You found a suitable place, a suitable business and you are on your way to success. Brilliant, But now your next step is to design your workplace. A place where you will be spending at least 8-10 hours a day, meeting with new people, working, eating, de-stressing and also taking a nap sometimes. While this process may sound exciting, it can turn out to be a bit overwhelming and stressful if certain measures are not avoided. You do want your workplace to look professional yet cozy and welcoming, and it is better to hire services of professionals for interior designs.
But not too professional that it turns out to be intimidating and not too cozy that it turns out to be nothing but your bed. It’s very important to keep a balance between these two extremes, and this is where the need for professional interior design arises. We know this can get difficult and we got you on this! We have some tips and tricks that you should NOT do to make your office the best for yourself and others. Sometimes the thought of designing a whole office can be confusing, but keep in mind these WORST parts of an office, don’t do them and you’re good to go!
- Open Offices- Attractive but not!
This is a huge mistake that you wouldn’t want to do! This does sound attractive and exciting, but honestly open offices have many disadvantages. When you have no partitions or doors in between separate workplaces, work can become daunting. You can easily get distracted by two people talking that wouldn’t otherwise be the case in a closed office.
It’s so annoying when you can literally hear your colleague talking about how he fought with his wife last night, or the other colleague munching his candy bar. There is no privacy and flexibility. Some employees may feel comfortable by pinning their personal pictures behind their workplace, but given the fact that you do not have a personal workspace may be demotivating for some. Open offices are hygienically at a disadvantage too. Germs and flu tend to spread more actively in open places, damaging an employee’s health instantly. This potential of virus propagation is amongst one of the biggest concerns involved with this trend of open offices.
- Placement of Restrooms
Placing the restroom right beside your boss’s desk is a big NO. You don’t want sponsors or other CEOs to get an obnoxious aroma whilst exiting a meeting, because that’s one thing that can drown your firm’s reputation in a matter of a second. Remember to place the restroom in an isolated place or near the warehouse if you have one.
- No common room or eating places
If you expect your employees to work non-stop 8 hours a day, you’ll turn out to be a dis-liked person in their eyes. Everyone needs some time to rest and de-stress themselves before getting to work again. In that case, you do need a separate area with couches and comfortable pillows for your employees to have rest and have their lunch. The inability to do so will obviously be rendered as a stain on being considerate!
In-appropriate wall art
Imagine you are a technologically-based firm and you have all your walls filled with antique architecture and pure literature. That’s the last thing you’d want to do. It’s very important to maintain context in your work and your surroundings. For a tech-based firm, decorating your walls with programming codes, parts of a computer, etc. would be more suitable and appealing in the eyes of other company members.
- Vibrant paint colors
An office atmosphere is a formal one, and painting it with bright red, orange, green would usually look awkward. It may depend on firm to firm, but if you are a consultancy agency or a business firm, then you need to go with more decent and formal light colors such as light brown, pink, off-white, etc. While choosing color combination for your office, the color theme should match with the nature of your work and use bright, dark or aggressive colors as needed.
- Cramming in tables and chairs
Overcrowding can be a very serious problem. Imagine having 20 tables in a place that can carry 15 maximum. In this case, you will have almost no space to walk, and that could be a complete disaster. Measure everything out, and calculate how much you can fit in within the space before-hand to avoid any inconveniences later on.
- Following the Hierarchy
The hierarchy should not turn out into discrimination when it comes down to the placement of separate workplaces. Placing the CEO’s desk at the front, followed by the other C-Levels followed by managerial positions can turn out to be a bad idea as it can demotivate some people while motivating the other. That is not as preferable as the efficiency of the firm would suffer as a whole. It’s better to allocate the position of desks more randomly than following the hierarchy model.
- Block sizing
Don’t turn your office into anything but rectangular blocks. It is neither attractive nor exciting. It just looks as if robots are working in a rather formal firm. Make your firm a bit cozier; add elegant sofas, big comfortable chairs, a bunch of neck pillows, etc.
- Small Kitchen
Not having a small kitchen can definitely hurt you. Kitchens can help in making tea or coffee, reheating food, storing leftover food or simply making some snacks. The kitchen is one of the essential parts of any office as it gives so much convenience to not only employees but also support staff. Not having one can be damage to someone’s pocket as they will have to order from outside or go all the way back home just to eat their food, or just eat the cold one. This could be a big blunder and make sure not to do it. Spend some extra time and money and get the little job done as a facility.
Conclusion
All of these tips above are things that you should avoid while creating your dream office. Note them down while you still can because there is no point in regretting later when everything is done, and you just can’t change even a bit of it. Consult some professionals or some of your trusted employees, friends and family members and with the help of a graphic or interior designer get a layout made. Then purchase the necessary equipment and get the job done using one, or all of our tips above. Remember to learn from the process because life is nothing without a bit of learning.
