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Tips for Working in Your Office

Having the respect of your fellow co-workers and colleagues at work is like social currency. There is no doubt that it is of immense value and can make or break potential career opportunities and relationships. You have the power to brighten everyone’s day, foster long-lasting friendships, and improve the office vibe if you are a beacon of light in a dark work environment.

It’s not always easy to show up to work and be the best you can be each and every day. We’re all human, and we all have hardships, nuances, and things in our personal lives that spill over into our work lives. You will have the foundation and tools you need to become everyone’s favorite employee with these helpful tips and considerations.

Practice Patience and Awareness

Shared spaces, usually cramped ones, aren’t always enjoyable. Shared close quarters can be taxing for many due to the diversity of personality types, energy levels, and stress levels. Several successful co-working teams have found that practicing patience and compassion are the most effective tools to use when faced with unsavory working environments. There are some coworkers who talk a lot and distract others from their work. Using patience and a calm, thoughtful tone, politely remind them that you have deadlines to meet and that you are easily distracted. You take the blame and pressure off the chatty employee by simply reminding them that everyone is distracted at work to varying degrees.

Your job may require you to speak on the phone frequently. See what you can do to lessen the burden on your co-workers by practicing awareness. Consider suggesting to your boss, or to management, that glass wall partitions be installed throughout the office so that phones can be taken in during loud conversations. Essentially, these office wall partitions are room dividers with doors that reduce noise and create a spatial barrier so the person engaged in the call is less distracting. Partitions help to provide visual privacy and curtail foot traffic.

There Is No Replacement For Kindness

Kindness goes a long way, no matter how small. Why not be that person who spreads and shares kindness in your life? A simple gesture like smiling at your co-workers throughout the day, and asking how they’re doing can make a big difference. Taking time to check in on people around you, remembering their personal details about their lives. Maybe sharing food or drinks every now and then, you can start a shift toward a more collaborative environment within the office that inspires others to do the same.

Being Helpful and Pragmatic

Take initiative and talk with your boss about what the office needs, or bring it in yourself if resources allow. There may be a similar feeling of separateness or lack of energy and inspiration among everyone. Start by noticing all the ways you could improve the workplace, and then move forward from there.

There is a lack of natural light in many workplaces during the workday. Many employees can suffer from depression, anxiety, and loneliness due to obstructed visibility and wall cubicles. If you wish to increase visibility throughout the floor plan, consider installing glass office dividers and sliding door room dividers that allow light to pass through. As a result, team morale will be raised and a sense of connectedness will be created.

There are many little ways in which you can make everyone’s day better, including your own. Don’t be afraid to start small with thoughtfulness, consideration, and small gestures. You might be surprised at the results of speaking up about your colleagues’ working conditions and quality of life. Management is often unaware of issues within a system, or employee discontent, until it’s brought to their attention. Space Plus, A Division of the Sliding Door Company can help you craft a desirable workspace. We can help you start the transformation today.

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Office Environments, Layouts, Standards and Guidelines

As a contractor or architect, it’s up to you to design a space for your clients that is well suited to the client’s needs and improves the quality of their experience existing in the space. Getting contracted to design office spaces is not always easy, especially today with a rapidly evolving definition of what an office environment could be. Nowadays, most new offices are multidimensional and act as a home away from home- with kitchens, games, and lounge areas that simulate the essence of a living room.

These workspaces are meant to cater to the worker’s needs, boost morale, enhance production, and increase continuity and communication amongst coworkers or “team members”. By designing a thoughtful and considered layout, and installing the right framework, you’ll be able to craft an innovative working environment that your client and their employees will love. Below, we’ve outlined some things to keep in mind during the design process. Much needed rooms, spatial separation, and exciting elements to employ may help inspire your blueprints.

Office Open Floor Plans

Today, open floor plans have become the new staple or standard in office design. More and more companies are recognizing that allowing their employees to freely communicate, work together and experience closeness actually increases productivity and team morale. Open floor plans also increase visibility, natural light, and breathability throughout the office environment. By starting off your design with an open plan, you make room for a lot of inventive spatial solutions and targeted rooms that will add intrigue and excitement to the space.

bright workplace with many glass divided rooms

Office Phone Booths/Call Rooms

A good way to allow for some spatial separation and privacy is to introduce phone booths or “tiny rooms” into the open swath of expansive office space. While these glass barriers are not specifically soundproof, they do provide a spatial barrier that lessens noise and provides increased privacy. This way, when a team member has a long call (or a loud voice) they can quickly step into these quiet spaces and not feel guilty about distracting nearby workers. A new poll by Udemy and Toluna showed that 80% of workers admit to being sonically distracted while at work.

