Humanity in the workplace – 4 ways that flexible workspace environments can help

With everything going on at the moment the word ‘humanity’ keeps rightly popping up. What about ‘humanity in the workplace’? I thought this was a very worthwhile topic to explore.

As business owners, team heads, whatever line of business we’re in we owe it to ourselves and those in our workplace to try and be aware of the underlying struggles and challenges a lot of us can be  facing although perhaps from differing perspectives. Regardless of age, background, culture, industry we can be asking the same questions to ourselves over and over, causing worries and stress and often keeping us up at night.

You’re not the only one!

“Am I going it alone, am I really the only one feeling like this?”

“Who can I talk to about this, who has the answer or the right contact?”

“Will this loneliness ever end?”

The challenges can be physical, emotional, circumstantial and can show up in a number of guises, often effecting our energy and productivity levels. Successful business owners I’ve spoken to have underlying health conditions and often question whether they should be running their own business because of the time and energy it takes.  Then there are those of us who obliviously fall victim to overload that builds up over time a bit like a neglected car that can one day just decide to go into paralysis and stop functioning.

Does this sound familiar to you?

I recently had a chat via our podcast with Victoria Salomon of Ixchel Therapies, a pain & movement specialist. Victoria works with people with various underlying health challenges, emotional and energy concerns both in their personal lives and in the workplace. She’s a very unique approach and toolkit to help you function and gradually move from a state of almost paralysis or burnout into consistent productivity be it in their business, home or life in general. We talk about having an awareness of your unique mind and body, the way you function, sometimes simple tweaks and changes can often be transformational to your everyday life and can have an amazing ripple effect. She believes that there is certainly a connection between an optimum level of wellbeing, support and productivity.

What solutions can workplace models such as flexible workspaces and coworking bring to you?

Being in the right workspace environment that suits your personality and requirements can go a long way to putting you in an optimum position to manage your day and give you the relationships and social interaction to provide that ongoing support. For me it’s a combination of the right environment and the community support, people that share your values and perhaps share similar struggles, people that you can open up to and get you.

As a workplace model flexible workspaces and coworking can give you a great toolkit with many benefits:

1.Relationships, connections & support:

• Sense of community & belonging that you might not get working from home boosting morale/ energy / continuity. People to celebrate with and to share a shoulder with. These spaces are well known for embracing the mental wellbeing of their members with amazing support and sharing of ideas and experiences.
• Networks, skills & expertise both on your doorstep and further afield that you might not otherwise have access to.
• Getting your questions answered – those questions that are just going around in your head and you don’t know who to ask both with regards work-life and home-life.
• Exposed to more diverse personalities, background, cultures which can often drive creativity and ideas and bring about a really positive impact.
• Flexible workspaces can indirectly bring about more openness and conversation, support about what so many of us are going through but we often think that we’re ‘going it alone’. For me the whole ethos of coworking means that people naturally want company from likeminded people rather than flying solo at home and so often we are more open and naturally approach these topics.

2. Workspace environments, physical ergonomics & infrastructure:

• There are so many different types of flexible workspace environments and there’s nearly always one to suit you, your personality, your values, your industry and the requirements that you have.
• Given reliable & transparent connectivity and infrastructure enables better engagement and connectivity with your team and your clients and less worrying and wasted energy.
• Most have great ergonomic workstations, lighting, seating and desking including standing desks etc which can really help.
• A workspace environment that can grow and reduce in size depending on what you need without the stresses of overheads and administration.
• Various working and meeting environments to use throughout the day depending on your mood or the project that your undertaking. Sit somewhere where you’ve never sat before and see how it makes you feel!

3. Boundaries:

• Enables distinctive boundaries between work and home life leading to a less stressful home life.

4. Connections to nature – outside spaces:

• Often these workspaces have outdoor garden areas, breakout spaces, roof gardens. This really helps in terms of your connection between wellbeing and output stagnation it can be very calming and interesting to look at things from a different perspective. Be playful, take something outside that you would normally do at your desk, see if it spark creativity!

Being able to trust and be open with those around you that truly value what you do and what you have to say goes along way to helping with resilience and putting a smile on your face as does the environment that you’re in. 

A big thank you and gratitude in abundance to our mentors, members, supporters and champions on this.

If you’d like some help on how to map out remote working transformations for your team then you can book a discovery call with Suzanne:

For more info on our Powering Productivity series subscribe to our newsletter

or read more of our articles here.

You can also listen to more of our podcasts around these topics here