Companies Recast Office Break Room as Collaborative Workspace
When does a break become not a break?
But what if the kitchen were also a place where you could work?
At CBRE’s new headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, employees do not have assigned desks and can set up a workstation wherever they choose. Legal assistant Nicholas Watson likes to drop anchor at the hand-carved, 18-feet-long wooden table in the kitchen. It’s a pleasant space that provides chance interactions.
“Ordinarily, you wouldn’t be encouraged to mingle with people,” he said. “You get to learn more about other departments in an informal way and I can have impromptu, informal meetings with my boss. It really has become sort of a favorite spot.”
Law firm Morrison & Foerster had the same goal in its downtown L.A. office, where it created a space big enough for 80 people that was dubbed the “loungebrary” for its combined function as lounge and library.
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