Rules to Better Offices - 14 Rules

When the noise in an open plan office goes beyond appropriate levels, it can be annoying and stressful and thereby affects productivity. Here are a few tips to help reduce noise in your workplace.

1. Use headphones🎧, as per Do you use a headset?
2. Use a reasonable voice level or soft voice.
3. During the conversation, type the important points in to your Teams/private chat box to avoid unnecessary repetition and, at the same time, have those points written not just spoken. As per: Do you know you should write notes when an activity is going?
4. Should you anticipate a long call, move into a private room or booth if you can.
5. Ping very loud people politely/nicely, e.g., “Hey XXX, could you please use headphones?”.
6. Close your booth/pod door (if you have one) while you’re in calls.
7. If you are in a Teams meeting and someone enters the room, it's important to notify the meeting participants of their arrival.
8. For example: "By the way team, Jack has now entered the boardroom".
9. If that person forgets, tap the table to remind them to introduce you.

We all rely on our phones, but loud ringtones can quickly disrupt meetings and conversations. If you were mid-discussion and someone’s phone started blaring, would you want them to stop and answer? Probably not.

Your phone is a powerful tool — but it’s also one of the biggest sources of distraction. Keep it on silent or focus mode so you can stay present and respect those around you.

If you wear a connected device (like an Apple Watch, Fitbit, or similar), use it for discreet alerts. A subtle vibration is all you need to know when someone’s calling — no ringtone required.

✅ Benefits

• No interruptions – Meetings and conversations stay focused and flow naturally
• Shows respect – You won't disrupt clients or colleagues with loud ringtones
• Improves focus – You stay present and productive without constant pings
• Gives you control – You decide when to answer, instead of reacting to every call

Video: Should the person you’re meeting get priority...or the person ringing in? (2 min)

Your body in an amazing machine. It constantly improves itself to get better at whatever you do most. Unfortunately for most of us, the thing we do most with our bodies is sit.

This causes your core to weaken as its no longer needed to hold you upright, and also causes your hip flexors to shorten, as your legs are always pushed out in front of you at about 90 degrees.

The solution is as simple as you might hope... just stand up and walk around every half hour or so. The simple act of standing up at your desk can drastically help to counter the damage you do by sitting.

The ultimate fix is to do a hip flexor stretch whenever possible. The easiest one for most office spaces is putting your knee on a seat behind you and bending your supporting leg while pushing your hips forward. If you're doing it right, you should feel a stretch at the top of your leg on e the front where the leg meets the pelvis.

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Check out standing desks at SSW:

Video: SSW Newcastle stand up desks - Leave them up in the evening (1 min)

In today's fast-paced work environment, it's crucial to have an efficient and organized workspace. Offices can be busy environments, and it is important to have desks available for employees to start working quickly. They shouldn't need to spend time finding cables and adapters to connect their laptop to external displays and other peripherals.

To avoid this hassle and boost productivity, each desk should have a dock setup so employees can connect with a single cable. This also helps maintain a cleaner workspace and improves cable management.

If you have a Thinkpad dock, MacOS users will need to install a driver to use it.See DisplayLink Manager.

There are some rare scenarios where people won't use docks. This is OK, but you need to ensure the desk is set up properly for the next user. All cables should use the dock wherever possible.

If you are having issues with the docks, try these steps

1. Update OS
2. Update/install drivers
3. Restart your computer

Studies have shown that you can get up to a 30% increase in productivity by using more than one monitor when you work.

Providing users with the ability to access more information and images simultaneously, multiple monitor configurations allow for more efficient multitasking between applications.

For example... if you were a developer, you could have your references in one monitor and your Visual Studio in another, and directly compare the 2 without compromising on space or layout.

The way you and all members of your team present themselves is a crucial part of creating a good impression for your clients, particularly in their first encounters with you.

Dressing up

One aspect of this is the dress code. Dress code is important for two reasons:

• Looking professional and keen for business
• Reinforce the company's branding

Public events and meetings

Of course, when in a public event such as a User Group, conference or seeing clients you should "Dress Up".

