Most of us work in some form of an office, and we all know each office has its own quirky way of operating, with a diverse group of personalities who make up the culture of our work place. Everywhere I have worked, I have had a wonderfully strange and dynamic mix of individuals who work in spurts of energy and moments of brilliance that make each work environment unlike any other. We get to know the flow of our offices and learn who is really the team captain despite any titles, and who really will go negative no matter what the situation.

This quirky, discombobulated group is also, hopefully, known for being productive, caring, creative and - despite their individual, strange behaviors - getting the job done. If you think your office is weird, just watch an episode of TV's "The Office," and then you can celebrate your group as fairly functional and normal.

Following Their Own Beat
As a matter of routine, we have discovered that offices all have ebbs and flows, and they work best when they are following their own beat - what is now referred to as the "culture" of a business. Wall Street has noticed that the blending of certain individuals in a working culture brings stunning results to the bottom line. How else do you explain the team at Google or Yahoo? They would not make sense on a graph, but they do make sense for the bottom line. You can no longer pigeonhole the way a company should work nor can you predetermine someone's best working environment.

Flexibility has become the wave of the future for the office, whether it is in the work environment, schedules or teams that shift duties on every project. Flexible benefits and work days contribute to employee satisfaction. Office environments have had to bend to this new trend, and with an aging work force mentoring the new generation of workers, even more flexibility will be required.

A culture that thrives in a changing environment with changing client needs is the business that will outlast others. The office that thinks it came up with its strategic plan and is now sticking to it no matter what will falter. You cannot plan months ahead without the unexpected becoming the expected. Allowing for daily shifts in our plan has had to become a business norm.

Recently, when I had a bad cold, I was surprised when I got a doctor's appointment in two hours. I even wondered if something had gone wrong with the practice, maybe a lawsuit I hadn't noticed or a loss of its best doctor.

When I arrived, the office was bustling as usual and I asked the receptionist how I had gotten an appointment so fast. "We decided to hold some spots on the calendar every day for people who get sick," she answered. "It has really helped."

I had to laugh that the concept of people actually getting sick and needing their doctor had finally dawned on the medical world. A plan for the unexpected had become their solution. And they had happy patients who got to the see the doctor when needed. They had decided they needed to plan flexibility into their schedule, and we all need to do the same thing.

An office may say it does not allow a flex schedule, then has to decide whether the unexpectedly pregnant 40-year-old manager is really out of the picture when she wants to both work and be a mother. You have to be willing to lose the top marketing guru when his father falls ill.

Or, how do you tell the superstar who wants to work in the evenings and produces wonderful business solutions at nine at night that this does not fit your office hours? Do we all really want to re-train and hope to locate employees as talented as those we have?

My company was looking to fill a new position recently and was shocked at the dismal array of resumes that were sent to us from a reputable agency. With a strong economy, people are staying in their jobs and the work force is hard to replace with equally qualified people. Creating a culture that is dominated by flexibility and service to the customer is the dominant theme in offices today. The new office flourishes when we embrace:
· Accomplishing the unusual as usual
· Servicing clients beyond expectations
· Allowing freedom on when the work happens
· Respecting the resources of the community and the world at large while we accomplish our work
· Understanding the heart and spirit of the members of your team and allowing everyone to work on creating a balanced life

How do these latest strategies play out in the office work environment? Our challenge as designers is to design an office that celebrates future thinking, flexibility and worker health. Allowing individual expression and downtime into the space plan is always a challenge when every square foot has a cost. The cost of extra square footage vs. long-term retention of trained employees is the question.

When one company shows it cares about its employees' health and happiness by its work conditions and another does not, it helps future employees decide to select one company above the other. How do you measure the cost benefit to the business that comes from gathering the best brains for the work to be accomplished?

A space that expresses the culture where employees are important and their needs are met is a space that will keep its work force supported and productive. Research has shown that employees rank the work environment third as a factor in their decisions to take a job, after pay and benefits.

Letting workers know that their safety and happiness are important comes through in many actions. Choosing safe materials with sustainable properties has become a way of stating the company cares deeply for the world and those in it.

Square footage dedicated for relaxation and patios for employees to absorb sun and fresh air let staff know you consider them more than cubicle drones. Understanding that people produce stronger results when encouraged in subtle ways is becoming the office standard. The technology sector leads the charge on creative workspaces, and now they are becoming seen in more conventional sectors.

Technologies have changed to support this need for flexibility. The Blackberry (or "crackberry," as it has been properly called) keeps you in touch to the point of insanity. But we have to also learn how and when to walk away from the office.

I was on a family trip to see my son at college, and I was careering down the highway at 70 mph. With my husband at the wheel, I answered 40 e-mails from the office during the day. I finally had to turn it off to enjoy the view with my husband.

You have to make healthy choices to be with people vs. staring at a screen with streaming, never-ending information coming your way. I do celebrate the flexibility of the new technologies, but a finding balance is the challenge to the individual.

Creating a flexible workplace that manages the unmanageable state of business today is the beauty of interior design. It causes me to ponder what environmental shifts I need in planning our new offices and those of our clients. Fluid design is here to stay, and how to provide it efficiently is the challenge.

Juliana M. Catlin, FASID, is founder and president of Catlin Interiors Inc. For more information, call 904-396-5522.