A Small Office Versus a Big Office

Read the text and decide which of the three office components it deals with. Then do the tasks that follow.

According to social surveys many people who work in small offices feel quite content with their lives. They admit that they have unlimited opportunities to learn from their co-workers. What they particularly like is a special sense of community which originates in small offices. Everybody feels like a true member of a team. There is more a “all for one” kind of attitude. Nobody is offended if his colleagues want to help him.

Team work, learning opportunities and increased intimacy are all big elements in a small office culture. For good and for bad, it’s a distinct environment that creates a work life that is much different from that of a large shop. A small office offers those who work in it unique pluses a big place cannot match. One such benefit is support for an individual who is a newcomer or the one who has got personal problems. People around you know you so well, that if you are having a hard day, a nice little surprise may appear on your desk sometime during the day. One can’t stay indifferent when colleagues show touching signs of understanding and sympathy.

On the other hand, some people who are very keen on protecting their privacy may not like it, because under these circumstances everybody knows each other’s business and one’s privacy tends to shrink. But the majority would appreciate this genius sense of community. A close-knit atmosphere can be an extremely powerful motivator. An informal dress code and a friendly office environment helps push work along. Everybody’s in the same boat. There’s an exquisite dependence on each other.

Working in a small office inevitably has certain limitations too. Some people who used to work in a small office at earlier stages of their career do not regret that they have left working in a small office behind for life in a big corporation. One of the big advantages is that now they have a whole infrastructure of people to help them with tasks that they would have had to do themselves in the past. They are free to focus on their careers. They don’t need to do a bit of marketing, a bit of sales, to be a fund manager, to be doing it all. Budgets in big offices are not as constraint as in small ones. If you feel you need to go to a conference in another part of the country or on a special training program you are free to go. You can go wherever you need to do your job. Of course, worklife is a little less personal and there’s more process and bureaucracy in a big office.

But, on the other hand, if you are working in a small office and the collective energy is negative and draining, it’s very difficult for an individual to get away from it. Working in a small office is like having a family. If one person has a headache, then suddenly other members have a headache too.

So, is life in a small office happier than life in a big one? Surveys show that workplace happiness has less to do with the size of a shop or industry and has everything to do with office atmosphere and human relations – with your immediate boss, with your co-workers, and with your customers. These relations form and built up an office’s and corporate culture. The idea of corporate wellness is to match the needs and values of employees with those of the company to find a balance that help the individual and corporation get ahead. We are living in a time when people want to enjoy what they are doing, they want to feel needed, trusted and respected.