Poll: Do you think having an attractive office makes workers more productive?
Many argue that good design stimulates productivity – but not everyone’s a fan of today’s workplaces.
FOR THOSE IN desk-bound jobs, the office is second to perhaps only the bedroom for the place where we spend the largest shares of our lives.
Writing for Fora recently, Lisa van der Werff from DCU Business School said having a work setting that is “aesthetically pleasing” will influence how new staff perceive their organisations, including how much they trust their employers.
That, in turn, affected how likely they were to take risks to learn the skills required for their jobs, she wrote.
However Van der Werff, who co-authored a joint study carried out with two US universities, also warns that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to office design.
Open-plan setups, for example, which have become the de facto standard for all office layouts, have been shown to stifle the collaboration and worker interaction many employers hope they will stimulate.
With that in mind, we’re asking Fora readers this week: Do you think having an attractive office makes workers more productive?
