We hope no one will argue with the conviction that a person is not a robot and that he needs rest even within the working day? It is good that today more and more leaders are beginning to understand this. Remember back in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, workers in factories could work 12 or 14 hours a day, giving their last strength in production? Actually, this and much more subsequently became the reason for the formation of the communist movement in Russia. His goal was to fundamentally change the situation, give the working class genuine respect and increase their social status. In the current realities, we can invisibly feel the fruits of their labors - a classic 8-hour working day with an hour break for lunch. This is precisely their merit.
Today, in the vast majority of cases, employers are limited in attracting workers to work that goes beyond the norms - there are labor contract with the prescribed hours, there is some "arrogance" of employees who do not want to spend their personal time on the extra work. Moreover, it begins to seem to them that they already spend a lot of precious time on it, which is why they want to feel “at home” there. For the most part, this is what motivates their managers to create such conditions for the staff under which employees can “relax in a controlled manner”, discuss current production tasks in an informal setting. in the perfect way The solution to this problem is the creation of a rest room.
What is she like?
A rest room is not necessarily a “box” with four walls, where a sofa, a table, a chair and a ficus on the windowsill are located. As a rule, the staff is given the will on its own, i.e. according to his needs, determine how it will be framed. Of the most popular ideas today are board games, comfortable furniture, equipment for preparing drinks, "chips" in the form of a DJ console, a bar counter, paintings with applications and much more. Whatever the room, its main task is to relax visitors, to bring them out of the state of stress experienced at the time of work. Here they, in theory, should gain strength, restore peace of mind, and then, as "newly born" return for their workplace and continue to work with greater dedication and zeal. With competent time management of each individual employee, such a goal will certainly be achieved, moreover, the management will still receive words of gratitude from its staff - we have met such cases more than once.
By the way, several interesting solutions with photos you can find by clicking on the link.
Benefits for the company
Pay attention: the personnel of the companies "gets younger" every year. The average age of applicants for most vacant positions varies between 19 and 29 years. These are young people belonging to the so-called generation "Y". They are not accustomed to working within strict limits, to bear great responsibility, they want more freedom in action. At the same time, they are not without ambitions - someone wants to become the head of the direction, someone wants to buy a new iPhone, someone can not wait to visit Guatemala during the next vacation. They grow up in an already established consumer society, where there are all conditions for spending the money they earn. Do you think they will “show themselves” within a dim and dull room? Perhaps, for representatives of the older generation, this may seem like a kind of "childishness", they say, we will not look for such workers - we will find those who are ready to earn money in any conditions. No matter how.
Discontent
Back in the days of the USSR, some figures thought about organizing a zone for a relaxed pastime of working groups. The problem that the bosses then faced was that the presence of tables for table tennis, chess, dominoes and other games contributed to the growth of "lazy" moods in the team. The key purpose of break rooms is to enable the employee to “switch” for a short period of time from performing current tasks to something abstract, which will allow him, having gathered his thoughts, to start working again on a new basis. From the director's point of view, it would be ideal to place wonderful things there, like massage chairs. This pleasure, of course, is not cheap, but they fulfill their task, namely, they do not allow the employee to “hang” outside the workplace, while allowing him to relax. This topic is devoted to one very good
Of course, the topic we are describing for users of our service "" cannot have a positive response from all managers. Usually, among those who are against all kinds of innovations, they are not even conservatives, no, but ordinary "greedy people", forgive me for such an expression. "Greedy", as a rule, reason in such a way that ordinary workers obliged dedicate their lives to the cause in the company they are engaged in. They should, even being at home with their families, think about work, call up and correspond with their colleagues, discussing current issues. As a “handout” to such a team, they can organize a rest room, however, what will be its price if you have to pay for it with your personal life ... Maybe not, but there is no difference between these two actions. And why? The fact is that in both cases the director is driven not by altruism, not by elementary concern for his wards, but by the usual “selfish interest” - to get from employees exactly as much as they can give him. Sooner or later, even the most fanatically devoted to the leader employees will be disappointed in what is happening and will still leave to look for a job in another organization.
This once again confirms how important it is to approach not only the arrangement of the rest room, but also the leisure of your staff as a whole within the framework of the corporate culture.
In the event that our article can motivate at least one director to equip or re-arrange a recreation room for employees, then we have done our work for good reason. Here are a few tips for anyone who might be interested:
Having decided to deal with this issue, be sure to organize a meeting among the team and ask them to express their wishes regarding the design - this will allow you to get exactly those tips that you may not be able to do when dealing with this issue on your own;
After it is approved, proceed directly to the practical part - repair, purchase and design.