It should go without saying, but of course, things such as shaving off your weekend facial growth, using deodorant and having clean teeth and nice breath is assumed.

On a business flight

It's a good idea to "Dress Up" in flights as you never know who you will be seated next to.

Dressing down (aka Casual Fridays)

Many companies find it a good idea to have Casual Fridays. It is free and easy to do and gives the team something to look forward to.

Shorts Days - the cool exception

On very hot days, shorts are allowed as soon as you've got an email like this:

Do you know who is entering your premises, when, and how? Keys or key-cards can be expensive, they can be lost, and people can loan them to one another without any restriction.

There are all kinds of ways to monitor access to your building and more secure areas. While fingerprint scanners are a good way of monitoring and restricting access, they are difficult to use in practice. Not everyone has great fingerprints, and access can be sketchy and frustrating when it doesn't work.

The best way to do control your Smart Office and Smart Home access is to use an automated NFC (an acronym for Near Field Communication) Access System like Unifi by Ubiquiti.

• You only need your mobile phone, so there are no keys to lose or replace
• It is easy to add or remove access for staff and visitors
• You can see who is coming and going and when
• It can connect to your security cameras for additional security

To see more about how the system works, watch this video from Ubiquiti UniFi Access:

Keys, we all have them. A key for the front door, a key for the garage, a key to the letterbox, and keys to your office… the list is often endless! How much time do you waste finding the correct key?

If you allocate each individual lock a color and then tag or color your keys to match, you can save a lot of time and effort identifying the correct key. This is x10 worse if you have a lot of keys! Nothing worse than receiving 50 keys and you have no idea what any of them do! 💀

Tip: While you can buy colored keys, they are not as strong as their silver counterparts, and can break in the locks of heavier doors. Using nail polish to mark your keys, or using a key cover is a better way to go!

When it comes to creating custom designs or templates for office purposes, using a dedicated designer application can greatly enhance the quality and professionalism of your designs. While there are various designer applications available, it's important to choose the right one that aligns with your needs and skill level.

Using Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for non-designers can be time-consuming and challenging. These tools require a steep learning curve and are tailored toward professionals in the design industry. Non-designers might struggle with complex functionalities and intricate workflows, leading to inefficient use of time and resources.

Why Choose Canva for Signage Design by Non-Designers

Canva is a user-friendly design tool that doesn't require extensive design knowledge. It provides pre-made templates, drag-and-drop functionality, and a wide range of design elements. It's perfect for non-designers who want to create professional-looking signs with ease!

Canva is a web-based platform accessible from any device with an internet connection. This ensures that employees can work on their designs from different locations and collaborate seamlessly.

Canva supports real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same design simultaneously. This is particularly useful when creating shared signage templates.

Creating and Sharing Signage Templates

To ensure a standardized approach to creating and sharing signage templates, follow these steps:

Design Creation

• Start by selecting an appropriate template in Canva for the desired signage type.
• Customize the template with relevant content, branding elements, and visuals.
• Incorporate a strong header and footer as per the SSW's design rule.
• Include a version number following SSW's version number rule.

Duplication and Review

• Once the initial design is complete, create a duplicate of the design within Canva.
• Make necessary changes to the duplicated design while adhering to your requirements.
• Before finalizing, it's important to get the duplicated design checked and approved by a designated reviewer as per the Checked by rule.

Storing and Sharing

• Store the approved designs in an accessible location, such as a SharePoint repository.
• Share the repository link with all employees who need access to the templates.

Did you know at SSW we always bring water to guests? 🥤💧

• No questions as everyone drinks water…
• And no offers of coffee as it could be a hassle…

When making an online purchase using the company account, remember to include your name in the postal details so that the item is correctly identified and given to you. Having it sent to the company unidentified or under the boss's name can lead to confusion and the package may end up in limbo.

It's important that staff feel appreciated, expand their horizons, and also that they celebrate each others' successes. A great way to do all of these is to give them an additional day of Annual Leave each year, and encourage them to use it to do something remarkable.

