How to choose a good operator chair.

Spot the Difference.

When you choose your office furniture, do you really know what you’re getting?

If you look at the two chairs above, you might think that they are almost exactly the same.  To the untrained eye, these chairs look very similar in terms of aesthetic style, but if you sat on them both, you would find them very different in terms of comfort!

When choosing your office furniture- particularly your office chairs- it is important to remember that just because two chairs look similar in appearance it does NOT mean that the quality of the two chairs will match.

If you prefer to go for something that is as cheap as chips to buy, remember that the cheaper office chairs are generally manufactured with materials of a lower quality, making the chair uncomfortable and also causing it to last a fraction of the time that a chair of higher quality lasts.  This is especially important if the office chair is going to be used for prolonged periods of time- if a chair is going to be used repeatedly, you should really consider getting a chair with good back support.

High quality chairs give you a range of seating adjustments, including seat slide, height adjustment, and seat tilt adjustment.  This makes the chair more flexible, so that it can be tailored to seat any individual comfortably.  Most good office chairs also give you the option of inflatable lumbar support- it isn’t vital, but lumbar support really makes a fantastic difference to your posture and aids in supporting your back brilliantly.

The slightly more expensive products come with much longer product guarantees, which give you more assurance as a consumer.  For example, one of the above chairs comes with a five year guarantee, whereas the other comes with a one year guarantee.

So, when you're next choosing a chair- have a think about what the chair is going to be used for, and weigh the pros and cons of cheaper chairs against those of a better quality before you make a decision.  If you need any advice about office furniture or products that you need to choose between, give us a ring on: 08450 69 79 89 and we'll be happy to help you!

Office Jokes- How to make your life at work more interesting!

Since the last blog was slightly unnerving for a Friday afternoon, here's something to make you laugh!  These are some tips that I found online on how to make your life at work more amusing- I've picked the best ones but you can find more from the links I've provided- I hope they amuse you!


How to Make a Business Meeting More 
Interesting


Take notes in finger paint.

Laugh uproariously at a quip that was made 2 or 3 minutes ago. Say, “Oh, now I get it!”

Make a face like somebody beside you farted.

Stand up and act indignant. Demand that the boss tell you the real reason this meeting has been called.

Spill coffee on the conference table. Produce a little paper boat and sail it down the table.

Stay behind as everyone else, including the boss, leaves. Thank them for coming.

Bring a hand puppet, preferably an animal. Ask it to clarify difficult points.

Wear shades and carry a walkie-talkie with an earphone. Once in a while, quietly say a few words into it.

Arrange to have a poorly-dressed young woman with an infant quietly enter the meeting, stare directly at the (male) speaker for a while, burst into tears, then leave the room.


-Taken from Local Jokes.


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How to Annoy People in your Office

Make up nicknames for all your co-workers and refer to them only by these names. "That's a good point, Sparky." "No I'm sorry I'm going to have to disagree with you there, Chachi."

Insist that your e-mail address be "xena_goddess_of_fire@companyname.com"

Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them if they want fries with that.

Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.

When answering your phone, talk in a different accent.

Take a picture of your boss and have it framed. Display it in a prominent location on your desk.

Whenever a fellow staff member sneezes, quickly yell "SHUT UP!" If they sneeze a second time, follow up with "I SAID SHUT UP!". A third time, leave the room crying while saying "NO ONE EVER LISTENS TO ME!".

Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think."

Practice making fax and modem noises.

While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.

-Taken from Common Place Book


Have a lovely weekend!

Something sad to think about...

Poor Proof-Reader Dies at Desk

Someone in the office came across this newspaper snippet today- it explains how a 51 year old proof-reader at a New York publishing firm passed away unnoticed at his desk.  George Turklebaum, who worked in an open plan office with 23 other workers, suffered a heart attack at his desk and it was not discovered that he was dead for five more days, when a cleaner asked why he was at his desk at the weekend.  

According to the article, the reason why no one in the office had noticed poor George was that he was extremely hard working, and it wasn't odd for him to be first in the office and the last to leave.  So, the next time you're in the office- maybe give your colleagues a bit of a nudge!

Environmentally Friendly Office Furniture

How to Create a More Environmentally Friendly Office

In today's energy-conscious society, there are increasing pressures to make both homes and businesses as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible.  


