by Gillian Morris

With summer behind us and flu season fast approaching, it’s time to consider how to manage sickness in the workplace. We’ve all been there: going into work with a massive cold or flu, medicated to the nth degree, to prove our mettle as a tough employee.

Unfortunately, appearing “tough” to your coworkers is the only benefit of working sick. Coming to work sick just makes other people sick, which significantly reduces workplace productivity and ultimately costs businesses money.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, paid sick days seem to be the best solution to the problem of “contagious presenteeism,” or what the NBER calls showing up to work with an illness. When workers have paid sick leave, they are less likely to practice contagious presenteeism and more likely to stay home, which keeps workplaces healthier.
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For a great summary of the NBER working paper, check out the Dallas Morning News.

Multiple healthcare experts are warning against the seemingly ubiquitous treats in offices across the United States.

​"Cake Culture" is, as Michael Grothaus describes in his Fast Company article "5 Ways Employers Can Help Employees Fight Fat at Work":

Most of us are very familiar with cake culture and some of us even perpetuate it (myself included)! How can we break this association between workplace rewards and junk food while maintaining a positive, rewarding work environment? One solution that Grothaus suggests is the use of gift cards as a substitute for food rewards. Although gift cards sound expensive, they cost approximately the same as a box of donuts, maybe even less. A $5 Amazon gift card, for example, is significantly less expensive than coffee and donuts for 10-15 people.

​Grothaus' article discusses a few other solutions, too. Read more here.

At Statton Design Group, we are always on the lookout for trends in commercial interior design that will help us tailor our services and furniture selections to the changing tastes of our Dallas Fort Worth area clients. Every Tuesday we will feature a trend that has caught our attention and discuss how this trend is affecting our approach to commercial interior design with our local DFW clients and whether or not it's here to stay.​

In his Financial Times piece, Josh Spero argues the case for better corporate art. He contends that most offices intentionally select art that is bland, inoffensive, and formless, in an attempt to avoid offending clients and visitors. This outsider-facing, obsequious approach, Spero asserts, is extremely detrimental for those who are forced to view the art day in and day out: the staff and employees.

​He recommends that organizations choose art that is challenging, visceral, and engaging, as often these interesting pieces appeal both to outsiders, more so than sycophantic generics, and simultaneously elevate the creativity and engagement of those inside the office.

​Read more of Spero's fascinating piece here.

The most effective way to reduce noise and increase privacy in an office space is to start at the beginning: construction. Walls and floors can be the best sound barriers if the materials used to build them are sound-absorbing.  Sound-absorption is defined according to two different measurements, the NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) and the SAA (Sound Absorption Average). Both are decimal numbers between 0 and 1; the higher the decimal, the greater a material's sound absorptivity.  Unfortunately, the cheapest and most common building materials do not meet the threshold of 0.35 required to considered a true "sound absorber." ​

​If sound-absorption is crucial to your office space, start by sitting down with your building manager, architect, or construction overseer to ensure that the thickness and content of your building materials is compatible with your noise or privacy concerns.

If you are looking for privacy, you can't go wrong with walls. Enclose an area and...boom! Instant privacy. But if you can't build walls into your design from the outset, you will need to look at some alternative solutions...

As you have probably noticed from the above table, one of the best sound absorbers is carpet. For this reason, carpet is the #1 non-structural method for keeping an office space quiet. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, fabric furnishings are good sound absorbers. The key to these "soft" fabrics' absorption power is their ability to trap sound waves between layers of fabric and padding. Once sound waves enter these materials, they encounter resistance that impedes their escape, therefore reducing the overall volume of the sound that is transmitted. Velour fabric is particularly good at this, so go ahead and indulge in that beautiful velour/velvet sofa you've always wanted!

The final step to securing a quiet and private office space is through the use of Acoustic products. Acoustic products have become increasing more available and affordable as demand for them has risen. Here are two of Statton Design Group's favorites:

Best Sound Solution: Snowsound Acoustic Panels
​​We are thrilled to have recently begun selling Snowsound products and we can't say enough about their incredible selection. Their divider panels, floating acoustic panels, wall panels, and cubbies, create multiple sound-absorbing barriers that are both functional and beautiful.

​Best Privacy Solution: Framery Acoustics
​We discovered Framery at NeoCon this past June and we immediately fell in love with their sleek design and in-your-face functionality. Need privacy? Enter one of their phone booths for immediate sound-proof isolation. Need a private meeting space? Enter one of their Framery Q booths for two. These products can be dropped in to any room and become an instant privacy solution for an open-plan space.

We hope these ideas help you add some privacy and quiet to your workspace!

In reaction to increasingly problematic open-plan offices, many businesses are exploring designs that articulate their spaces into multiple "zones," each with a specific structure and function.

​Open-plan design was once touted as the ultimate collaborative office solution and it promised increased interaction among workers as well as enhanced employee engagement. Sadly, after years of analyzing these open workplaces, experts have concluded that they fall quite short of their original aims. Recent studies have shown that worker peace of mind, productivity and focus suffer in open-plan spaces and that enclosed private office spaces "clearly outperformed" open plan designs in empirical measures of workplace quality.

​Segmented or articulated spaces are the proposed solution to open-plan. The idea is simple: create separate spaces within an office, each with a distinct function, so workers can choose to inhabit various areas according to their individual needs for either privacy or collaboration.

