Think there are no new desk ideas out there? Think again. That one you’re leaning on right now is at the centre of an office revolution.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
The employees of real estate firm MIRVAC are about to move into their brand new swanky offices in George Street, Sydney, where they will find they have no desks. Well, that’s not quite accurate; they won’t have any dedicated desks. Coming into work each day, they will be presented with a choice of sitting or standing desks, shared tables or cafe-style counters on which to rest their laptop.
MIRVAC staff are far from unique in having to get their head round the fact that their work space is now a fluid thing. The walls are coming down and partitions with pin boards on which to post that picture of your crazy cat or derpy dog are now communal – and some days you might be staring at a photo of your coworker’s toddler instead.
Beyond the personalisation of your work area, something more big-picture is going on in the desk ideas space. Wellbeing is moving higher up the agenda for employers who are taking to heart what employees and people analytics say. What the data shows is that building environments that mimic leisure and home spaces are effective in making staff feel happier about being at work in the first place.
But some companies are pioneering some really radical desk ideas to ensure their employees stay well and achieve an optimum work-life balance. Take the Dutch advertising company Bright Green, which was recently featured on a BBC Radio 4 program. Instead of your standard four-legged desk, big wooden table tops are suspended on thin metal chords. But what really makes them different is that on the dot at 6pm each day, they retract upwards into a ceiling cavity. Let’s just hope no one absent-mindedly leaves their house keys on their desk.
The blurring of distinctions between personal and professional life is another feature of how employers are making employees feel more ‘at home’. Nowhere is this more visible than in the ‘nap desk’ – a desk with a built-in sleep pod for those mid-afternoon power naps. It’s an invention from Greek design firm NL Studios. Constructed in wood, metal and white leather, the slide out top and removable side panels allow easy conversion from desk to bed and back again.
But for when you need to keep yourself awake, a better solution might be to follow in the footsteps (quite literally) of two inventive artists, Robb Godshaw and Will Doenlen, who build themselves a human-sized hamster wheel desk. Made out of plywood, two-by-fours and skateboard wheels, they put it together in 24 hours and fitted a standing desk inside it. The video of them pacing it while working at a computer screen is doing the rounds on YouTube as we speak.
If you’re feeling crafty and fancy making your own version, the guys have made the design available to the public on their website.
Are you still sitting comfortably? Share your desk ideas below!
Whilst I’m a advocate of innovation and good workplace design, I recall that the type of workplace that might think the “hamster” appropriate was one that saw slaves, then indentured workers / serfs and even young children working the treadmill, not to forget our early convict forebears.
No prudent employer (or their insurer) could possibly endorse use of such a contraception no matter how the simple minded might think it solves the work / exercise conundrum. It represents a direct attack on working men and women, designed to make them but the puppets of the economy, not masters of it.
Whether contraception or contraption it’s still nasty and wrong.
Amanda Woodard, Editor HRM
I have some sympathy with this view. While the “wheel of oppression” was part of a lighthearted piece about workplace trends in office equipment, it’s worth pointing out – as you do – that child labour was a fact of life of our recent past in the West, and still exists in large pockets around the world.
Open plan offices or factories were designed so that the workers (underlings) could be observed and scrutinised by the overseer or foreman and not have the opportunity to slack off and cost the owners their big profits. It has been shown to be unpopular, generally unproductive and creates disharmony. It is a sign that management distrusts their staff and sees them as generally dishonest and lazy. It is cheap to supply and so is popular with management. It is also not healthy because it creates atmospheres for groups to share their illnesses both bacterial, germicidal and psychological.