Reinventing the Workplace: Being Well, Working Well

What if this was your workplace? Scottsdale Healthcare Healing Garden Project. Image © Gensler.

“What if you could leave work healthier than when you arrived?” That question challenges the very notion of what we expect from the workplace, but it’s a question with far-reaching implications for health, wellbeing, and productivity. Research indicates that “people with high career wellbeing are more than twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall,” according to authors Tom Rath and Jim Harter in their recent book Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. Seen in this light, the reimagined workplace has the power to sustain employees not only economically – but holistically.

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The Kitchen is a Key to Workplace Happiness

Photo Credit: Gensler

They say that you spend one-third of your life at work, one-third of your life sleeping, and one-third of your life doing everything else, including getting ready and traveling to and from your job. So, this begs the question, if you spend more waking hours at work then at home, wouldn’t it be nice if you liked being at work more than home?

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Turning Your Office Fitness Center Into an Asset

Most buildings have one, though it’s usually tucked into leftover basement space like a neglected piece of furniture. Such is the plight of corporate fitness center: Underutilized and musty smelling, they don’t tend to see much activity, and if they do, it’s hardly an enjoyable experience.

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The Danger at Our Desks

We’ve spent a lot of time on research and tools that help Gensler’s design teams create workplaces to support the way people work today. But what if the way people work today is slowly killing them? This is a developing conundrum facing Gensler and our clients, since the hazardous office activity in question is one we're likely engaged in right now: sitting at a desk, staring at a computer.

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