than women, and are commonly perceived to have a more slovenly nature”

The study recognised that body size, could however be a contributing factor in the discrepancy between male and female cleanliness in the office.

“Since men are, on average, larger than women, they have a correspondingly greater skin surface area, as well as nasal and oral cavities and, therefore, a proportionally greater surface area for bacterial colonisation,” the researchers pointed out. “Thus, in addition to being less hygienic, it is possible that men may also shed more bacteria into their surrounding environment.”

Whilst this may make uncomfortable reading for many, gaining a greater understanding of the habits and the behaviour of colleagues is important and highlights the imperative nature of good office cleaning, especially as we spend an ever increasing duration of time at work.

Image Credits: mecookie@ Flickr

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If you work in a office, you will be no stranger to making small talk with colleagues be it in the queue at the vending machines or the annual Christmas party.

However, chatting with colleagues can be difficult as you may not have much in common with them apart from sharing the same office space, yet it is expected of you to get on with your colleagues, and getting on with them certainly makes office life easier.

So we have come up with some tips to help you get there..

How to do it…

Ask Questions
Ask your colleagues questions, it’s a well known fact that people love talking about themselves. Ask them about what they do outside of work, about their family, partner etc, and follow up with questions, proving that you have listened and are interested in what they have to say.

TV, Films & Books
Find out if you share similar interests in books or movies, or make conversation by asking your colleague if they watched a particular programme on TV last night and see what they thought of it.

Keep on Top of Current Affairs
If you keep on top  of current affairs, you will always have a readymade source of conversation topics, just make sure you stay clear of topics that may incite strong differences of opinion and possible conflicts, i.e. religion and politics.

Compliment
Sincere compliments are always well received, so make a point of commenting on your colleague that has just had their haircut, or equally be vocal in your praise if you feel they carried out a task well. Positive feedback is important to lots of people, and will help boost your colleagues confidence and help build a good rapport between the two of you!

How Not to Do it….

Talking Money
Money is a classic stay clear issue and is the source of many uncomfortable arguments and discussions! Many people understand discussing salaries, bonuses etc are a no go, but sometimes you can be caught off guard and before you know it you are a facing a series of questions from your colleague about just why you received that bonus and they didn’t..

Constant Children Chat
Everyone with kids in the office has their fair share of stories regarding their children, and this can be a good way to bond. Be careful however, that you don’t overdo this and subject your colleagues to a daily stream of stories of family life, this can become too much and can be particularly alienating for those colleagues without children

Religion and Politics Chat
As mentioned above, steer clear of topics such as religion or politics which can incite passionate debates and strong differences of opinion, which can easily create arguments, a big no no in the office.

Relationship Problems
Although it can be tempting to chat about the argument you had with your partner on the way to work, try your best not to bring it to work. If you are angry or frustrated, you may end up bringing up more personal issues than intended, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. Equally, you can make it uncomfortable for your colleagues, who may not know the best way to handle your conversation.

Making Office Small Talk