Too Hot, Too Cold! Choosing The Right Temperature For Your Office

The thermostat can be a topic of heated debate in some workplaces. People are surprisingly passionate about the temperature of their office environment.

Well, it turns out there may be more to these debates than what meets the eye.

Research suggests there’s a relationship between temperature and employee well-being and productivity. Psychologists from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University conducted a study wherein participants performed cognitively demanding tasks in rooms of different temperatures. They found that warm discomfort (i.e. being too hot) negatively affected participants’ sense of well-being whereas moderate discomfort of any kind (i.e. either too hot or cold) made it more challenging for participants to complete tasks.

Evidently, it is important that office temperature is taken into consideration to ensure employee well-being and productivity are optimal. However, this may be easier said than done. Closed-concept office environments have an advantage as each individual can adjust the thermostat according to their own preferences. It can get more complicated for open-concept offices where everyone is subject to the same temperature, despite individual preferences.

So, what can employers do to improve temperature conditions in their office environments for the betterment of their employees? Here are some ideas for those looking to cool down the thermostat debate once and for all.

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Aura Office Environments Announces Tenant Talks Lunch & Learn Speaker Series

Tenant Talks is a complimentary event series featuring expert insights on office design and workplace culture best practices for companies located in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – September 4, 2019 — Aura Office Environments (“Aura”) is pleased to announce the launch of its very first Tenant Talks Lunch & Learn at Spaces in Gastown on Wednesday, October 9th at 12:00 pm. The theme will be centred on Remote Work, a trend that is becoming increasingly widespread throughout various industries as more people enjoy the flexibility it offers. Industry experts and community leaders from leading companies like Quietly, Visier, and the NoW of Work Inc. will share insights on the current and future trends of remote work and consider how the modern workplace can embrace it.

“Designing an office should account for more than just budget, practicality, and aesthetics: there’s also a psychological angle to take into account, too,” explained Dan Boram, president and CEO of Aura. “Businesses both small and large have grown to understand that an environmental effect on employees’ psyches — from basic day-to-day moods to socialization patterns and engagement with company goals — can be affected and directed by the way an office space is built, arranged, and decorated. It’s an idea that’s already been put into use for more specialized environments like hospitals and schools, but the workplace — the most common home-away-from-home most people will ever know — has its own needs when it comes to influencing moods and instilling a sense of humanity.”

If you’re interested to learn from industry thought leaders, connect with like-minded professionals, and experience innovative VR technology, Aura invites you to *RSVP your attendance. In addition, join the conversation online to ask questions, mingle with other attendees, and stay updated on future Tenant Talks.

*must RSVP to be admitted to the event

About The Speakers

Rocky Ozaki, Founder, NoW of Work – Moderator

Rocky is one of Canada’s most passionate evangelists on the Future of Work who believes that technology, a sharing economy and the connected generation have dramatically changed the way companies attract, engage and retain their people. Companies that fail to embrace this reality will find themselves disrupted or made redundant by an increasingly innovative and agile economy. Rocky couples 10-years of executive HR and operations leadership in large enterprise organizations, with 5-years of startup tech experience. He held the role of Vice-President and Head of Corporate Innovation for the BC Tech Association before co-founding the NoW of Work Inc. – a firm that helps organizations future-proof their business through culture transformation and innovative mindsets, and the NoW-Academy – a bootcamp that inspires and empowers people to leverage modern Operational and People practices.

Angie Ng, Senior HR Business Partner, Visier – Panelist

Angie is the Senior HR Business Partner at Visier. Currently in her role, she partners with senior leaders and executives across Canada, U.S. and EMEA with remote employees across all three regions. Angie’s HR and talent acquisition experience spans across multiple industries with companies including O2E Brands and Best Buy.

Kraig Doherty, Head of People & Places, Quietly – Panelist

Kraig brings 20-years experience growing and scaling tech & creative companies such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Indochino, Invoke and Eventbase. He is the Head of People & Places at Quietly, a full-service content marketing agency in Gastown that works with the likes of MEC, Slack, Herschel and Goldman Sachs on content strategy and execution. Over the course of his career, he has had the opportunity to recruit and hire over 1000 professionals from around the world. His experience spans human resources, culture building, recruiting and talent acquisition, employment branding, office design and construction and community building.

About Tenant Talks

Tenant Talks is a complimentary Lunch & Learn Speaker Series featuring industry experts and community leaders sharing their expertise, knowledge and valuable tips on workplace trends impacting Vancouver companies. Gain key insights over a catered lunch into office design and workplace culture best practices.

About Aura Office Environments

Tenant Talks is presented by Aura Office Environments, an innovative design-build company focused on creating experiential office environments that celebrate and enhance your distinct company culture. Founded in 1976 by the Boram family, Aura has evolved into a complete turnkey solution provider, offering a wide range of services including workspace planning, location selection, interior office design and construction management.

Contact Information:

Craig Boram

Marketing Director

Phone: +1 (604) 510-7101

Email: craigb@auraoffice.ca

Register Now:

7 Ways to De-Stress on National Relaxation Day

Whether or not your work culture operates on an all-or-nothing binary of grinding and slacking, the idea of using relaxation techniques to improve the workplace might feel like a surprising, even revolutionary shift. But it’s not that complicated: even when some employees claim to work well under pressure, the need to offer and accommodate stress-reducing exercises and activities can benefit productivity as well as worker wellbeing. In honour of National Relaxation Day, here are seven simple ways employees can add some much-needed calm to their work hours.

Have lunch with colleagues. Having some face-to-face time with coworkers in a more casual setting will help maintain social connections, help you collect your thoughts, and get a few distractions off your mind.
Meditate. If you need a breather, why not take the term literally? Take five somewhere quiet and calming and do some deep-breathing exercises so your mental clutter can reset. Your physical state will settle down enough to help you through more of your day, too.
Go for a walk. Outside is best, weather permitting; the fresh air will, as the saying goes, do you some good. But even rainy days shouldn’t stop you from stretching your legs: even indoors, breaking out of your usual space can help reboot your mood.
Exercise. Walking is a good start, but it’s not just the change of scenery that helps: it should also motivate the circulation and work off some tense energy as well. It can help to take a few minutes to move around, and you don’t even have to keep things too strenuous.
Stretch. Every so often — a half-hour is good — you should take a moment to pay attention to your posture, limber up a bit, and work your joints. No matter your age, you should be able to get a much-needed dose of calming physical stimulus by giving your muscles a bit of a stretch, even a slow, low-impact one.
Disconnect. Whether it’s social media skirmishes or a tense true-crime podcast, some of the things we use as entertaining distractions can also work up stressors that get in the way of both productivity and mental well-being. Unplug from those distractions when you can.
Declutter. Ever notice the therapeutic feeling that comes from tossing out a bunch of junk-drawer miscellany you had building up, or the strange satisfaction of getting some scattered books and papers organized? Getting rid of clutter and tidying up your workspace can have a collateral effect on your mind.

From standing desks to fitness centers, workspaces themselves can also help contribute to a low-stress work environment. Aura can provide design solutions that will promote an employee-centric strategy for your office space — feel free to get in touch for more information.