It is important to consider ways in which to conserve energy and to reduce the carbon footprint, not only to protect energy sources, but because it often helps to save your business money.  We've come up with a list of ideas about how to make your office greener- why not get everyone in the office involved?






Let's start at the basics- your office furniture.  


Office furniture manufacturers are also very conscious of the environment, and are constantly looking to reduce the environmental impact of their operations.  


Most manufacturers generally adhere to ISO14001 standards- an internationally recognised standard which ensures that manufacturers identify elements of business which impact upon the environment and produce achievable objectives for continuous improvement.  One of our factories actually uses its material offcuts in order to heat the factory, rather than adding to waste!


Most manufacturers also adhere to FSC (the Forest Stewardship Council) standards, which ensures that any wood used to manufacture the furniture is harvested from sustainably managed forests.  

If you are choosing office furniture, and are conscious of the environmental impact of products, you should also think about product miles.  Rather than choosing a product which has to be imported from places like China, why not choose products which are manufactured within the UK?  As well as supporting British manufacturers, it dramatically reduces the carbon footprint of the product.


An Answer to Environmentally Friendly Desks!

There is also a rather amazing new desk which has been produced, made entirely out of cardboard!  The product is completely sustainable and recyclable- it comes flat-packed, and  can be assembled within around 5 minutes!  The desk is assembled without the use of any nuts and bolts, and is extremely strong and practical.  


The Paperweight desk is made of special single walled clay coated corrugated board, with a solid board, water varnished top which is capable of repelling all spills.  Its design integrates a deep cable management tray and an under-desk 'secret' shelf.  There are cable outlet slots and twin access points with covers that can be found on the top of the desk.  The legs of the desk can be positioned inset or outset as required.  I know that you wouldn't expect a desk made of cardboard to be strong, but it really is- it's strong enough for you to even stand on!


Other Tips for Reducing your Office's Environmental Impact:-

• Why not encourage communications via email rather than paper?  Emails make communication a lot quicker, more cost efficient, less easy to lose and can also cut down paper usage dramatically.  Only print off communications which are absolutely necessary.

• When office equipment is not being used- say at the end of the day- have a quick check and make sure that it is switched off.  That way, you are not draining unnecessary power overnight.

• Make an effort to recycle all of the waste paper that culminates in your office- we all know very well how quickly waste paper can build up!  Make sure that you shred documents which contain important information such as addresses or client names before you recycle them, however.

• When purchasing paper, try and buy brands which use a good proportion of recycled paper fibres.

• Wherever possible, try and print double sided documents, in order to save further on paper usage.  

• Use energy efficient light bulbs around the building- they typically use 80% less energy than normal light bulbs, and are safer because they don't get as hot!  They will reduce your energy usage and your electricity bill!

The advantages of leasing your office furniture

The Advantages of Leasing

If you don't pay for your staff in advance, why pay for your office furniture in advance?  Refurbishing an office can often prove to be an expensive yet necessary task; in today's financial climate, there are many benefits of paying for lease furniture rather than paying for your furniture upfront:-

• The primary benefit you take from your office equipment is in the use you get out of it, rather than the ownership of it.  By leasing your furniture, you may be able to take advantage of the latest technologies by simply upgrading.

• You can acquire what is needed for your office now, without worrying about the constraints of what you can afford.

• Leasing preserves your working capital, so that it can be put to work for more profitable purposes for your company.

• Leasing allows you to budget more accurately, so that you can organise how much you need to pay and at when it needs to be paid- whether monthly, quarterly, annual or seasonally for a period of up to 60 months.

• Leasing is tax efficient, because it allows you to offset the rentals.

If you have any queries or would like to learn more about leasing your office furniture, please don't hesitate to contact our office on: 08450 69 79 89. We aren't leasing experts ourselves, but we have a superb leasing partner who specialises in financing all kinds of office equipment, including furniture- particularly for small to medium sized companies.

       

                                                                                     

How to choose the right office furniture and layout for a busy office

When Planning an Office, Please Remember this Poor Chap...!

We all know very well that people come in all different shapes and sizes, so when you are planning the layout of an office, you need to think very carefully about how to maximise the potential of your office.  It is important to maximise the available space you have to work with, but you also need to create a workspace that each individual can work comfortably and efficiently from.  
After all, if the office workers are happy with their work environments, they should be happier and more willing to work hard for the company.

