*Team members are able to take mobile tools to a variety of locations to suit the needs of their day to day work, fostering knowledge sharing and relationship building throughout the workplace.*

Whether it is work, personal, family or friends there are so many different areas of our life where stress can creep in. The reality of this question is that only one in four people will say they are not stressed. In preparing for a presentation to the IFMA World Workplace conference, EUA launched a third party survey to gather input from over 500 employed people across the US. The study examined employee satisfaction levels in relation to their work environment as well as how they viewed their work-related stress levels. Our survey found that 75 percent of respondents reported moderate to high work-related stress levels. We correlated stress levels to those who check emails and perform tasks outside of normal work hours (moderate) to those who stay late and work outside of normal working hours regularly to keep up with the business demands (high).

The rampant spread of stress in relation to work, specifically, Burnout Syndrome, is a serious issue that is being more openly discussed around the world. Earlier this year the World Health Organization (WHO) identified Burnout Syndrome as an occupational phenomenon in the international classification of diseases. The WHO describes Burnout Syndrome as feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, lack of engagement in one’s job and reduced efficacy or accomplishment.

What Does the Work Environment Have to Do with Stress?

The physical environment can play a large role in our daily work experience. The workplace is a place for focus, a place for collaboration and place to get stuff done and move business forward. However, the physical work environment can be so much more than that – it can be a place where trust is built, ideas are shared and innovation blooms. Hearing the 2018 Gallup survey that identified 85 percent of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work makes me wonder, what role does the physical space play in this and could Burnout Syndrome be another ingredient in the discouraging topic of stress.

When developing a workplace strategy, it involves gaining an understanding of an organizations’ business objectives while aligning with its people, place and technology; where the people side of the equation is the unique cultural attributes of that organization. We have identified five drivers to an engaged workplace that have positive impacts to employee engagement. When developing a strategy with a client, we leverage these elements in our work environment survey and can quickly identify opportunities for work environment improvement.