"YOLO Day" is based on the phrase "You Only Live Once".

Staff should be incentivized to use their YOLO Day to do something fun that they they don't normally do, e.g. skydiving, windsurfing, etc.

If you use this in your own company, add it to the list of perks that you offer everyone (e.g. ssw.com.au/employment).

Encourage your employees to share what they did with the company, reminding everyone about this cool perk they've got 😊

Video: You Only Live Once | Adam Cogan's e-Foiling adventure | SSW YOLO Day (12 min)

When a company has many different office locations, often people in one office aren't familiar with people in other offices due to a lack of interaction. This problem is particularly pronounced where you have offices that span multiple time zones or countries.

What improvements come from better interaction?

It is crucial to build interaction between all company offices because it often improves the following:

• Communication
• Relationships

• Technical skills

  • Knowing alternative approaches

• Access to resources

  • Knowing who has certain skills
  • Knowing who can provide you with localized or domain specific information
• Cooperation
• Confidence

• Understanding of foreign perspectives

  • Knowing why someone from another culture responds in a different way to what you are used to

Boost interaction with unique strategies

Think about what your company can do to increase interaction. There are tonnes of ways that interaction can be developed. Examples include:

Team building activities

• Playing a game/solving a puzzle together
• Reviewing/updating a company standard together
• Having a company retreat to bring everyone together
• Going on a group trip (e.g., to the Great Wall of China)
• Visiting local companies together

Cultural Exchange programs

• Having employees from China to work in every Australian office for a month each or vice versa
• Having developers from Brisbane spend a week in Melbourne

Mentoring

Working together

• Pair programming
• Mob programming

Rotating Daily Scrum

• Each week, 1 person from each office is paired up to do a Daily Scrum with others

Creating cross-office teams and events

• Putting developers from the China office onto a project with Australian developers
• People from different offices are paired up to have virtual coffee
• A Chinese dev does a presentation at the Sydney User Group

Cultural events and videos

• Celebrating holidays from other countries
• Organize meetings to discuss culturally different issues
• Have a weekly language exchange catchup
• Organize a cultural performance day where everyone shares a piece from their culture

Product videos about other offices

• What is it like to work in the China office?
• What is your reaction if you see Chinese on a web page?
• What are the differences in the app market in China and Australia? I.e. WeChat vs Facebook

Fun weekly company meetings

• Everyone meets on Friday for 30 minutes to discuss a fun question

Software can't be built by a single developer anymore, there is always a team involved. Often, those teams consist of people in different geographies. Therefore, it's a social enterprise, and it's essential that teams made of people in different geographical locations can bond and work well together. These multinational teams must communicate and empathize with stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds.

Video: Come Visit Us - the SSW Cultural Exchange Program (5 min)

If you have offices across different countries or cultural boundaries, a Cultural Exchange program can help those teams bond. When these teams work on projects together, it can help improve communication, both with each other and their clients too.

How to implement a cultural exchange program

For example, in the SSW Cultural Exchange program employees (and their families) work from an international office for 2 months. Ideally, during this time, they will be booked for a local client (e.g. if they choose China, they will be booked for a Chinese client).

They immerse themselves in the local office and community by participating in extra-curricular activities, such as:

• Company retreats (depends on the timing)
• Present or attend User Groups
• Team events and outings (like team dinners, board game parties, etc.)
• Language classes
• Weekend cultural events (e.g. local festivals)

Tip: Encourage your employees to bring their family too. See: Ruby Cogan - Life in China is not boring for a high school student and Adam Cogan - Luckin Coffee vs Starbucks

Alternate the countries

It's important to diversify your cultural experiences - don't pick the same country for a Cultural Exchange 2x in a row. If you are usually based in France and you picked Australia for your last Cultural Exchange, your next Cultural Exchange should be a different country (if your company has offices in more than 2 countries).

Costs

This can take a lot of planning so encourage your employees to think about it as early as possible. If possible, cover 50% of the cost of your employees' flights and accommodation.