"Day"cation

Frequent readers of Office Envy know that we almost always write as we.
But today I (I!) really need to break out and write as one...because this day is happening to just this one person, and because if the term day-cation turns into anything I (I!) want credit for it!

Today, I am taking a day-cation - more intuitively but less rhymingly called a "desk-cation" since I am working but on a day long vacation from my desk.

Here's how my day-cation came about.
Today had all the underpinnings of a work day headed for disaster.
The last two days I was traveling for business and unable to check the boxes off the to-do list like I normally would. Today I was supposed to be in a conference from 9-5, so I woke up at 6:30 to check some boxes before the work day began.

But as I frantically rifled through my bag for a fourth time it began to sink in that I had really lost the key fob I need to log into any of my work applications.

The plan was falling apart before my eyes. I wouldn't be able to get into the building without that key fob. Wouldn't be able to log into my computer from anywhere else either. How could I bang out that hour of work I was planning to accomplish before the conference started? The tech folk at the office don't arrive until 9 am - and they are the only ones (closer than their counter parts in India) who can do anything about this missing key fob issue.

Now- this author has long believed that everything happens for a reason (and, incidentally, that "everything ends up OK, if things aren't OK, it isn't the end"), and now, 6 hours after this day began in infamy and wound its way through tears and the West Village (looking for the damn key fob) I am realizing that everything really does happen for a reason because I have stumbled upon a work-life changing concept: a "Day-cation".

Once the tech team had arranged for a replacement fobs and the building security team ushered me in, rather than heading to the usual corner cubicle -- where, incidentally, I couldn't stay for long because the rest of my team would be there asking why I wasn't at the conference-- I bee-lined for a "phone room" and have holed up in there for the last solid 4 hours being blissfully productive, checking off boxes and ticking off to-dos and feeling generally cozy (my cup of tea helps with that) and effective (this morning's coffee helped with that).

And so I propose the following thesis to all those out there who are feeling a nagging case of a horrible day at work descending: if you can't take a vacation, take a day-cation, and switch up the scenery. My day-cation has left me feeling refreshed and ready to face my desk again with dignity (tomorrow, that is).

We're getting a(nother) makeover

How does that old sing songy diddy go? First comes love, then comes marriage...?

Well, in our hot-headed, serially entrepreneurial, act first-think later life, we have a version of the saying that goes like this:

"First comes idea, then comes business-cards-and-godaddy.com-and-a-twitter-handle-and-a-blog-and-networking-events-and-emotional-roller-coasters...and then catch your breath."

But that doesn't bother us one bit (fine, one bit, but that's all. Not a bit more than one bit)

It takes a while to understand your own identity, and we're just not the type to sit around on a good idea, waiting to figure it out completely before we get started.

One day a few months ago we had an idea for a site that celebrated unique office decor, design, supplies and services by showcasing interesting work places and interesting people in their work environments.
At that point, we were new to the blogging game, but we stepped confidently into the blogosphere with all of the stupid courage of a cliff diver. We felt on top of the world - and driven by adrenaline we figured we might as well make the leap.

A few hours after the idea dawned on us, we'd bought the domain name and six days later - thanks to a rainy weekend - we got the site up and off the ground. It looked like crap. But we wrote. And people read. And we told people about it. And they nodded and they smiled and they told us we were glowing about it. And it was good.

But now it's been 3 months. One month of which we spent traipsing around Europe trying to forget what a computer was in order to find out whether when we were re-introduced to our old life we would actually like it as much as we thought we did when we were caught up in the momentum of it.

The day after we returned from vacation, we posted for the first time in a month and it felt right. So we kept writing. And reading other people's blogs.

And all this other-blog reading has given us a serious case of blog-design envy but also a much needed shot in the arm of optimism that this project can actually be something.

So we're going under the knife for a major blog-lift so we can go to market looking as good as it feels to be growing Office Envy.

We've partnered with Hanna Seabrook of GADABOUT to redesign our site and create for us a great new logo.

We're excited about it, and hope you are too!

If you have ideas about what you'd like our site to look like, let us know at OfficeEnvy@Gmail.com or on Twitter @Office_Envy

We're Baa-ack

Hello Desk-Setters! We're back - and boy does it feel good.

We missed you over the last couple of weeks- we really did.

And we hope you'll excuse the interruption that was the last three weeks whilst the Office Envy team traipsed through 8 countries in Europe. Pictures to come!


While we were there we checked out some of Scandinavia's most interesting design stores.
We checked out France and Italy's luxurious leather office accouterments.
But mostly we just checked out.
We didn't pick up a cell phone for 21 days - we kept as far away from the internet as possible - and though we felt horribly guilty for abandoning the blog for a few weeks - as it so happens, the world kept turning and now we're back, refreshed and ready to get back in the game.


Today was our first day back in the office after this three week trek and it was of a bit of a mixed bag emotionally. Yesterday, about 8 hours into a 12 hour plane ride (and what felt like 8 hours into "The Tourist" playing on the mini screen on the back of the seat in front of us) we seriously considered the pros and cons of quitting our day job altogether to continue a life of leisure indefinitely.


