working conditions Archives - Switch - Digital & Brand

Happiness Champion

Kathleen — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:17:09 +0000

Being assigned as the ‘happiness champion’ on my second week of work came to me as a shock, I was like “wow, am I such a happy person?” But going through my past life experiences I was like “hell yeah I am a happy go lucky kind of girl”.
Being at the front desk of our offices makes me the first face my colleagues see at the very beginning of each workday. So as soon as I get to work I make myself a nice cup of tea and put on my cheerful smile to greet my awesome colleagues. It’s nice to chit chat a bit in the morning before everyone set their minds to their computer and start working, especially on a Monday – after the weekend everyone has something to say and what type of craziness they got themselves into. Isn’t everything better when you have nice sociable colleagues to work with? Of course it is!

What does happiness at work really achieve?

Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them, they have more energy and are therefore more efficient at everything they do, have a more optimistic outlook and optimists are way more successful and productive.
Happy people are way more motivated – when you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things at work and therefore increase your productivity. When you’re happy at work the occasional mistake doesn’t bother you much. You pick yourself up, learn
from it and move on. You also don’t mind admitting to others that you screwed up, but you simply take responsibility, apologize and fix it. This relaxed attitude means that fewer mistakes are made, and that you’re more likely to learn from them.
Happy people make better, more informed decisions and are able to prioritize their work. If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas, and in our line of work creative ideas are the most important ones!
There seems to be a cognitive process that sets up when people are feeling good, and this leads to more flexible, fluent and original thinking.
So what do I do to make everyone at the office simply happier? It’s just simple things, but these little things make a huge change to someone’s perspective when they have a busy schedule. So I make it a priority to help others in the office when I’m a little loose from my own work – it could be anything from a phone call to filing to chasing payments etc. but a tiny bit of help here and there makes everyone feel better. Even a smile while passing in the corridor helps, so my main job is keeping a nice big smile on my face, it helps everyone to see a happy face in the office.
I love baking and baking makes me happy, so I also bring some of my happiness to work – and believe me everyone feels happier when there is a cake in the kitchen!

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Last Friday Night: The Egg Drop Project

Teri — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:22:30 +0000

Last week was a pretty stressful one at the office. So I figured: what better way to unwind than to give the team a chance to throw eggs out of a third storey window?
Allow me to explain, starting with the disclaimer that no roads or cars were vandalised during this activity.
The Egg Drop Project is a classic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already heard of it. The group is split into teams of 3/4, and each is given a raw egg and a limited selection of materials to choose from. The point is to build a structure using those materials that will keep the egg from breaking when dropped from a certain height.

Round 1: Easy

Teams could choose a maximum of 12 items from the following:

2 balloons
a handful of cotton wool
a handful of polystyrene thingamagigs
1 cardboard cup
30cm of masking tape
1 straw
1 kebab stick
1 sheet of newspaper
1 rubber band
3 squares of toilet paper
1 plastic bag
1m of cling film

Two of the teams opted to bundle up their egg in as many layers as possible before placing it between two semi-inflated balloons, providing protection from absolutely every angle. The third team went for a contraption that will maximise bounce on impact while preventing the egg cup from hitting the ground. Check out the super anxious moments of tension, captured only minutes before the great egg drop:

Team 1: Tom, Melissa, Mike and Bre

Team 2: Kristie, Roderick and Craig

Team 3: Andrea, Rik, Matt and Tina

The time had come. There was no going back. It was out the balcony, one contraption at a time, waiting to be inspected by the anxious team members waiting in the street below. You could cut the tension with a knife. Whose egg would survive the fall? Whose dreams would be smashed into a mess of yellow slime?

As it turns out: nobody’s. All 3 eggs returned safe and sound, with not so much as a crack to prove that they’d just fallen 3 storeys. Ah well – on to round 2!

Round 2: Not-so-easy

This time, the teams could only choose 10 items from the following:

1 rubber band
1 straw
1 kebab stick
10cm of masking tape
2 squares of toilet paper
1 sheet of newspaper

Things just got real serious. Ideas included:

None of which were any good, I’m afraid. All three packages hit the ground with an almighty splat that was heard all the way up in the boardroom.
So yeah – no clear winners, no clear losers, but a pretty fun session nonetheless.
Omelette, anyone?

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You are what music you listen to

Craig Macdonald — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 12:35:10 +0000

Having music playing in the office is always going to be a sensitive affair, simply because music is so subjective.
That said, there is always music that creates an atmosphere in the office that can help to put the team in the right mindset. Be it corny cheesy hits from the 80’s or singer songwriter hits, finding that perfect sonic blend creates a pleasurable working atmosphere, and let’s face it, working in silence can be a bit of a downer.
Here are 10 tracks that have been playing at our office on repeat for the past month:

1. Midnight Star – Midas Touch

2. Baltimore – Tarzan Boy

3. Fatima Yamaha – Love Invaders

4. Tito Puente – Oye Como Va

5. M83 – Wait

6. Guts – And the living is easy

7. Colonel Abrams – Trapped

8. Baccarà – Yes sir I can boogie

9. Laid Back – Sunshine Reggae

10. Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby

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