Creating a Comfortable Workplace

I’m a big believer of the fact that developers need to be comfortable in order to produce at their highest potential. While this includes such things like a relaxed dress code, and an ergonomic and comfortable work space, a good work environment is what is most important.

Have Fun

Knowing that your day holds the potential to be fun makes it much easier to get up and come in to the office every day. Work is no longer a dull place to be, but a place you actually enjoy being in.

We do a lot to make sure that we can have fun at work. We have low-walled cubicles, so everyone can see everyone, which encourages communication and joking around throughout the day. For lunches and overtime breaks, when they happen, nearly everyone in the department has a Nintendo DS, and we’ll play multiplayer games for 20 minutes or half an hour.

It’s a great way to give your brain a bit of a break from your work and have fun with your co-workers.

Competitions

Hold competitions or contests that are open to anyone in the office to join. We typically run sports pool, especially during the playoffs. Charity fundraisers are big for us too. We recently held a “Toss and Rock” fundraiser. The main idea is to wear a t-shirt from your favorite band, play rock music for the day and compete in the paper airplane tossing competition.

The competition was simple, build your own airplane, and throw it into a box with a hole one foot across cut in it (we made it look like a ring that was on fire), that’s suspended 18 feet away, 10 feet off the ground. You got 2 throws for 5 bucks.

We ended up raising over $800 for a local charity that day, and everyone had a blast.

Put some thought into what would work to make your office a fun place to be. Try some of it out, it’ll help improve moral, and possible change some peoples’ attitude about work.