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Can you judge a workplace by the art they decorate their office with? That’s hard to say. Buzzfeed has a mega-post of artworks and decorations found in website offices from all over. Find out what Playboy, College Humor, Gawker, Dailymotion, VH1, and many others have on their walls. Pictured here is the artwork that greets employees at Threadless. Go to the post to see Neatorama’s positively minimalist office art. Link
DeviantART member deezoid felt a little cramped in his office cubicle, but knew just how to improve it. Now it’s a TARDIS! Link
So there you are at the office and your mind wanders. For some reason, you don’t have the internet to keep you occupied, but you have plenty of paper clips. People can get very creative with paper clips, as you’ll see in this post from Kuriositas. There are gadgets, toys, artworks, science experiments, and this amazing set of weapons Brett made. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Dan4th Nicholas)
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After reading these notes to anonymous troublemakers -and every office has one or two of those types- I realize how glad I am to work from home, despite the relatively minor annoyances. At least now when someone steals my lunch, its someone I have to feed anyway. See 39 more of these notes that you will probably relate to. Link -Thanks, Jane/Sierra!
Update 10/30/11 – These are from Passive Aggressive Notes – Thanks Kerry!
Big Legal Brain offers a review of the Swingline 747 Business Stapler as it performs the tasks it is actually used for in offices all over the world.
For added functionality, I tried hammering a nail into the wall using the butt end of the Swingline 747. Unlike the Stanley Bostich desktop stapler we tested in the past, the Swingline held up well to the hammering. A rubber non-skid membrane on the bottom, however, took a little bit of damage from the nail. Otherwise, a few swift hits and the nail went in smoothly.
For shooting staples across the room, the Swingline really has limited utility and pales in comparison to more powerful staplers, such as the Stanley Sharpshooter Heavy Duty Staple Gun, which packs some real punch. To test the Swingline, Amy and Ninja Dog ran across the room quickly while I tried to hit them with staples shot from the stapler. I managed to hit them only 30 percent of the time, far less than the 78 percent accuracy rate we registered with the Stanley staple gun we tested last winter. But if your practice does not involve shooting staples at your colleagues or support staff, the Swingline should work just fine.
Link -via Breakfast Links
While many folks are dealing with unemployment, those who still have jobs are putting up with more and more cutbacks. Little by little, our personal space at work is shrinking.
According to the International Facility Management Association, the average American office worker had 90 square feet of work space in 1994, but by 2010, that same worker was down to just 75 square feet of personal space in which to stretch out on the job.
Nor are office drones the only casualty of this spacial downsizing trend. Senior company officials have seen their offices shrink as well, from an average of 115 square feet in 1994 to 96 square feet in 2010. Oh, the humanity!
However, big offices are not the status symbol they used to be. Now it is a sign of status when a worker can do at least part of his job completely outside the office. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Our pal Sean Fallon of Nerd Approved must be off his rockers. He wrote an article about the Worst Christmas Gifts for MSN, in which he inexplicably included this AWESOME office bed chair (looks like something Steve Johnson of the Museum of Possibilities would’ve dreamed up) as well as the handy Handerpants as bad gift ideas.
We, obviously, disagree, but you can read the entire list for yourself: Link
Are you tired of your old workspace? The Freshome interior design blog will help you find inspiration for something new by listing “42 Gorgeous Desk Designs for any Office”.
Some of the desks are suited only for large rooms that accentuate their gorgeous shape. And then there are those desks that can transform from a small, one-man workstation to a large, conferential table. It all depends on your taste and needs, so enjoy the next 42 desk designs that we fell in love with.
This Friday’s Museum of Possibilities addresses the many kinds of burdens felt by office workers, and offers to “solve” or ameliorate some of them. Though office workers have more freedom to move about in their cubicles than, say, debeaked and declawed chickens can move inside their tiny coops, they do experience a variety of underlying stresses. For one, they are required to appear artificially perky and cheerful on the job, which author Barbara Ehrenreich says wastes energy that could be devoted to actual work – see Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, and Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America.
Further, they need to keep up with the latest information, work late hours, take work home, and at the same time learn how to keep fit, look presentable and multitask. A good multitasker might be on the phone while answering email and doing “research” online, which might include checking out interesting facts on Neatorama. All in all, there is more to being an office worker than just showing up for work.
While today’s workers do not always need to carry a heavy briefcase to accomplish work at home – a USB stick loaded with PowerPoint files fits easily in the suit jacket pocket – there is nonetheless the need to continue to worry about the job as well as to work after hours or at home. I believe that the available types of office apparel fail to take into account real needs! I have come to the aid of workers of the office world with suits and dresses, jackets and hats designed especially for office professionals!
Famous men in history sometimes had a special place they went to think, create, or unwind in which they could block out the rest of the world. Almost every man would like to have a “man cave” like these, if he doesn’t already! The Art of Manliness shows us what the private or men-only rooms of Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, and quite a few others looked like. Shown here is Theodore Roosevelt’s trophy room. Link -via Gorilla Mask
Lifehacker often shares a look inside interesting workplaces, and today featured the headquarters of Etsy, the website at which crafters can sell their homemade treasures. In a series of pictures, you can see that the place looks exactly as you might expect -very crafty! Link
We all like to get off work early, but probably not as much as Michelle Perrino. She set the office on fire so she can clock off early:
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said Michelle Perrino, 40, drew suspicion during a meeting of Bayonet Point Oxygen employees when she mentioned the May 12, 2009, fire had started in a filing cabinet before workers had been informed of the fire’s origins, the St. Petersburg Times reported Thursday.
Investigators said a friend of Perrino told them she had admitted to tripping the main circuit breaker and adjusting phones to block incoming calls in bids to go home early without sacrificing the day’s pay.
David Thorne, who once paid a bill with a picture of a spider and crashed a party now gives the office manager an idea about washing coffee cups. The email trail will no doubt remind you of situations you’ve encountered in your workplace.
Due to there being an unprecedented twelve coffee cups needing to be cleaned in the sink at work, it is understandable that Shannon would be outraged by this intrusion on her facebook and looking out the window time.
Though kitchen duties may be an expected part of her job role, there is no reason why everyone should not reschedule work/client commitments and help out to ensure Shannon’s social networking and looking out the window time is not interrupted.
Check out Shannon’s time sheet in the sidebar as well. Link -via reddit
There’s office romance, and then there’s post-it office romance! Here’s a cute short film by Academy Film’s directors Simon Atkinson and Adam Trowley (better known as Si & Ad) about how two office workers express their love for each other using office supplies.
Cute! Link [embedded YouTube]
The Nothing team took the idea behind the company name (taking nothing and turning it into something) as the starting point for the physical design of the office; which included creating walls, signage, beams, tables, shelving and even a set of stairs out of cardboard.
(image credit: Joachim Baan)
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Frau.
I work in the darkest, dingiest office building known to man. It’s like any light is sucked into the beige fabric-covered cube walls… not the best environment for creativity. Needless to say, I’m quite intrigued by this cube makeover – click the link to see the “before,” if you’re lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the confines of a cubicle.
Link via ikea hacker
