What stands out in that Waterloo pic are the five identical towers on the upper, left. Why? Otherwise, it's not bad. Reminds me of Winnipeg, with the spread out cluster of towers.
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Originally Posted by casper
I have always found the "free coffee" thing weird in the public sector. There is a fear of spending money on coffee. Weird schemes where they collect money from employees into coffee funds and administer that. The attitude in the private sector is more of, "why are we paying staff salaries to spend time running a coffee fund, when it costs less to just buy the coffee".
Getting back to work-space. I don't know. The "old school" environments where you still have enclosed offices are nice, but they look dated. The new modern with bench seating looks trendy, modern actually quite nice. I get the impression it is form over function. Old fashion cubicles are somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum and I think that is what most people are in (private or public).
While having nice offices helps, I think what makes for grumpy employees goes deeper.
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On the whole coffee thing, providing it to your employees is also better for the environment by avoiding disposable cups, and probably results in more time working because they don't have to go downstairs to Starbucks three times a day.
As for office layouts, for sure, the old cubical farms are depressing. No longer the best model. In 2010s, we saw the rise of Office 2.0, brighter offices with fewer and shorter partition walls that still gave everyone their privacy, but resulted in a brighter environment and increased collaboration, while saving some space. The new Office 3.0 where it's line of desks, no walls, no privacy, no cabinet to put away your coat and shoes, (and now no assigned desks). Now that's terrible. Also cramming more people on a floor, so I have a feeling the washroom situation is no longer to code.