Rate My Office
To take a break from the usual blogging trend of writing about installing, reviewing, using, abusing and otherwise working in and around the Internet, we thought we’d post a few of the things that we’ve done over the last few months to lighten up the NuBlue office.
Offices have a bit of a gruesome reputation, epitomised and no doubt unfairly reinforced by ‘The Office’ (even if we prefer ‘The I.T. Crowd over here). Although we benefit from not basing ourselves in a 20 floor call centre monstrosity of matching Ikea carpets, shared kitchens with angry notes from cleaners and budget office chairs clad in Abrupt Businessman Blue, white walls and grey floors can take their toll (even if you spend your day glued to an otherwise colourful monitor).
To be fair we could just crack open a window and admire the countryside but it’s been a bit too wet recently, so here are three NuBlue Steps (patent pending) to a better office space:
1 – We Bought Some Plants
When one member of staff brought a dishevelled potted plant in to work and refused to move it from his desk, a bout of what can only be called Yukka envy took hold in the office. Suffice to say the new Yukka is a lot bigger. As is the Dragon Tree. And the even bigger tree in the corner.
Plants aren’t just a way of making a Yukka with a chequered past feel small. They add a nice natural distraction to the room, looking after them is a welcome diversion and, so the story goes, they filter the air for you. If you’re going to say goodbye to your stuffy office courtesy of some greenery, we recommend that you go to a Garden Centre to order the plants – because then you can see if they look ill, and more importantly, you can ask if they will react well to intermittent watering and occasional dregs of coffee.
2 – We Bought Some Pictures
And why not? The best way to lighten up any room is to fill it up (well, that and draw the curtains, but we all know that makes it harder to see your monitor). So we’ve covered our walls with a few tasteful prints from Deviant Art and some web design posters that, like health and safety instructions, are only there to make it look like you will ever use them.
Many people (i.e. me) look around when they come across an obstacle in their work, and they look for something to break their train of thought, something to focus on while the problem sorts itself out in their head. Maybe you’re waiting for something to install, or the mountainous task you’re about to embark upon needs a deep breath and a bit of a sigh before you start. In this case, something interesting helps you wind down focusing on something else (resting your tired brain).
And, as we all know, you need to rest your eyes regularly in this job, because you don’t blink very often when you’re staring at a screen, and so your eyes dry out, which is why they feel tired, sore and strained. So all in all, having something worth staring at for a few moments of your day is a worthwhile investment.
3 – We Installed An Office Jukebox
A bit of background noise helps create a relaxed atmosphere and if you catch someone humming along to a tune the chances are they are happy (and happy people work quite well!). Rather than hide away in a corner with our headphones plugged in, or scowl at anyone daring to play music on their PC, we thought it would be a good idea to loop speakers around the office, and install a network Jukebox onto a spare mini-PC so everyone can queue, skip and enjoy music through the day.
We looked around a bit and settled for LANP3. It’s a freeware LAN jukebox. After installing it and it’s little MySQL Server, all we had to do was point it at our music collections and bookmark a web address. Through a browser page everyone has a set amount of credits (basically the number of tracks they can queue at any one time) and the ability to kick a track from the playlist at any time. On top of this there is a configurable auto-play function that will queue tracks if we haven’t and a built in indexer to help you search for the music you want.
After a few teething problems (largely based around the thrashing that indexing the music gave the poor little PC we installed it on) and working out who was going to have the remote connection to the PC for admin purposes we’ve had nothing but joy from the program. A volume control on the web interface would help but hey, why rain on their parade – the programmers have done a good job making something simple and effective.
If only they could write a program that could resolve the bitter disputes over whether Meatloaf should be allowed or not, and it would be perfect…
Do you think there’s something we’ve missed that we could have added to the office? (space limits do apply)
NuBlue is an award winning Lancaster Web Design Company and a UK Web Hosting provider. Please get in touch and we will be happy to discuss your requirements.
Follow Us on Twitter