In order not to cause misunderstanding among employees, hold a second meeting with them when everything is ready. Appoint persons responsible for the property, voice your proposals regarding the rest schedule, if required by the production need;
Give them the opportunity to further independently make adjustments to the design of the premises - let them feel like owners in this territory in the most positive sense of the word.
If you correctly convey the thoughts to the employees and carry out the above activities, then the return on your business will increase, if not several times, then at least the difference with the previous indicators will be obvious.
Finally
We did not mention such an important quality as trust, a key aspect of any human relations. You can be honest with employees. Tell them the reasons why you decided to give them such a gift, as well as what you expect from them. Sincerity will pay off handsomely.
Thank you for your attention and see you soon!
People spend at least a third of their lives in the office, and if we take away the time we spend sleeping, it turns out that we spend half the time that we are awake in the office.
Naturally, in the office we want not only to work hard, doing challenging tasks but also be able to relax. Modern leaders who care about their employees understand this. They also understand the importance of having a break room in the office for employees who are working hard.
Who needs an employee lounge?
To all large and small companies that can afford to re-equip the premises for it.
After all, in fact, the rest room in the design of the office is not only the room where you can relax and unwind after taking a break during a busy day, but also the room where the boss can talk with his subordinates or partners in an informal setting.
Some studies claim that it is in rooms with such an atmosphere that the most interesting and non-standard management and marketing decisions are made.
The break room for employees promotes a mental "reboot", so it is especially needed in those offices where people are constantly busy with mental work. For them, this opportunity to relax can bring big profits to the company in the long run.
What should be the right rest room?
First of all, when designing an office in a rest room, attention should be paid to lighting. Well, if during the daytime there will be enough street light, this will help the eyes of workers to rest from the constant look at the monitor.
The room should be bright to create a positive atmosphere. It would be great if in the rest room for employees there will be an opportunity to switch to physical activity: play darts, table football, billiards, air hockey and other active games.
But it should also be possible to sit on a comfortable sofa and drink coffee with a colleague. By the way, it was on such sofas that a lot of creative solutions which the people in the office would never have thought of.
The editors of the CPU were interested in how recreation areas look like for employees of Russian and foreign IT companies. In the first part of the resulting collection - Facebook, SoundCloud, Airbnb, Evernote, JetBrains, BlaBlaCar, 2GIS and other projects.
In offices social network Facebook in different cities(California, Sydney, Montreal) recreation areas are located directly in the open spaces where employees work. They are separated by color and texture - sofas instead office chairs, bright colours instead of grey. The Indian office of the company has a lounge with a pool table and table hockey.
There is also a games room at Facebook's San Francisco headquarters. There, employees can play an Xbox 360 console. In addition, table tennis tables and chess games are available to employees of the social network.
At the SoundCloud branch in Berlin, employees who want to take a break from work can also play table tennis or visit the library. The office has separate room for yoga classes, a relaxation room with a fireplace, and even a special soundproof room where tired workers can take a nap in the middle of the day.
All rooms in the Berlin office of SoundCloud are decorated in industrial style. The rooms were designed by the German design team of the Kinzo architectural agency.
At Airbnb's San Francisco office, employees can relax in the atrium or in the lounges and lounges located on each floor of the building. The premises are decorated in such a way that the employees feel as comfortable as possible there: photographs on the walls, fluffy carpets and pillows, bright colors. You can even bring animals into the office.
Evernote's San Francisco branch is notable for its brevity. The interior of any room is dominated by three colors (white, blue and green). Next to the open workspace is a recreation area with soft chairs. In the kitchen, there are only plastic chairs, in which it is not too easy to relax.
The interior of the ride-hailing service Lyft's head office echoes the service's symbol, a pink mustache. Mustaches can be found on the roof, where employees go to rest, and in the lounges.
Architecture and design of the St. Petersburg (largest) office international company for production software JetBrains was developed by the Finnish bureau Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture. In 2014, the St. Petersburg branch of the company was among the winners of the competition the best offices country, hosted by Office Magazine.
Each floor in the building has its own color, in the range of which the meeting rooms and recreation areas are decorated. There are no separate rooms where employees could relax in the office - they are replaced by zones equipped with sofas and tables, as well as coffee points. On the top floor The building houses a library, a gym and a massage room.
In addition, in the summer, sofas and ottomans appear on the roof of the JetBrains office so that company employees can rest and breathe fresh air and admire the view of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
At the head office of the BlaBlaCar companion search service in Paris, the lounges are decorated in accordance with the theme of the service. In each room, you can find decorative elements related to car travel: suitcases, retro car models, maps, road signs, and so on.
