Why office break out areas are more than just beanbags

Breakout spaces in office can be a center of social interactions which can lead to better team work. — Breakout spaces in offices can be a center of social interactions which can lead to better team work. Photo by **Helena Lopes** from **Pexels**

Look at any old film or TV programme featuring an office and the standard image was rows of desks, often in cubicles. Formal meetings were held in formal meeting rooms. Informal meetings were held in lifts, by the watercooler or in the kitchen, usually by the coffee machine. Prior to the pandemic, this was starting to change and now is the perfect time to push this change forward.

The argument for breakout space

The argument against breakout space is easy. It takes up prime office real estate. This argument can seem even stronger if there are plenty of amenities near to your office. The argument for breakout space is that your office real estate is an investment. This means that you want, indeed need, to get the maximum return on it. This means encouraging productivity and office breakout spaces do just that.

What’s more, they can do so on a relatively small budget. Remember, office breakout spaces don’t have to follow the examples you see in the offices of tech giants in San Francisco. They simply need to be accessible, comfortable spaces where your employees can relax either by themselves or in groups.

With that in mind, here are some specific ways an office breakout space can help your business. There are also some suggestions as to how you can put one together on a budget.

Getting people back to the office

Currently, employers seem to be divided, not to say polarized, in their views on permanent remote working. Some, however, are definitely committed to it for the long term. Many others are looking at hybrid working models. That means people who want to work remotely or in a hybrid way are likely to have plenty of options for doing so.

That means if you want people to get back into your office, you’re going to need to make your office a place they want to be. Rows (or pods) of desks and cubicles aren’t exactly motivational or inspirational. You need to remind people that an office is a place to meet people, socialize and generally have fun as well as to work.

If you’re on a tight budget, then you’re probably not going to have the money for amenities such as in-house gyms, gaming and entertainment rooms. It is, however, much easier to find the money to set up a breakout area. You might even be able to recoup some of the costs by providing vending machines in the breakout area. These are convenient for your employees and are a good source of recurring income.

Encouraging collaboration

One of the recurring arguments in favour of getting people back into the office is that it encourages collaboration, particularly spontaneous collaboration. In reality, there are numerous caveats to this approach. There are many tools to enable online collaboration including spontaneous online collaboration.

It is, however, very fair to say that in-person collaboration can be more vivid and memorable. It can also be more tactile. With real-world meetings, you can have people using multi-coloured markers to doodle on paper flip-charts. You can also have them covering walls in multi-coloured sticky notes. In fact, there are all kinds of possibilities that put the fun into functionality.

You can’t force people to collaborate, let alone spontaneously. You can, however, encourage them to do so. That starts by providing the facilities they need to do so. In particular, there needs to be a comfortable place that employees can access whenever they want. Ideally, that place should have the sort of tools they need for spontaneous meetings e.g. flip charts, pens and sticky notes.

It promotes mental health

Sometimes people just need a break at work or from work. This isn’t about work ethic or productivity. It’s just about recognizing that people are people, not robots. A break-out area provides that safe space people need sometimes. You could even equip it with wellness benefits such as colouring books and provide access to information on what to do if people need help with their mental health.

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Ian Perry

Established in 2004 Cema Vending has been supplying vending solutions to business around the east midlands. We are a highly respected vending company with extensive experience in the industry. Based in Nottingham, Our local presence & friendly, knowledgeable staff make us an excellent choice for those looking for vending solutions in Nottingham, Derby & the surrounding areas. Thanks to our AVS membership we can also provide national coverage.