Many large corporations have already applied this concept to their headquarters, for example, Dropbox and Square. As Dropbox's new headquarters design in San Francisco is described by Fast Company, "The finished Dropbox headquarters mixes public, semipublic, and private spaces, each catering to a different kind of employee mood. It looks almost like a warehouse of different classic film sets, where employees can choose the world they want to work in that day." Similarly, Square offices are said to have been designed to work like a city, with various zones, plazas, and avenues.

​The key to the success of these articulated spaces will be their flexibility to adapt to the specific and varied needs of their employees over time, something which open-plan spaces have failed to do. We will simply have to wait and observe how these new office designs might affect workplace quality in the future, for good or ill.

Nothing makes the daily grind of a Monday morning more bearable than a piping-hot cup of coffee. Today, at 6:30 AM, I arose to that amazing Arabica smell while my husband was making his first cuppa joe and it very nearly made me...smile. I know right?! On an early Monday morning?! Ridiculous! But such is the power of coffee!

​Turns out, coffee is more than just a Monday morning miracle worker; it's a genuine, scientifically-grounded, health-boosting phenom. That's right, our nation's rise and grind stimulant of choice is good for you​! And very good for you, at that: Coffee has been linked to lowering risks of depression, skin cancer, and cirrhosis of the liver while also delaying Alzheimer's disease, improving cognition, among other significant benefits. Check out this Huffington Post benefits of coffee round-up for even more reasons to enjoy that Monday morning cup of joe, and drink up!

One of our favorite furniture products is the Connect It series of desking from Office Furniture Distributors (OFD). (In fact, we love it so much that we use Connect-It for our  Statton Design Group office desks!) We love this innovative product because it is modular, modern, colorful, durable, and completely customizable! It's also exceptionally affordable and has recently expanded into areas beyond desking like conference tables.

We're excited to provide this high-quality product to even more clients in the future! For more information, check out the OFD website and contact us to learn more about the deep list-price discounts we offer on all OFD products.

Want to save money on your business' next renovation? Want to make sure everything runs smoothly from beginning to end, from architectural drawings to art installation? Want to make sure your renovation represents your brand and is a space you and your employees will love working in? Want to make sure your office has a timeless style that won't look dated in a few years? Hire an interior designer.

Interior designers ensure the success of a project by streamlining communication from start to finish. Because a designer single-handedly fills the roles of architect, construction overseer and interior decorator, time won't be wasted trying to pass information from one party to another. At Statton Design Group, we know how integral streamlined communication is to our client's projects and how much money can be saved  by having an expert at the helm from the very beginning. Hiring an interior designer is an invaluable investment in the success of your project.

​Unfortunately, many businesses attempt to cut costs on their renovations by not hiring a designer. Often we will enter a client's project at the furniture stage, only to find that many aspects of the space's design need to be significantly altered. Retroactively fixing these problems ultimately costs businesses far more time and money than they had initially hoped to save. All sorts of issues can be easily prevented if a designer is hired at the outset.

​So when you approach your next project, don't let the price of a designer scare you. Hire a professional who can guide your project from start to finish with expertise; they are worth every penny!

Put up that cool piece of art! Paint that accent wall! Get that Parsons table! All of these trends are fine and even beneficial in moderation. With tried-and-true finishes in place, you can afford to add pops of in vogue décor while remaining consistent with the aesthetic of the space.

The great thing about applying trends strategically is that they are easily changed. Swapping out art or repainting a wall is a piece of cake and can be done regularly without too much hassle.​ As a general rule, we suggest that clients ask themselves one question before selecting any trendy décor item: Is this consistent with my brand aesthetic? If so, go for it!

Historically, modular furniture has earned a negative reputation through its association with the notorious cubicle. Today's modular furniture options are sleeker, more open, customizable, and more conducive to a flexible office environment.

​One of our favorite modular furniture options is the Connect It series of products by Office Furniture Distributors, a local Dallas area vendor based in Carrollton, TX. Need to change a layout, add a desk, increase your storage, or remove a divider panel? Connect It makes all of these tasks flexible, affordable and easy.

Easiest way to make your space more flexible? Put casters on your furniture! This enhanced mobility allows you to easily move furniture to different areas of an office depending on the varying needs of the day. On-the-go layout change is exactly what many businesses are looking for when enhancing their space's flexibility.

​We love Wisconsin-based PS Furniture's Snap™ portable tables for this very reason: they are light, durable, mobile, and folding for easy storage. Can't get much more flexible than that!

Breakout areas are the conference rooms of the flexible office. Breakout areas are great for a few reasons: 1) they naturally segment open plan spaces into areas with discrete functions, 2) they are often easy to erect and easy to move (a la casters!) and 3) they seemingly materialize collaboration and creativity among employees by providing all of the amenities of a conference room space without the aloof formality of slick leather seating.

Mayline, another one of our Wisconsin-based vendors, has a fantastic product for such areas called Keep. Keep is a modular system that allows clients to customize their breakout areas with fold-out tables, media options, whiteboards, walls, storage, and much more. We love working with Mayline and we're very excited to use their Keep collection in some of our client's breakout areas.

Whiteboards are a stand-in image of collaboration and are also extremely effective at enabling workplaces to become more flexible. Strategically placing whiteboards on the few walls in an open-plan space makes every wall an opportunity for collaboration, meetings, or instant breakout sessions.

​Our favorite markerboards are glass. The one shown above is made by Ghent and comes in a variety of colors and customizable options. Glass is a sharp-looking alternative to traditional whiteboards that can double as a projection surface or display area without appearing cheap or out-of-place.

We love using color in our client's spaces. Many companies have been utilizing color as a way to code various areas according to function or activity. This makes for very flexible offices as modifying the function of an area or its activities is as easy as changing the color.