If you often feel depressed and frustrated at work, these adverse emotions could be undermining your workplace productivity. However, if you can’t quite put your finger on what is getting you so disgruntled, the design of the workplace itself could be to blame.
If that is indeed the case, despondency could be spreading amongst your workers, too. Here are a few tweaks which you could make to your workplace in an attempt to spur more positivity.
Make workers feel like they “belong”
That applies even for your workers who often work away from the office, such as from home or while on the move. Those important business conferences won’t attend themselves – but, all the same, you want staff to still feel as though they are “in the loop” even from a distance.
You could ensure that by setting up videoconferencing configurations allowing remote participants to readily see and hear what is going on, as Fast Company advocates.
Let people see the difference they are making
When your employees can see how their efforts are feeding into the company’s overall mission, their sense of purpose could be enhanced, as could trust and collaboration between employees.
For that reason, it could be worthwhile for you to set up spaces drawing attention to the organization’s purpose, history and culture. Meanwhile, thanks to technology, crucial data can be displayed in real time to show how the company is progressing in its aims.
Create soothing spaces that encourage mindfulness
While it would be ideal for your staff to be fully immersed in their work, they could often feel too mentally overwhelmed to reach this stage. Therefore, you might want to encourage your workers to occasionally embark on a “mental detox”, as you could call it…
To that end, set aside specific spaces for mindfulness and, for those spaces, carefully select materials, textures and colors on the strength of their potential to soothe.
Let there be light… or, should we say, better light
While exposure to natural light has been credited with enhancing mood and energy and so, in turn, focus and productivity as well, you might not quite have “seen the light”, so to say.
According to a survey mentioned by Business News Daily, almost half of office workers have reported their office getting little or no natural illumination.
Even if increasing the amount of natural lighting through windows is not practically possible for you, one possible alternative option is fitting blue-enriched light bulbs which could perk up workers. A workplace design firm like Maris Interiors could help you to decide where those bulbs should be fitted.
Add a few comfort-inducing flourishes
The icing on the cake that is your stress-relieving office could be comfortable furniture, working equipment or… well, the list could go on.
It’s ultimately up to you, but consider the fact that, according to the same survey mentioned earlier, people deeming their work furniture “bad” are three times likelier to view their environment as less productive, not to mention twice as likely to consider it “depressing”.