Here are a few ideas of what you should think about whilst you are planning the layout of your office- particularly for an office which accommodates a high proportion of staff:


Space 

There aren't really any guidelines for space, but you should think logically about the spacing within your office- particularly regarding how much room each individual has to work from.  Each employee needs to have enough space to work comfortably, probably with enough room to accommodate a computer.  If the office is designed so that some staff have their backs to each other, you should make sure that their is enough room between them so that they do not obstruct each other.  If the employees are dealing with confidential matters, they should be spaced a fair distance apart from each other, for privacy and confidentiality matters.

High Traffic Areas and Emergency Exits

The staff in the office are the responsibility of the office, and you should make sure that there are emergency exit routes around the office, so that every member of staff could exit the building safely in the case of an emergency.  There will also be high traffic areas where many members of staff will frequently be walking up and down the office.  You should make sure that these areas are clear and easily accessible, in order to avoid accidents.


Noise

Offices are generally very busy, and depending upon the type of work that the office
does, phones are frequently used to speak to clients.  With lots of people in an office using phones at the same time, the office will be an extremely noisy place.  It may be an idea to try to break up the noise using screens or partitions, which will also aid with confidentiality problems.

Confidentiality

If there are HR staff or other workers in the office who deal with confidential information, it may be necessary to create an area which is separate from other workers, perhaps through screens and partitions, so that these members of staff can discuss sensitive topics in a higher degree of privacy.  You may want to think about reducing noise through the use of screens, so that these members of staff are less likely to be heard.

Light and Screen Reflection

Decent lighting is very important for an efficient office.  If there are lots of windows around the office, you should think very carefully about where you place workstations, because sometimes, if workstations are faced away from windows, it may be the case that the window will be reflected in to the monitor screens of computers, making staff unable to see clearly.  Blinds may be useful as a solution in these cases, but you could also use artificial lighting so that all areas of the office receive the same amounts of light.  There are a wide range of options available to create a well-lit work environment. 

Storage

A busy office is a happy office, but it will also process a sea of paperwork and use many resources.  You should think about what types of storage are needed for your office- for example, if your company deals with a lot of paperwork, a good filing system would be extremely helpful, as well as a storage cupboard for stationary resources.  There are many different options available in terms of storage, and they will definitely help you to maximise the efficiency of your office.

How to Design and Furnish a Reception

A Day in the Life of Verve Workspace...

Okay, so you are well aware by now that we are a well-established office furniture organisation.  But what does that entail?  How do we help our customers to make the most of their offices or workspaces?  This blog shows how we have helped one of our clients to design and plan their reception, to give you a little idea of how we work.

At Verve, we work exceptionally hard as a team in order to provide office furniture solutions for each of our clients, taking in to account the individual specifications of each business we serve.  After all, it is our clients who will be putting the furniture to use- it needs to meet their requirements!

For example, we had a call from a solicitors firm last week, who wanted us to work out some furniture ideas for their reception.  The client drew out a rough plan of their reception with measurements for us to work from.  The reception area is a relatively small area, with an existing sofa.  It was a difficult task because the reception work area needed to be big enough to sit three receptionists comfortably, whilst also adhering to health and safety regulations. 

Working from the client's plan, we created a 3D CAD impression of the reception room, with its existing furniture, in order to get an idea of what space we had to work with.  In order to optimise the available space for the receptionists, we inverted the normal 'L' shape reception desk style.  We inserted a 1.8 m length desk, for two of the receptionists to work comfortably from, and a slightly smaller desk for the other. 

We added only one top box to the singular desk, in order to give a little bit more storage space and privacy to the receptionists, should they need it.  This way, the rest of the reception unit is left open and welcoming to visitors. 

The major problem with the small space, in this case, was the lack of storage space.  We all know how paperwork builds up quickly- particularly in a reception environment!  We placed a pedestal under the smaller desk, but added another pedestal to the end of the longest desk as there would not be enough space under that desk.  In addition, we made the curved component of the reception desk a tambour cupboard, for added storage solutions.

There are a whole range of ideas that can be used for every space that we see.  We try our best to find solutions which will be the most helpful and efficient as workspaces for our clients, whilst also designing them so that they look extremely aesthetically pleasing.