Does Your Workplace Smell Good?

The sense of smell is a very important factor in being able to stir up emotions and memories. Think of a time when you experienced a happy emotion. You might have been on a seaside vacation with your family. Recreating that particular “smell,” namely the ocean, would evoke a happy memory. Similarly, if you lost your home and all of your belongings in a fire, the smell of wood smoke in the air might evoke a feeling of terror. To another person, wood smoke might bring up a happy memory of a romantic evening by the fire. A single scent can dredge up all kinds of emotions and enable you to relive memories.

So what does this have to do with a creative work environment? Air and aroma have a powerful effect. If you want to create the right kind of environment, the air plays an important part.

An organization needed to improve the performance and productivity of its 900 employees. Many causes of low morale and productivity were identified. One of the biggest problems was the work environment itself — break rooms, office, corridors, rest rooms and cafeterias. In each of these areas, the air was the problem. The gray, dingy corridors consistently smelled like “old, cooked cabbage”! This smell pervaded offices and employees’ break rooms as well as other areas within the establishment. The rest rooms were neglected and infrequently cleaned. The solution was to change airflow in the air systems. In addition, the rest room cleaning schedules were drastically improved.

Minor issues are often overlooked, and yet the effects can have a major negative impact!