What can you actually expect to be the stereotype? My years of experience easily show the following result:

Happy (or grumpy) guy sitting in front of a computer, wearing his expensive (or cheap) suit, sipping occasionally on a tasteful (ugly) coffee, having his bi-fold wallet placed on the desk (hiding it decently in the suit).

So the average person I just described looks like this:

Let’s dive a bit into the details.

The suit

This is a no brainer. In many offices, men are obliged to wear a suit. So not much of a choice you might think. Wrong! Tons of choices. You can choose from wide range of different types, brands, colors and thus obviously prices.

So is there any general pattern? I haven’t realized anything apart from the fact that the higher the position the more luxury textiles are worn.

The bi-fold wallet

The bi-fold wallet, says Aspire to be Different, can come with a matching briefcase. Doing that people really try to be different. This is not how the standard office worker looks like.

The wallet, containing all the important cards and cash, will be brought to the office in the coat or suit top. Once in the office, two positions seem to be common. First, the bi-fold wallet is prominently placed on the desk. Showing off in a way. Saying something like “hey guys, have you seen my wallet, I’m important”.

The second way is more subtle. The wallet simply stays in the coat or suit. Like there is no need to show off.

Coffee

What would we do without coffee? I don’t even want to imagine.

Have you ever seen an office without coffee? No way (well, probably apart from a tea compnay). I don’t even dare to imagine.

I think we established that after suits and wallets also coffee is a constant in the offices.

But why? According to Wikipedia, coffee is slightly addictive. Here we go. So it is no surprise that people like it and keep drinking it.

Wrap up

So we looked at three elements present in (nearly) all offices. I personally never worked in a place where they were missing. Let me know your experience and feel free to share a funny story related to the topic.

Let’s have a look at two of the most popular space types, plus some thoughts around how to optimize them, with design, productivity and employees top of mind.

Breakout Spaces

I think we all got the idea of a breakout space or room. Breakout of the current work world and focus on another topic.

Here are some considerations for such rooms:

• Is the room fun and inviting for staff? (Furniture (deco), color, design)
• Does it focus on important aspects? Place for laptops, enough light?
• Is the interior of the room – and thus the people inside – visible from the outside?

Conference Rooms

Not much of an explanation needed here. Conference rooms are simply rooms where conferences or meeting can take place. Personal experiences show though that not every room has the same warm and welcoming climate.

Consider:

• Do the facilities in the conference room support a productive working environment? (Whiteboards, TVs, chairs)
• Are the rooms in ease of reach? It probably sounds silly but imagines 10 people walking 5 minutes to reach the room. After a meeting, they also walk back. So altogether 100 minutes or nearly 2 hours of work gone.

In this post we only discussed to room types. There is obviously way more to say. So stay tuned.