How to improve the workplace? Suggestions?

mathie

Hey
Just been asked what I'd do to do improve the workplace in here.
We do programming so it's mostly people sitting around not talking listening to music
Any ideas on how to improve things to make it a 'better place to work'?
What were/are the best things about places you've worked/work?
M

kluivert

Accounting office.

Bring in some personality to the place.

Id love to be able to listen to music. Id work better actually.

How to improve the office - have a happy hour of strippers - a nice young woman in the office with a low cut top does it for me.

No seriously i cant think of anything.

But interesting post.

mathie

kluivert wrote:

How to improve the office - have a happy hour of strippers - a nice young woman in the office with a low cut top does it for me.

Yeah all my initial similar suggestions couldn't actually be suggested. Things like 'a basketball net' and Foosball table were about as exciting as it got.

M

Jesper

A big fish bowl in the middle. I'd watch them swimming around all day

DublinWriter

mathie wrote:

What were/are the best things about places you've worked/work?
M

I've worked as a consultant for quite a few companies, and one of the most interesting things I saw was in Oracle in Blackrock (years ago now!) where they used to bring in a French pastry chef to make fresh breads, scones and croissants for elevenses - and it was all free!

Iomega in Clondalkin used to use bean bags instead of office chairs!

A dot-com I did some work for briefly had an entire wall converted into an aqarium where employees could choose and adopt their own fish.

Of all the companies I've worked for, I've found the ones with the highest productivity are the ones that have the best and cheapest canteens. Free hot/soft drinks are also a plus. Who ever said that an army marches on their stomachs was basically correct.

TBH, to me, there's nothing as depressing as walking into an office to see a legion of people, all typing away and listening to their IPODs, etc.

nesf

I'd agree with DublinWriter. A good canteen can make a huge difference to a workplace. Having decent discounted food available to employee's is a good way to keep morale up. Even a good tea/coffee machine versus an "instant" one can make a big difference. Brewed vs instant and all that.

Eoin

mathie wrote:

Hey
Just been asked what I'd do to do improve the workplace in here.
We do programming so it's mostly people sitting around not talking listening to music
Any ideas on how to improve things to make it a 'better place to work'?
What were/are the best things about places you've worked/work?
M

This stuff is pretty boring, but it was really the only stuff we came up with that management would consider

Lots of plants
ergonomic chairs
flat screen monitors
free coffee & tea
white boards covering all the walls (we do lots of proof of concept stuff, so lots of doodling occurs)
fish tank like other people said - I like what DublinWriter said about choosing your own fish
games of any type were just not a runner with management