Corporate culture. Personal space

Personal space

Over the years I’ve visited the offices of dozens of clients, suppliers and competitors. It should be said that in ten years little has changed – people work as before in a right-angled space of straight lines and corners with a window to the middle. The back of the chair could also be part of these fixed contours, as well as the bends in the toilet bowl and the sink in the washroom... With the appearance of A-Class and higher business centres there is more light in these boxes and something resembling space, although I find it hard to imagine spending a happy 8-9 hours of one’s life a day in this enclosed space. I have the impression that this a miraculous relic from some sort of terrible past which should after all suddenly pass away. If you get tired at your place of work then it means it’s just not for you, and it makes sense to look for something new. No, I don’t necessarily mean another place of work, but somewhere you’ll be comfortable. I am convinced that the understanding of ‘comfort’ only appeared because people began to confine themselves for space. For example when I manage to work for a long time outside the office I don’t remember this as an issue. What’s even more important is that comfort should be reached beforehand inside a person, this is the inherent acquisition of interest, motivation and efficiency. Everyone has enormous latent potential, which they can’t even guess at, but can be extracted simply by creating a comfortable place to work. I really admire the attitude of some company leaders (who can be counted on one hand) who create ‘chill-out’ areas, play-rooms and work-zones in their offices and organise office space in such a way that employees can find a place where it’s pleasant to spend more than an hour at a time working on any project.

Why does this matter? 

The world around us is a dynamic, changing structure that is evolving all the time. There are lots of simple and smooth things in nature. In order to develop a person needs dynamism, a change of scene, good impressions, which are expressed in the simplest of things beginning with what’s around them. Try and lock yourself in for a day in an empty square two by two metres room sitting on your office chair, and then try and do the same in the open air where you can sit, lie down, play football for an hour or go on a bike ride – you’ll notice the difference. The efficiency of your work and number of tasks completed will be different. I described two extremes. It’s completely unnecessary to drive people outside for them to work better. It’s enough to create a simple and comfortable work area where they can work, communicate and move. This is far more inspiring than any motivation and developmental training held in stuffy, square meeting rooms.

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