Picture this; sitting in an office for eight hours a day, staring at the same computer screen while crammed in a room with who knows how many other employees, which most likely, if you're in London, does not have air conditioning. Sounds fantastic, right? Or maybe this scenario seems all too familiar to the pains of the industrial workweek so many of us have become a slave to. Experts in organizational communication have been saying for years that employees must find a balance of creativity and constraint within the organizational environment to enjoy work and increase productivity.
Today, employees want a better quality of life. We want to enjoy ourselves and feel that we deserve no less, as goes the motto 'you only live once'. Despite increasing unemployment rates in many countries, individuals want to enjoy what they do, want to feel like their employers care about them, and want to be happy with the work they produce. All of which come out of a freeing, encouraging and supportive work environment.
Many organizations around the world have noticed that creativity emerges amongst employees as a strategic response to the toil and limitation of the work environment. Companies like Google are taking huge steps to make sure their employees are happy, healthy, well fed, and of course productive. Google offices around the globe include perks such as onsite gyms, personal trainers, masseuses, sleeping pods, doctors offices, laundry services, fire poles, slides, eco-friendly cars available for employee use, calming aquarium lounges, and so much more. Not to mention, all of these services are provided to the employees FOR FREE! Google supplies their employees with gourmet lunches of every style and cuisine imaginable; the company even grows its own organic produce on site! In the summer time Google encourages a friendly and sociable work environment by having a barbeque at lunchtime outside in the courtyard.
Google employees swear by the revolutionary and creative organizational structure, professing that it is an empowering environment. This unconventional company composition allows each employee to feel like they are equally important, informed, and appreciated as much as the next, no matter his or her job title or employment longevity. Additionally, Google functions on a method they have termed "20% time offers", which give engineers the opportunity to take 20% off of time spent working on central projects to go imagine, explore, and create new ideas and inventions. The 20% offer has spawned groundbreaking Google developments such as Google News.
Google executives agree that to stay at the top of the technology curve every organizational member must feel the perfect balance between fun and work. Google encourages employee collaboration by promoting an extremely open and social office atmosphere. Mario Queiroz, VP of Google Product Management, stated that every conversation had inside the office is a genuine and significant exchange between people who consider themselves more than friends. Other companies are taking note of the prosperity associated with Google's social attitude towards work, as organizations around the world have implemented policies that encourage employees to join networking groups in the area. Even locally an emphasis on socializing has made its presence known on the business scene as employers are recommending employees join business groups such as BNI North London. Executives at BNI and North London business group members alike rave about the fun, friendly, freeing, and thought provoking environment at BNI North London networking parties.
Increasing numbers of business professionals are catching wind of this new creative and stimulating work life. As people want to make the most out of their lives more and more employees are demanding the right to have their cake, eat it, and ENJOY it too!
Ham and High BNI North London business network is a professional North London Business Group offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, referrals.
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