BlaBlaCar is not the only company that has chosen to decorate break rooms with knick-knacks. In the office of the AstroSoft software development project, a typewriter is installed in the kitchen, with which employees like to take pictures.
The BlaBlaCar office kitchen is equipped upholstered furniture and is also used by employees as a recreation area. As representatives of the project told the CPU, internal negotiations are often held in recreation areas (when all conference rooms are occupied).
In addition, the Paris branch of BlaBlaCar has a separate room for board games.
The Moscow office of the Russian group of companies Rambler&Co is located in two neighboring buildings of the Danilovskaya manufactory. The location imposes its own specifics on the recreation of employees: a favorite place where Rambler&Co employees often spend time is a glazed passage between two buildings.
On one of the upper floors of the office there is a space called "Attic" - this is a place where employees can come with their food or buy it in one of the cafes located there. Also there are a lot of various sofas and armchairs where you can comfortably sit with a book or laptop. Periodically, various presentations, seminars and master classes are held in the Mansard.
The rest of the employee rest areas are scattered throughout the office. You can find a corner with a table for playing table tennis, several tables for a kicker, table hockey, a space with electric guitars and an amplifier.
The head office of the 2GIS cartographic project, located in Novosibirsk, is equipped with several lounges. The hottest, according to service representatives, is Hawaii. In it, employees from the production department, who are responsible for creating geoservice content, play tennis. From time to time the office hosts corporate table games championships - tennis, football, hockey, and darts. The main part of the "battles" usually takes place just in "Hawaii".
In addition, the office has recreation rooms "Igroteka", "Library", "Marine". In the relaxation room called "Veranda" there is a fireplace and rocking chairs - this is a place for relaxed rest and communication.
The head office of the international service for creating websites Jimdo is located in Hamburg, a port city. Therefore, the company's culture is closely related to the maritime and port themes.
"Aquarium" is small room under the stairs with an aquarium and fish. Muffled light, soft pillows sitting and silence, according to the representatives of the project, help to relax or focus on some idea or task. The building has a bar for programmers - a place to relax, work and socialize on Fridays over a bottle of beer. In addition, the office has a cabin room where you can work in silence or take a nap.
Employees of the Izhevsk software manufacturer "NPO Computer" have their own "Karelia" in the office. This is the name of the kitchen, which is also a recreation area for workers. Karelia has a bar counter, comfortable soft sofas, TV, birch and discus thrower.
In addition, the company's office has tables for table tennis and horizontal bars.
One of the mottos system integrator T-Systems, according to project representatives, - "If you can play together, you can work together." Therefore, recreation areas in the company's offices in Russia are playrooms.
Each branch of the organization has a table for a kicker (the St. Petersburg team has even won prizes in city competitions more than once). The St. Petersburg office has two Xbox units with large plasmas and a constantly updated game library. The company has a tradition of Friday gatherings - the time of board games. AT summer time office staff relaxing open terraces with great views of the city.
Employees of the electronic trading platform B2B-Center can work out on the simulators or play table tennis right at the coffee point. In addition, the company's office has a cafe where everyone can relax and have a bite to eat.
The main recreation area for employees of the St. Petersburg office of the entertainment market platform Radario is a huge terrace on the roof of the building where the company is located, with total area 200 square meters. In the summer, Radario turns the rooftop into a semi-workspace - complete with umbrellas, sun loungers and kicker tournaments between work.
In winter days, snow fights are arranged on the terrace.
How to design the design of a rest room in the office? Express Office specialists know the answer to this question. They will help to create a really cozy and friendly interior that will be appreciated by your employees.
Why designing a space for relaxation is so important professional approach? Constant immersion in office affairs and problems, periodic deadlines can negatively affect the state of mind, cause chronic fatigue and stress.
To prevent this from happening, company management (if it really cares about the staff) provides lounges. And he draws them up in such a way that employees have the opportunity to switch off, change the situation. For example, it installs tables for billiards, chess and table tennis (as in Faceboook), equips a yoga room and a sleep room (as in the German music corporation SoundCloud). Or just takes away without extreme small room for rest (as in many Russian companies).
Our work
What to look out for
There are many important points, considering which, when developing a design project, you can, if not turn work into a second home, then create real comfort in the office:
- location staff rest areas are usually secluded, away from possible visitors and noisy office recreations. Of course, there are exceptions: in the same Facebook, employees relax in the immediate vicinity of their workplaces. But such a solution excludes privacy and not everyone likes it. Much more familiar is a room isolated from outsiders with good sound insulation, which allows you to disconnect from the bustle of the office;
- style is largely determined by the direction of the company, the age composition of the staff and its general mood. For example, young and creative teams often organize places for recreation in modern style (hi-tech, loft, minimalism and even catchy pop art);
- color spectrum depends on the chosen design style and can be absolutely anything: calm or defiant, muted or bright. When designing interiors for relaxation, our designers recommend avoiding exciting reds, oranges and yellow shades, as well as depressing black and purple;
- equipment implies not only a coffee machine, a kettle, a microwave oven (by the way, such accessories can be installed in an office kitchen, if available). The rest room will not interfere with a bathroom located in the immediate vicinity (if possible - a shower, a washbasin, a ladies' room so that employees can fix their makeup and put themselves in order).