 “Office noise is the second most cited workplace disturbance, with seven out of ten respondents citing noise as a top bother in their day-to-day workflow” (statista.com).

Outside influences on employees’ working environment take a toll on productivity and cause employees a cumbersome mental reset every few minutes. A great solution to introduce with these call booths is to install sliding door room dividers for the call booth so as to save space in an already tiny enclosure, while creating a stylish design that increases the office aesthetic. Our solutions divide the space, curtail foot traffic and provide visual privacy.

 

Bonus Yoga / Stretching / Meditation Room

A new trend amongst trendy office spaces is offering a yoga or meditation room. People become seriously fatigued while sitting for too long a time in uncomfortable office chairs day in and day out. Not only is a desk job physically grueling on a person’s body, but it also takes a mental toll. By designing workers space for some healthy breaks to stretch, breathe, recenter and improve their physical health, you effectively boost productivity, increase mental capacity and increase contentment amongst a workforce. Consider installing sliding glass barn doors for this room – it will enhance the overall look of the room and offer an artistic flourish your client will love. What’s more, you can choose from six different glass opacities to best suit your client’s needs. For the yoga room, perhaps a more opaque glass finish would be the ideal choice, so workers can stretch and meditate while enjoying a bit of privacy. 

conference room with sliding glass door wall, some panels opaque

Think Tank / Conference Room

While open floor plans are a great way to achieve integration, cohesion, and an overall team mentality, any office environment should come equipped with a full-size conference room for important/private meetings and presentations. Some like to think of these rooms as productive think tanks. Not providing one would be a big detriment to any business. People need to be able to gather around a table, bounce ideas off each other, check-in on progress, etc. To engineer a stylistic balance of privacy with visibility, use glass sliding door room dividers to integrate a conference room amongst the rest of the open floor plan. This way, you’ll provide a “separate yet together” feel that your clients will thoroughly enjoy.

Private Offices

Of course, you’ll want to design your office space with at least one to three private offices to provide distinction for the company CEO, manager or owner from the general workforce. By using floor-to-ceiling glass wall partitions and interior sliding doors, you’ll provide enough spatial separation and privacy while assimilating the rooms into the vast open space. An office with four solid walls on each side doesn’t exactly say “teamwork” the way it should. Rather, it segregates the people below and can make employees feel detached from their bosses or those higher up than them. As the designer, take it upon yourself to create a positive, integrative working environment that will improve the working conditions of employees and drive the business in the right direction.

Our glass and aluminum partitions are recyclable and perfect for green construction projects. They also assist architects with earning LEED points which is another selling point when contracting clients. Taking into consideration general layout, office partitions, the use of glass, and introducing inventive spaces, you’ll successfully craft a product that your clients will celebrate each day they come into work. An office should be a productive home away from home. Consult the experts in space optimization and check out Space Plus, a division of the Sliding Door Company.

Have a look at our products gallery for inspiration and product images. Schedule a call with one of our knowledgeable professionals to get a free quote and other information on our many available solutions. Simply find a location near you and ensure your office design a success!

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How To Be Everyone’s Favorite Co-worker

It may sound silly, but being well-liked at work by your fellow co-workers and colleagues is like social currency. It holds immense value and can make or break potential career opportunities and relationships alike. Being a beacon of light in an otherwise dim work environment will brighten everyone’s day, foster long-lasting friendships, and boost the overall office morale. It’s not always easy showing up to work and being the very best person you can be, day in and day out regardless of your current circumstances. Of course, we’re all human and we all have hardships, nuances, and things in our personal lives that spill over into our work life, and our energetic exchanges. Yet with these helpful tips and considerations, you’ll have the foundation and tools to employ each day to become everyone’s favorite employee.

office partitions by space plus

Practice Patience and Awareness

Existing in shared spaces, typically cramped ones, is not always fun. With so many different and unique personality types, energies, and stress levels, sharing close quarters can be taxing on many. What many successful co-working teams have found, is that practicing patience and compassion are the most effective tools in which to utilize when confronted with unsavory working environments. Some co-workers tend to talk a lot and distract others from their work. Using patience and a calm, thoughtful tone, politely remind them that you have deadlines and quotas to meet and that you get easily distracted by any conversation. This takes the blame and pressure off the chatty employee and simply reminds them that everyone experiences different levels of distraction while at work. Perhaps you find yourself on the phone often for your position. Practice awareness and see what your options are in lessening the burden on your surrounding co-workers. Because loud phone conversations are a distraction for many employees, consider talking to management, or your boss and suggest the installation of glass wall partitions throughout the office for calls to be taken in. These office wall partitions are essentially a room divider with door that reduces noise and creates a spatial barrier so the person engaged in the call is less of a distraction to others. These partitions help to provide visual privacy and curtail foot traffic.

