When the Watercooler Is a Water Hazard
Office fun and games: Employers keep productivity above par by relieving stress.
Oct. 12, 2007 — -- The golfer carefully lines up his putt, getting just the right angle before taking a slow, even swing.Then he hops off his desk and gets back to work.
At Rockaway, N.J., firm Parette Somjen Architects, similar scenes play out on any given day of the week. And the two-story, 18-hole miniature golf course housed in the company's office is just one of many unconventional forms of stress release.
"It's not unusual to visit the Parette Somjen offices during the day and have someone throwing a Nerf football overhead or barbecuing in back," said principal and co-founder Greg Somjen.
An attitude that gained momentum with cool, youthful perks at Internet startups in the late '90s has developed into an established business plan for certain small companies whose entrepreneurial owners see work/life balance as more than a human-relations slogan.
"They're really figuring out what's going to build that sense of team, the emotional core of loyalty and engagement," said Carol Kinsey Goman, president of Kinsey Consulting Services in Berkeley, Calif., who studies workplace issues. "That is a trend that's here to stay."
Goman said the trend of offbeat activities in the office began during the dotcom boom, when it was believed the fun fostered hard work rather than created a distraction.
"Once the bubble burst, those lessons were lost for a while," she said, adding that her research shows "engaged and loyal employees make the company money. They satisfy customers. All the seemingly soft stuff pays off in that hard-lying bottom line."
Basically, having employees who enjoy being at the office is often just as important as liking the work itself.
When Somjen formed his architecture company with partner Marc Parette in 1988, they knew they didn't want a controlling environment like the ones they found stifling at previous jobs.
"I think that we've come to realize that there are things beyond architecture," Somjen said. "It's not just the day-to-day creation of drawings. We talk internally and think about the fact that we have team members, many 10-plus years, and clients, many since day one."
He said no one can do "the corporate culture of sitting at your desk doing something for a long time … whether corporate America wants to realize this or not, no one is working the whole time."
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