But then we thought better of it. Our job isn't so bad. It pays the bills. And provides us with an office - which we like. And healthcare, which we need. And moreover, by this point we'd given up on "The Tourist" and were on to "The Company Men" where a whiny Ben Affleck mopes through an hour and forty minutes of first joblessness after being laid off -- and then officelessness when he succumbs to his wife's passive aggressive demands that he find "a job, any job" and becomes a carpenter -- until finally achieving the ultimate coup and being reinstated into office life. The office is a makeshift conglomeration of desks thrown together in a old abandoned warehouse - but after the 9 months of dejectedness that Affleck's character has been through - it might as well be the Taj Mahal.


When we got back into the office today we couldn't tell if it felt like forever had passed since we'd last saddled up the old swivel chair - but we did appreciate some of the little things even more than usual. That free ice coffee tasted so good and so free (actually, anything not paid for in Euros feels practically free); our co-workers were excited to see us back (if only so they could stop doing our work for us!) and our beloved 1/2 gallon water jug was waiting for us with open arms and a air tight lid.


What about your office do you most look forward to coming back to after time away?
Let us know at OfficeEnvy@Gmail.com or Office_Envy on Twitter.

Are We Thinking Too Seriously about What the Desk Set Is?

Over the last couple of days we've been thinking about what it means to be part of the Desk Set. What do members of this tribe have in common? Well, we show up at an office (most days) and we care about the design of that space. But beyond that, is there a glue that binds this community? Are we all alike in some other way?

Seriously, we've been wrestling with the issue. We, the Desk Set, are having a bit of an identity crisis.

Although please don't tell us it's a midlife one -- because we're only two months old and we've got big things to accomplish before this is all said and done.

Anyway, we figured out long ago that when something is bothering us, there's really only one way to deal with it. And that's to write about it. So we put some thoughts down on "paper".

We hope you'll let us know what you think at OfficeEnvy@Gmail.com or Office_Envy on Twitter.

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Every decade or so a new phrase emerges into the popular lexicon, allowing us to easily refer to a subset of the population whose energy influences the culture of the era. There were hippies of the 1960s and ‘70s followed by the yuppies of the 1980s; then came the soccer moms of the ‘90s, and the Nascar dads of the early 21^st century. Certainly you’ve heard the terms, maybe you’ve even thrown them around yourself. Together we’ve worn them down into clichés. Now, as the second decade of the new millennium picks up momentum, a new faction is gaining force.

Enter the Desk-Set, a generation of business people so inspiring, inventive and exciting that they make running a business look as sexy as a strut down the runway and desk-setting as thrilling as jetsetting. The desk-set blurs the boundaries between work and play. They work at companies like Facebook, Apple and Google. They carry laptops, smart phones, ipads and tweet from all of them. And yes they have desks, but their lives are not constrained by the walls of cubicles.

via Encadria Staffing Solutions


This new crowd is may be young, casual and cool, but they are painstaking in their preferences. They are discriminating and discerning when it comes to design – from the usability of an app in the digital world to the livability of their space in the physical one. They work smarter, communicate faster, and share their opinions more widely than their predecessors. They infuse inventive and sustainable design into all elements of their life, from their wardrobe to their home, and their offices are no different.

Peel back the curtain and look inside today’s most exciting businesses and you’ll find that they have this in common: inspired office design. These companies understand that the environment in which business takes place is both a reflection of their culture as well as a driver of it. Brands have always been built on the images that they convey to the public – and recently the most successful companies have turned that eye for imagery inward. The result is a large scale transformation of the space where work is conducted.

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Two Takes on Office Design: WSJ and NYT Face Off

Recently two major media sources each published an opinion piece on the topic of office design.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal pieces differ in focus. Unsurprisingly the NYT article takes a design angle --"Design itself is the problem because it is being used to solve the wrong ones" -- while the WSJ approaches the subject by considering the implications for productivity -- "spaces can also help us to become more creative and attentive".

But both lead to the conclusion:
office design matters.

The articles are excerpted below along with links to full text.
Which article's view point do you identify with?
Let us know through email (OfficeEnvy@Gmail.com) or Twitter (Office_Envy).

Excerpted from the New York Times. Full Text Here:




Beyond the Cubicle
By Allison Arieff

"....At the end of his life, Robert Propst, creator of the cubicle system, called his invention 'monolithic insanity,' yet we seem unable to tread down any other path. Longstanding calls for the Redesign of the Cubicle continue, in recent articles like “Designs to Make You Work Harder,” a roundup of “new” approaches to office design in The Wall Street Journal, and, in Fast Company, “Redesigning: Cubicles,” the goal of which was to “upgrade the corporate killjoy.” The topics seemed disconcertingly out of touch. Apart from maybe generating a little business for the contract furniture industry, what was the point? A bigger re-think of the world of work seems to be in order.

Just about any story on this subject in the last decade has featured pleasant if not wholly original ideas like bringing more natural light into spaces, playing with organic, softer forms and incorporating homey elements like Oriental rugs, plants and personal photographs. But every idea has remained firmly entrenched in existing workspace typologies — the cubicle, the corner office — and ignored entirely the growing legions who work in different ways or in different settings (if they’re able to find work at all).