There Is No Replacement For Kindness

No matter how large or small, acts of kindness go a long way. Everyone could use some more kindness in their lives, so why not be that person to spread and share it? Little gestures like smiling at your co-workers throughout the day, asking how they’re doing. Remembering personal details about their lives, their families, taking the time to check in with those around you. Bringing in food to share, or beverages every now and then could start a shift towards sharing and community within the office, that inspires others to do the same.

office partition in a corner of a room

Being Helpful and Pragmatic

If you notice a need for something within the office, take initiative and talk with your boss about it, or bring it in yourself if resources allow. Perhaps everyone is sharing a similar feeling of separateness, or lack of energy and inspiration during the day. Notice all of the ways in which the office environment could be improved, and then go from there. A lot of people suffer from a lack of natural light during their workday. Obstructed visibility and wall cubicles can cause serious depression, anxiety, and loneliness in many employees. Perhaps talk with your building about installing light-allowing glass office dividers and sliding door room dividers to increase visibility throughout the floor plan. These will create an increased feeling of connectedness, and raise team morale.

There are all just little ways in which you can help improve everyone’s day, including your own. Start with small gestures, considerations, and thoughtfulness. Speaking up about office conditions and the life quality of your fellow employees could yield surprising results. Many times, management is just vastly unaware of issues within the system, or employee discontent until it’s brought to them. Make the move towards crafting a desirable workspace, and visit Space Plus, A Division of the Sliding Door Company for ideas and inspiration. Get a quote from one of our professionals to begin the transformation today.

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Beyond Doors: Transform Your Workspace with Space Plus Solutions!

At Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, we don’t just build the sturdiest, safest, most beautiful glass partitions and doors on the market. We also help businesses cut costs, improve health, boost, productivity, comply with government regulations, and become more sustainable. In other words, we provide so much more than doors; we transform space and elevate offices.

So, what makes our sliding glass doors so special?

They’re People-Friendly

At Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, we love people. That’s why we make doors that are easy to buy, easy to install, and easy to use. Starting with our safe-tempered glass and easy-glide track systems, we put safety and usability at the top of our agenda. We also offer a wide selection of ADA-compliant handles, so that organizations never have to worry about compliance and people with disabilities never have to worry about access.

They’re Environmentally Friendly

Our doors are easy on people and on the environment. Not only do we use eco-friendly materials, but our room partitions reduce energy use by allowing light, air, and heat to circulate from one space to another. That helps businesses save money and set themselves on a greener, more sustainable footing.

They’re Easy to Install

In most cases, if you want to install new doors or walls, you have to call in a construction team. You have to tear down existing walls and throw up new structural components. Not with glass office dividers and sliding glass doors from Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company. Since they don’t require  any structural support to the building, you don’t need to put your business on hold while you gather construction permits and gut your building.

They’re Custom Built

We don’t mass-produce our office partitions and glass door cubicles. Instead, we build each one to meet our client’s specific needs. The result is that our doors aren’t cookie-cutter “products.” They’re unique, custom-built interior design elements designed to fit the style and function of any work environment. By specializing only in manufacturing interior design solutions, we’re able to devote all of our time and energy to crafting the perfect door for any workspace.

They’re Versatile

Whatever kind of door you want, we make it—sliding, stacking, swinging, suspended. Need fixed glass walls? We make those, too. We also serve a diverse set of clients in nearly every industry.

Emergency rooms, doctor’s offices, clinics, and other healthcare facilities use our sliding doors and office partitions to create a clean, hygienic space. Patients get privacy when they need it, and the staff gets maximum visibility when they need it.

Hotels, restaurants, and conference centers and other hospitality venues install glass walls and room partitions to offer the best customer experience—a flexible mix of elegance, privacy, and visibility. Offices, schools, and government buildings use them to increase openness and versatility.

They Come Straight from the Factory

Most manufacturers suffer from a fragmentation problem. One company designs the products, another builds them, and yet another sells them. The problem is that one hand never seems to talk to the other. Quality suffers. The customer experience becomes a nightmare.

When you order from Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, you can be sure of one thing: We never subcontract our work out to others. All we do is cut out the dreaded middleman—we manufacture each one of our sliding doors in our own facility. That allows us to ensure quality, offer customized options, and provide personal service.

They Come with Real Service

From the moment you step into The Sliding Door Company showroom, you’ll come face-to-face with an incredible support team made up of inside and outside account executives. They’ll be there to offer guidance at every step of your interior design journey, helping you select the doors that are right for your project.

Contact Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, to experience the difference that quality, safety, and service make.