Make your office a happy place

So here are our top tips for contented colleagues, enthused employees and a blissful boss! Put them together, and you’ll have a wonderful workplace!

• Make your office your own – While your office provider might not appreciate you painting the walls or ripping the carpet up (please don’t do that!), adding a few personal touches can make you feel more relaxed at work. How about some photographs hung up, or bringing in your favourite cushion or throw? A motivation board with a daily quote (like the popular Underground one) can lift staff morale and get you ready for the day.
  
• Confiscate the cubicle – Although it’s sometimes nice to shut yourself away and ‘get on with work’, we love open plan which encourages staff interaction and team collaboration.
  
• Thinking space – We all need to get away from the computer throughout the day, whether it’s to have some quiet thinking time, brainstorm, grab a bite to eat or a coffee, or simply to give your brain a break! At The Maltings we have bespoke PODS designed to suit your every need, as well as an onsite café, refreshment area and an outside heated courtyard. Take five minutes – or ten if you’ve got a nice boss! – and just chill!

• Spontaneity – Do you roll your eyes at the Monday 9:05am weekly meeting, or countdown every weekday until 12:25pm when you can eat your same-old soggy salad sandwiches in the staff room? While we appreciate routine is good and everyone knows where they stand (and when!), sometime it’s good to be a little spontaneous and break out of the monotony. Take your meeting outside, try some random team building like an office bake-off! Whatever you choose to do, stepping out of your comfort zone is a great motivational and energy booster. Smile and the whole world smiles with you – Walk into your office building as if you were boarding an aeroplane to a sunnier climate, or entering a chocolate factory, or as if you’d just seen your team score the winning goal…whatever floats your boat! The point is, if you feel positive and portray happiness, others will see that and feel a little happier themselves. Smiling is infectious!