Recently, two of my colleagues pulled off a surprise baby shower for me, all while sitting in an open office environment. Needless to say, I was completely surprised! As you can probably imagine, a lot of work goes into planning a surprise party. Granted, some of it can be done through good ole’ e-mail communication, but at some point, all that scheming has to occur somewhere beyond that.  

So, how did two people that sit immediately to my left and right, without any walls or workstation panels separating us, pull this off?  This can’t be easy in any work environment, but somehow they were able to keep it a secret. So, does this mean it’s possible to have private conversations and work on top secret information in an open office environment without your surrounding colleagues hearing or seeing your work? Well, it definitely seemed to work in this situation.  
As my colleague Jodi Williams and I continue to embark on a journey to debunk open office myths, here we present you with busted myth #1: You can’t have private conversations or work on confidential information while sitting in an open office work environment.
 
Now, I know some of you out there may still find this to be a challenging issue, especially if you are sitting in an open office and shouldn’t be because of the nature of your work OR because you don’t have access to private spaces, etc. We heard you…we’ve been reading all of your comments and blogs on the internet [...]

I really appreciate simple charts, graphs, information in general. This Fast Company Infographic is equal parts: accurate / straightforward / funny. It boils down worker personalities into three categories based on how much you work and how much you talk. Created by designer Joey Roth, the poster doesn’t aim to analyze the information but rather act as a jumping off point for further conversation.

Simple infographics like this are a great reminder that your organization is full of a diverse group of individual work styles that often perform better in different settings. But still as Designers we continue to see offices being designed with one, maybe two varieties of workstation specifications. With workers coming in every shape, size and style it’s crazy to think we’re sometimes delivering such limited solutions. Granted, you can find TONS of styles and configurations for the numerous workstations on the market, and there are always those forward thinking/early-adapter clients but when it comes down to it, Designers (and clients) tend to play it safe and hassle-free, because the work it takes to specifcy (Designer) and then maintain (Client/Facilities) multiple varieties of workstations for a single project would be a logistical headache.
I’ve seen a good deal of new workplace furniture trends that are moving in the right direction to support various work personalities, but it also takes the Designer and Client buy-in to actually get these solutions implemented. We joke about things like Dilbertville and yes, we’ve convinced clients to take down high furniture panels, but some clients are hesitant and we end up seeing most people sitting in [...]

As we’ve been working on this blog, we keep seeing the same few search terms come up: workplace trends, workplace 2010, innovations in workplace, etc.  To help answer some of these questions, we thought we would reach out to some of our colleagues, clients and friends and ask them about some of their workplace experiences.  Today is the first post in that series, and features HOK Washington, DC’s own Amy Fabry. 
What is your current role?  I am a Senior Interior Designer in the Washington, DC studio.
What would you say are current “trends” when it comes to the workplace?  Cram as many people in as possible. 
Seriously, many of our corporate clients recognize that there is a large portion of their employees that do not need a dedicated desk or private office, so they are moving towards a shared open office environment where workstations are not assigned to any person in particular.  While this “trend” has been around for a while, we are seeing our clients getting more daring with their sharing ratios and providing more “private” areas in return.  These private areas are generally small, unreserved rooms for one to two people to have a private conversation, take a phone call or conduct a conference call without disrupting others seating in open office areas. 
Another trend I see is the return of the lunchroom.  This isn’t your elementary school lunchroom, it’s a destination space with finishes and details that rival some of your favorite restaurants.  The key is to create a space [...]

My workstation has been getting very messy lately. I’m going through the CA (Construction Administration) phase on a project and my desk has suddenly been bombarded with stacks of paperwork, rolls of drawings and product samples. I’ve started a bad habit (one of my pet peeves) of putting junk on the floor next to my workstation. I HATE crap on the floor. Drives me nuts. Why can’t there be a perfect little spot to store everything? I keep thinking “this is just temporary. No biggie. Once we get through this phase of the project my desk will be back to it’s normal, organized, peacful state”. But then I’ve been noticing others around me also have this habit of keeping stuff on the floor next to their desk. For some people it’s not temporary. It’s a horrible way of life. On the one hand I can chalk it up to the creative process (we’re designers, creating cool stuff, we can’t be TOO organized, we feed off that creative chaos, right?). But then I realize that it’s not “creative chaos”, it’s  just ”too much crap” chaos. People simply have too much junk and never enough space to keep it all organized. So I grabbed my camera and went around to see how people are handling (or mishandling) their junk. Some aren’t so bad but some people can use a lot of help.
And I’ll ask the rest of you readers…what do you do with all YOUR crap? Send in your photos!

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It’s a summer Friday and a lot of people are out of the office today…perfect time for workplace hijinks, don’t you think?  I hit the web for some inspiration (it’s been quite a while since my last prank, which involved rigging an enormous plastic spider through the exposed ductwork and dropping it on my unsuspecting colleague).  I also once had a friend switch everything between two workstations – not quite as visually appealing as some of the photos below, but pretty darn funny!
Some work+prank ideas for your Friday enjoyment:
 Source: Ergoware

Source: Blue Badge Mojo
Source: Information Nation
Source: Betty Finds
Source: Mac Talk
Source: TheseOfficePranks
Source: TheseOfficePranks
Source: I Need to Stop Soon
 Any brilliant ideas?  In my four pack, I’m currently the only one here….

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A new furniture line from Knoll, Antenna Workspaces, was designed by Antenna Design duo Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa. Best known for hardcore industrial engineering and interactive design (they also designed New York’s subway cars), they are an unlikely pick to be designing a furniture line for a prestigious company such as Knoll.
Conventional wisdom would tell me this is a risky move. Why not hire workplace experts who have years of experience on the front lines researching furniture, designing offices and hearing firsthand what clients want? We’re the people who know all the minute details and differences among all the furniture lines out there in the market. Well, according to Benjamin Pardo, Knoll’s senior vice president of design, “I didn’t want to work with someone was more entrenched [in the industry], because they come with a set in criteria that I’m not interested in, or quite frankly someone who had done an office system before. It’s almost like asking a child to figure something out because they always come at it with a fresh understanding.”
Hmmm…interesting point, Mr. Pardo.
Regardless of any success or failure for this line of furniture, I do have to say I like the idea of Knoll and Antenna coming at this from a different creative perspective. “Antenna’s idea was to create a table system that can grow organically with the users’ needs. The system works kind of like New York’s subways: At the heart are rails, up to eight feet long, held together by [...]

A few years ago when things were hopping and there was intense competition for talent a lot of recommendations were made to improve the workplace that bordered on silly.  For example, how many of you remember the push to incorporate table games, soft seating and BEAN BAGS?  Well, thanks to BT Business we can remind ourselves how well some of these ideas worked…

What crazy ideas do you remember?

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Hong Kong Architect, Gary Chang, has a very creative way to work around the space constraints in his tiny apartment. Using a system of sliding walls and fold away furniture he utilizes literally every inch of his space.

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms
In slightly over 300 sq. ft. he has created a space that is able to reconfigure itself into twenty four different forms. Besides being just plain cool, this space is simple, efficient and very eco-friendly. Amazing to see solutions such as this that don’t come across as strictly utilitarian, but also with a sense of whimsy. This is a perfect example of the type of creative thinking we all need to keep in mind when working with clients who continue to have greater demand for consolidating their office spaces, saving money and implementing more sustainable practices into their organizations.

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