Concerning accessories, then their selection can be entrusted to both our designers and our own team. As a rule, employees willingly participate in the design of recreation areas (bring houseplants, photos or pleasant things). On the part of management, it is important to remember that it is impossible to supplement the interior with working details (for example, duty schedules, order boards, various memos). They have a place in the office, and in the relaxation room, the staff should rest.
How to choose the right furniture
The interior of the rest room in the office will be incomplete without suitable furniture. We will help you choose it in the same style as the room, we will take into account the desired color scheme and materials of manufacture.
- Comfortable soft sofas- something that no relaxation room can do without. Since they will be used big number people, it is preferable to choose sofas from easy-to-clean materials. For example, upholstered in leatherette - they are durable, wear-resistant, resistant to dirt, and are inexpensive. The cost of such furniture will not be a heavy burden on the company's budget.
- Armchairs and chairs- another indispensable attribute of rest rooms. If possible, you should order models with an ergonomic back shape, adjustment functions, a footrest, massage, etc. In a word, there should be one selection criterion - convenience and comfort for staff (and, of course, low price).
The designers of our studio are ready to advise you 24/7 on everything related to the design of office space. We guarantee accurate consideration of all your wishes!
Today we will present to your attention recreation areas in large corporations operating in the field of technology and the Internet. In this story, we will introduce you to great examples of offices of companies such as Facebook, Airbn, Evernote, SoundCloud, JetBrains, BlaBlaCar and 2GIS.
They will amaze you with their colorful decoration, perfect for lunch break and recreation of employees in a comfortable environment.
At the company's headquarters, the seating area is located among the tables at which the staff works. She is punctuated by the magnificent furniture set, carpets and accessories in vibrant orange and gray tones. In addition, this room is equipped with tables for table tennis, chess and billiards.
soundcloud
At the representative office of the music corporation in German city Berlin, all employees can get a job wooden benches and enjoy a break in a cozy and relaxed atmosphere.
The headquarters also has a yoga room, a fireplace room and a room with soundproofing in the design of the walls, which makes it possible to sleep without being distracted by extraneous noise.
Airbnb
At the real estate agency's office in San Francisco, workers can relax in the spacious lounges that have been installed on each floor. The epicenter of the representation is the atrium, equipped with laconic benches with orange cushions.
Evernote
The firm's office space in San Francisco is characterized by simplicity and creative decoration. The decor of all rooms is dominated by three shades - snow-white, blue and salad.
The kitchen was equipped on the roof. It provides a unique opportunity for all employees to take a break from a tedious and busy work schedule and enjoy the surrounding landscape.
jetbrains
office design big company was brought to life by the talented craftsmen of the Gullstén-Inkinen agency. Each tier high-rise building was decorated in bright color scheme, which sets up staff for productive work.
The halls for relaxation and a lunch break are equipped with soft and cozy sofas, laconic tables and coffee stations. During the warm summer months, employees here can enjoy a pleasant meal in a peaceful environment.
BlaBlaCar
The company's representative office in Paris strikes the imagination with its bright and cheerful decoration. To decorate it, the craftsmen used accessories and interior items associated with traveling by car.
Rambler&Co
The headquarters of the domestic corporation is located in two old industrial buildings, which are united by a glass transition with multi-colored wall decor. This place is used by the staff for informal meetings and meals during their free time.
2 GIS
The main thing office space equipped with several rooms for playing, reading and relaxing. All of them are decorated in a certain thematic design: exotic, marine or library.
Jimdo
The interior of the company's headquarters in Hamburg strikes the eye with its creativity, brightness and surprise. The decoration was made using textured wood, stone tiles, snow-white plaster and accessories designed in a marine theme.
"NPO Computer"
Employees of the Russian agency can enjoy a pleasant pastime in the original lounge bar called Karelia.
T-Systems
A large corporation has great game rooms, which are equipped with kicker tables, Xbox units with plasma displays, designer furniture and amazing decorations.
Radario
The break room for agency personnel is a spacious rooftop terrace of 200 sq. m. In summer, this space is equipped with umbrellas, sun loungers and exotic plants to create a calm and relaxed environment.
