Beyond Ping Pong Tables: Building Workplaces People Can Believe In

We all spend a lot of time sleeping. Most people sleep around eight hours per day, and we are all very tuned in to the fact that it makes sense to ensure the place where we sleep is comfortable.

We also spend a lot of time doing work… you can see where this is going, right?

Whether you do your work in an underground mine or purely in your mind, you’ll want to be surrounded by an environment where you can feel comfortable, safe, capable, and able to do your best work.

What applies to the person also applies to the workplace.

Many corporations have woken up to the fact that asking people to perform at their best while accommodating them in cubicle farms, poorly designed offices, or high-pressure sweatshop environments is counterproductive. A poor working environment costs businesses money. It drains energy, reduces creativity, limits communication, and quietly sands the shine off good people.

So how do we get it right?

Aside from the obvious physical considerations like lighting, temperature, noise, space, and amenities, there is also the psychological environment to consider. Many businesses try to sort out the physical aspects first, assuming the psychological ones will naturally follow, or that they are somehow less important.

Unfortunately for them, it does not work like that.

The way we think about work shapes the way we experience work. Dressing up a psychologically damaging workplace with a ping pong table, an air conditioner, and a bowl of fruit will be, well, fruitless.

The good news is that we do not need to build the Googleplex overnight, complete with pinball machines, free food, nap pods, and swimming pools. Those can come later when your business skyrockets on the back of your inspired people’s creative ideas and innovations.

So how do we achieve this workplace nirvana?

Well, we know how not to.

Start by putting closed doors between the people who make decisions and the people who do the work. Don’t share ownership. Limit communication. Keep motivation mysterious. Appoint managers and team leaders in a way that lets everyone else stop feeling like they should contribute to decisions or, heaven forbid, actually lead anything.

You’ve seen this before, right?

What we need instead is an equilibrium approach: one where everyone feels genuinely invested in shared goals, as much as possible. This does not mean everyone does the same job, has the same skills, or carries the same responsibilities. It means people are respected as contributors, trusted with information, and invited into the work of shaping the organisation.

Many structures have been proposed to support this, and the best choice comes down to finding the right match between the values of the organisation and the people within it.

“Co-operatives” and “collectives” are terms that often come up when egalitarian workplaces are being discussed. They are not identical, but both point toward a more participatory way of working.

A co-operative is an organisation designed to benefit its members, usually through shared ownership, democratic decision-making, and a commitment to mutual benefit. A collective is a way of running an organisation where decisions are made more collaboratively, with the intention of serving the whole group rather than concentrating power in one place.

Such beasts do exist. They are out there today, working, experimenting, stumbling, learning, and proving that workplaces can be structured differently.

I’ll be exploring these ideas in future articles, and also in real life as I move my own business further in this exciting direction.