7 Things Your Employees Hate About The Office

Keeping your employees happy is one of the most important things for a boss. You can spend all the time you like reviewing sales figures, planning marketing strategies and pushing for sales, but if your employees aren’t happy in the workplace, it won’t make any difference. Productivity will be low and profits will suffer. There’s a lot of different reasons that employees might be unhappy in the workplace and you can’t please everybody all of the time. However, there are some things about the office that most people hate.

Sorting out those common gripes will make everybody a lot happier and stop them from getting distracted. To help you smooth things over in the office, we’ve put together a list of the most common grievances that employees have in the office.

Here are the 7 things your employees hate about the office! Read them carefully!

Temperature

Bad temperature is something that comes up very often. You’ll know exactly what we’re talking about if you’ve ever tried to work in an office that’s either freezing cold or boiling hot. Either way, it’s awful. It’s such a common problem because everybody has their own idea about what the perfect temperature is.

Obviously, you’re going to have to find a happy medium. It’s vital that you maintain a good temperature because it’s been directly linked to productivity.

A lot of research has been done into the optimum temperature for the office and the old figure that people used to work with was somewhere between 70 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit. However, that’s outdated research because it was based on an office full of men.

A modern office is more likely to have an even spread of men and women so that figure needs some updating. Women tend to be slightly more susceptible to the cold so if you’ve got more female employees, consider bumping the temperature up a few degrees.

You also need to consider the layout of the office of itself. If you’ve got high ceilings then it’ll be harder for the room to maintain heat, that means you should increase the temperature a little bit. Equally, if you’ve got large windows, the room is going to get hotter in the summer so whack the air conditioning on high.

However, during the winter, those windows are going to let out more heat so you need the temperature to be a bit higher. It’s so difficult to get right because everybody is going to have their own ideas but the best thing to do is just ask around and see if everybody’s happy.

If everybody is complaining that it’s too cold then obviously you’ll know what to do.

Uncomfortable Furniture

Anybody that’s worked in an outdated office will tell you that the worst thing about it is the chairs. Those cheap old ones with a broken back aren’t going to offer any support and your employees will spend their time shuffling about trying to get comfortable instead of working.

A bad office chair is also going to play havoc with their posture which has loads of negative effects. Replace your outdated furniture with smart office chairs instead, you’ll make your employees far more comfortable.

If you make them sit on broken old office chairs, their bad posture will give them a backache and it’s even been known to increase stress which is just another way of making the workplace unpleasant for them.

As well as their desk area, you should create a comfortable break area where they can put their feet up. Downtime is one of the most important things when you’re creating an office. If people don’t have proper breaks, they won’t feel recharged when they get back to work.

Noise

Noise has a huge effect on productivity. Personally, I can’t work very well in complete silence. I like a little background noise but if things are too loud I can’t concentrate.

Some people like to work without any noise whatsoever that’s why a noisy office is one of the biggest complaints that people have about the office.

You’re never going to completely eradicate any noise in the main office area, it just isn’t going to happen.

There are still things you can do though. It might seem crazy, but adding more noise has been proven to make a room sound quieter.

Studies have shown that people find talking distracting, but they’re not affected if the words aren’t audible.

A bit of background noise to cover speaking can actually help people to work more effectively. You should also create some silent areas for those people that prefer to work without any noise at all.

Equally, you should create some noisy zones for people that like to work with a bit of hustle and bustle around them.

Using sound absorbing materials also helps to stop any noise from traveling too far so employees aren’t listening to the conversations of everybody in the office.

Plants are a good way of doing this without installing ugly soundproof panels everywhere.

Lighting

Those fluorescent light strips that are all too often found in offices are a huge problem for employees.

They’ve been proven to sap energy from workers and make them noticeably tired.

Natural light, on the other hand, is proven to make you more alert and improve your work. It also creates a generally nicer atmosphere than those horrible clinical lights.

When you’re designing the layout of the office, let the natural light guide you. Work out where the most light is coming in and set up all of your desks there. There’s no sense wasting a good space by sticking a photocopier there.

Some people also prefer more light than others so it’s a good idea to fit out the desks with lamps. If you’ve got people working in the office at night, consider changing those horrible white lights out for something a bit warmer. It’ll create a far cozier environment that promotes better work.  

Dirty Office

The office cleaner is one of the most important employees that you’ve got, but most people never even meet them.

You’d soon notice if they stopped doing their job because the office would look like a bomb site when you walked through the door the next morning.

Employees are far more likely to get sick in a dirty office because there are all sorts of germs floating about. Illness soon gets passed around the office so before you know it, everybody will be off work. It’ll also make it harder for them to do their jobs because computers that are all clogged up with dust and dirt are far more likely to break.

That goes for most office equipment as well so it’s vital that you keep everything clean. A dirty office also creates a generally grim atmosphere.

It’s difficult for your staff to feel relaxed if they’re surrounded by filth.

Why should they care about your company if you can’t even be bothered to get the office cleaned properly?

Keeping the office spotless will create a far more positive atmosphere that your employees will be more comfortable working in.

Having A Bad View

When you’re sat at a desk staring at a computer screen all day, it’s nice to give your eyes a break from time to time.

In fact, it’s better for your health because staring at a screen constantly will make you tired and strain your eyes.

If your employees look away from the screen and all they’re faced with is gray walls or a building site out of the window, things can get a little depressing.

When you’re choosing an office space, remember that your employees are going to have to work in there all day. Even if it costs you a bit more money, choose somewhere that has a nice view.

Annoying Coworkers

There are so many different reasons that people hate their coworkers. They might steal each other’s lunch, or maybe they’re too loud, or they gossip about each other. Whatever their reasons for rubbing each other up the wrong way, it’s making the work environment sour for them and it’s up to you to sort it out.

The best thing you can do is make sure that everybody has their own space. If you pile them on top of each other they’re more likely to wind each other up. Space the desks out a little and always keep on top of any disputes in the workplace. These things can soon build up and make the office very toxic.

If you witness any workplace bullying you should deal with it immediately. It’s easy to think that, because your employees are adults, you should let them work it out themselves. Most of the time you need to step in and sort it out before it escalates. Maintaining harmony between your employees is vital if you want them to be happy at work. People that hate each other are never going to work well together.

Don’t neglect your employees, otherwise, you’ll see a huge drop in productivity. It’s so easy for an office to turn into a place that your employees hate going to but it doesn’t have to be.

If you sort out these common office gripes, they’ll be a lot happier.

In Summary

As a business owner or a young entrepreneur, there are certain things you should pay close attention to make your employees happy. Happy employees mean productive employees something that is the solid foundation of a healthy, thriving and effective company!

To make your employees happy, you should focus on eliminating any problems related to the:

• Temperature,
• Uncomfortable Furniture.
• Noise,
• Lighting,
• Dirty Office,
• Having A Bad View,
• Annoying Coworkers

If you managed to solve these problems you should have eliminated as problems the 7 things your employees hate about the office and you would have created a healthy working environment.