In 2009, the entrepreneur/designer Nathan Shedroff published a book called “Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable.” His provocative title was meant to inspire conversation about sustainability, but I’ll borrow it here as a means of generating some more creative thinking about work — how and where (and why) we do it.

Adjustable desks, foldout benches and louvered shades have their place but, to paraphrase Shedroff, furniture is not the problem. Just as with climate change, there is an overwhelming tendency to tackle serious challenges with consumer goods. But in the same way that bamboo floors, hybrid SUVs and eco-couture haven’t done much to curb carbon emissions, designing (and buying) more stuff for offices, no matter how sleek or sustainable it is, likely won’t help reset the culture of work.

Eamon O’Kane

Design itself is the problem because it is being used to solve the wrong ones — despite its best intentions. The designer’s “toolkit,” to throw in a term much overused in the industry, has to expand beyond noodling with the cubicle. I’m willing to bet that almost any office worker would happily swap Webcam lighting that won’t make you look, when you’re on Skype, like you’ve “been out partying all night” (as Steelcase’s head of design explained in Fast Company), for solutions to more pressing work issues like, I don’t know, burnout or fear of losing health coverage."

Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal. Full Text Here:

Building a Thinking Room
By Jonah Lehrer

"...Recently, scientists have begun to focus on how architecture and design can influence our moods, thoughts and health. They've discovered that everything—from the quality of a view to the height of a ceiling, from the wall color to the furniture—shapes how we think.

Recently, for example, researchers at Ohio State University and the National Institute of Mental Health tracked 60 white-collar workers at a government facility in the central U.S. Some had been randomly assigned to an old office building, with low ceilings and loud air-conditioners. The rest got to work in a recently renovated space filled with skylights and open cubicles.

For the next 17 months, the scientists tracked various metrics of emotional well-being, such as heart-rate variability and levels of stress hormone. They discovered that people working in the older building were significantly more stressed, even when they weren't at work. The scientists said the effect was big enough to be a potential risk factor for heart disease.

But spaces can also help us to become more creative and attentive. In 2009, psychologists at the University of British Columbia studied how the color of a background—say, the shade of an interior wall—affects performance on a variety of mental tasks. They tested 600 subjects when surrounded by red, blue or neutral colors—in both real and virtual environments.

The differences were striking. Test-takers in the red environments, were much better at skills that required accuracy and attention to detail, such as catching spelling mistakes or keeping random numbers in short-term memory.

Millenium Images

Though people in the blue group performed worse on short-term memory tasks, they did far better on tasks requiring some imagination, such as coming up with creative uses for a brick or designing a children's toy. In fact, subjects in the blue environment generated twice as many "creative outputs" as subjects in the red one.

Why? According to the scientists, the color blue automatically triggers associations with openness and sky, while red makes us think of danger and stop signs. (Such associations are culturally mediated, of course; Chinese, for instance, tend to associate red with prosperity and good luck.)

It's not just color. A similar effect seems to hold for any light, airy space. In 2006, Joan Meyers-Levy, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's school of management, studied the relationship between ceiling height and thinking style. She demonstrated that, when people are in a high-ceilinged room, they're significantly better at seeing the connections between seemingly unrelated subjects. In one experiment, undergraduates came up with nearly 25% more connections between different sports, such as chess and basketball, when sitting in a loft-like space than in a room with an 8-foot ceiling. Instead of focusing on particulars, they were better able to zoom out and see what various things had in common."

What Does Your Dream Office Look Like?

There was a time, long, long ago, before Office Envy was even a twinkle in our eye, when we thought we knew what it meant to work in business.

It meant working at an investment bank counting money, or whatever it is they do (we never were invited to find out firsthand). And we knew exactly which one we wanted to work at.

Goldman Sachs. Really for no other reason than the half baked notion that with a name like Goldman, it had to be...gilded. As in the office. We spent hours picturing ourselves in an office where the windows ran floor to ceiling, but everything else would be gold. The walls would be a shimmering glittery gelt. Gold upholstery and warm wood toned desks. The open, airy spaces twinkled with gold dust.

Imagine our surprise then, when we toured the place and found out that not even the logo is gold and the office -- at least in New York City -- is an open trading floor packed with computer monitors and clinically white desks.
So that was a bummer.
But not a loss entirely because we learned something about ourselves. We dream in the language of office design. And it turns out, we're not the only ones.

Last night we turned to a friend and asked, "What does your dream office look like," and before we knew it we were five minutes deep into her somewhat rambling but nonetheless impassioned description of a loft like work space with wooden floors and modern art on every wall and palm fronds in the corners and towards the end of her description, though the music was loud, we're pretty sure we heard something about her dad as the cheerful receptionist serving lemonade (...we're not sure either, ask Freud).

The point is, we asked what the dream office looks like - and there was an answer. But why wouldn't there be? We, the desk set, spend so much time in our offices how could we not have a dream for what type of space we would spend all these hours in?
The space where we spend our working lives is part our lives as much as it's part of our work.

It's not uncommon to have a dream job. Why should a dream office be any different?
It's a part of the vision after all.
Tell us yours.