Creating A Break Room For Your Office? A space to get away without getting away

A great break room will be a place that your employees look forward to spending time in during their free time. With many employees returning from home, a comfortable break room is one of the perks employees can look forward to upon their return to the office. Ideally, the break room serves multiple purposes for your team – giving them a space to eat, socialize, decompress, and relax. To find out exactly how you can meet your staff’s needs, it may be useful to discuss and collaborate with them on what their “dream” break room includes. Different types of workplace settings and cultures could lead your team to prioritize specific things over others.

Make the most out of your social spaces by giving each area a unique function to divide your break room into sections, with various seating options serving different purposes for employees. For example, your break room could include a section with tables and benches for when your coworkers want to spend time together, but also an area with individual couches or hammocks for when team members would prefer time to themselves to lounge (or to even squeeze in a quick power nap!). Your team works hard, and deserves areas to unwind during their break times. What about adding a pool table or foosball table for added fun and team building!

At Open Mind Interiors, we offer a diverse variety of Panels and Dividers that can help to not only divide up space efficiently, but also provide sound separation and privacy. Through this, your employees are given greater choice in how they can spend their break time while at work. To take it a step further, you could even use colour and fabrics to create a unique mood in each area. Whatever your team’s needs, we can help in making it a reality!

Including basic kitchen appliances and tools can also greatly improve your team’s breaktime experience. A coffee station, fridge, and microwave at minimum provides your team with the ability to have a warm lunch to keep themselves energized. A kitchenette or kitchen in your office also provides employees with the opportunity for greater variety in their eating choices. It’s also very useful to have a kitchen space in your office for when you organize your next team lunch, office party, or holiday potluck!

Being thoughtful in developing spaces that cater to your team will let your coworkers know that you care about them, and hold importance in ensuring that they have a good experience while at work.

While the break room can be a great representation of the office’s values, it can also be a great space for employees to show off their own personalities. Creating opportunities for your staff to connect and find shared interests can positively affect their satisfaction in the workplace overall.

Here are some fun ideas to consider for your breakroom:

• Alongside your coffee and tea station, create “mug cubbies” where staff can bring in and store a mug that best represents them. This can help coworkers learn a little bit more about each other, and gives them the opportunity to make a small part of the break room their own. It can also help keep the break room organized, and ensures that there’s never a shortage of cups!
• Include a whiteboard with different coloured markers where you can display weekly riddles, trivia, mad libs, word scrambles, drawing contests, and more. This can lead to some playful banter and fun competition between staff members. Perhaps you can even include some small prizes!
• Add a bookshelf in the breakroom that includes not only informative, work-related literature, but also a “book exchange” area for coworkers to share their favourite recent reads.
• Create a picture wall or bulletin board where staff can look back on memories of past office parties, workplace outings, and celebrate team accomplishments. It can even be a place for coworkers to share their cute pet photos, which is always a treat!
• Encourage relaxation and fun! Consider including things like board games, video games, a portable ping pong table set, a mini basketball hoop, a tv, or a speaker.