Exercise: My workplace

Research has shown that having access to basic facilities is the most important factor for a proper workplace. With the help of the questions below, you can make a summary of your workplace experience. Writing about your experiences can help clarify your workplace expectations and find any areas that might need improvement.

As an exercise, you can write down the answers to the questions below:

1. Where would you like to work (location)? Example: at a fixed workplace, at home or a combination of the two.
2. What are important factors for your workplace? Example: commuting distance, Wi-Fi speed, noise levels, location, multiple toilets and/or plants & daylight.
3. What could be better about your workplace? Example: cleanliness of your workplace, a quiet place to do your work, temperature, lighting, air quality, odour and/or safety.
4. What would you like to change most about your current workplace? Example: work culture, distance to work (travel time), private workspace, workplace design, location, colleagues and/or manager.
5. If your current workplace was more like your ideal workplace, how would that affect your productivity? Example: no influence, a small influence or a lot of influence.
6. Where do you have lunch during work? Would you like this to be different? Example: outside the building, behind my desk, in a locked room or in the cafeteria.

What can you conclude from your answers? Are you satisfied with your workplace or are you missing something? If you’re missing something, try to make changes if possible or communicate your needs to your employer. Think about what the goal of your conversation will be in advance: do you want to solve something together? Do you just want to express how you feel about your workplace? Or do you want to hear the opinion of your colleagues? If the goal is clear, you can work towards a solution together.

Tip for employers: Talking about your workplace with your employees contributes to happiness, job satisfaction and productivity.

Source:

https://research.euro.savills.co.uk/netherlands-pdfs/2020-what-workers-want-covid-19.pdf

https://pdf.euro.savills.co.uk/european/whatworkerswanteurope2019.pdf