The 21st century is like a cakewalk for jobbers out there. Gone are the days when you’d get just 20 minutes to gobble your home-cooked lunch, after which you’d have to get back to work. The new age is not about treating employees like oxen and cattle—the managers know that employees are an irreplaceable, golden asset that they can’t lose.
Employees are treated the way they should be, for they’re the fuel that powers an organization’s engine. There are constant efforts to make an employee’s job more streamlined and specific, but the hunt for employee engagement and satisfaction doesn’t stop there. Jobbers spend a significant part of their day at work and the only ‘rec-time’ they get there is when they’re having their meals—where you may ask? In the break room.
That is why Silicon Valley biggies are offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the office grounds and the break room isn’t just a room with a microwave, coffee machine, and a dining table. Let’s understand what it is about a commercial break room that empowers employees and improves their performance. After all, a lot can happen over coffee, bagels, and brown-bagged PB & J’s!
How a Kick-Ass Break Room Brings in Kick-Ass Results
Cordial Employee Relations
It’s not rocketed science to understand that a commercial break room is the ground zero where most of the employees interact. Most of the employees gel in with people from their departments, but an office breakroom binds them all together. Whenever employees step into the break room, they have a chance to interact with people from other departments and those whom they wouldn’t have talked to in a day’s work.
However, in a breakroom, all the coworkers chill out together, and that’s what makes an organization one closely-knit unit. We meet people, and we connect with some of them, and since humans are creatures of habit, we even tweak our break schedules so that they clash with ones we wish to hang out.
For instance, the author of this bit takes a coffee break every day at 1600hrs because it clashes with his coworker’s break schedule. This brews up strong and cordial relationships amidst departments which wouldn’t be possible even if managers tried hundreds of team bonding activities.
The Organization Moves ahead—as a whole
Come to think of it, and it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t ensure cordial relations between the departments as far as they’re doing their jobs. There are plenty of enterprises bringing in crazy numbers, and the employees have minimal interaction with one another. However, even when employees are to take the Organization forward, they have to do it as one united front.
When employees walk into the breakroom, they realize that there’s more to their work than what they do. An employee has to credibly take into account the importance of other people in the overall working of the Organization. When employees have that coworker spirit amongst them, they’re more helpful and committed toward the interest of the masses.
This builds a framework of better things, and ultimately, the Organization moves forward because employees channel their energy in the direction that they should.
Free Food!
The best part about a fancy breakroom is all the stuff you get in it. Gone are the days when the only free things at work were three different types of coffees and Kool-Aid. At present, most of the organizations offer delicious snacks, meals, and beverages to their employees. Not only does this make an employee feel at home, this fixes up the workplace environment on extraterrestrial levels.
Most of the jobbers have left the brown bags at home as the food at work is much fresher than what is at home. Not only does this bless an employee with a smile and satisfaction, but there’s also a sense of belongingness for the employer, which comes straight from the employee’s heart. For instance, Google has its team of chefs that prepare a full three-course meal for all the workers.
The logic is pretty simple for Google—no employee should stay more than 80 feet away from food. Hence, there are mini-kitchens and break rooms in every other corner.
This has a direct impact on employee engagement as well, and we all know that an engaged employee churns the money and justifies the consumption of free coffee and bagels—a complete win for everyone!
We All Need a Break
No matter how many cups of coffee we have in our bellies, we can’t work till our eyeballs fall off. We all need a break, and hence the word “break room” came into existence. Even the most serious and dedicated of task-masters need some air in their lungs to free up their brain cells. In many organizations, there’s a punch in and out system, where employees have to clock in a designated number of hours while working.
While this system might prove to be sufficient for hour-oriented technical tasks, a generalized notion cannot be derived from it. Employees need a physical and mental break to stay positive, focused, and productive. In many instances, employees are given much stick for taking too many tears. Now, this might be, but in many cases, an employee takes time to find the rhythm that s/he needs to get things up and to run.
A true leader should understand his/her team members and their efficiency matrix. If one employee, say X, takes one break of one hour every day and brings out optimum results, doesn’t mean that another employee, say Y, should do the same. The latter employee might turn out to be even more productive even if he takes three half-hour breaks every day. What kind of break a person needs to rejuvenate very much depends on his/her capacity.
Reduces Incidents of Burn Outs
It’s all a game of who runs the long race. However, the phrase “too much work makes Jack a dull boy” is somewhat underrated. Management and employers should be aware of the fact that working for 7 to 8 hours straight will drain a person’s batteries and s/he will be burned out.
If an employee is burned out, it’s not like s/he can take a walk and s/he will be good to go. Burned-out employees are just sick of what they’re doing, and they leave. Hiring a new employee costs more than retaining an existing one, and break rooms kick the burn out of contention
However, Do You Know What Makes a Break Room Kick-Ass?
The Answer: State of the art commercial breakroom furniture.
It’s one thing to have a break room in the place, but a different thing to make it good enough for people to talk their worries out, chill and brew some intense coffee-machine conversations.
With Millennium Sitting, get your commercial workspace the breakroom furniture that’d not only make it look dapper, but your workforce would feel like kids stepping out for gym class after a tedious arithmetic lecture. Now you know the importance of a good breakroom—make the most of this privilege!