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​SAP workplaces come in all shapes and sizes across a multitude of industries. They can be super corporate or extremely relaxed. But does this have an impact on how you actually work? Well, that depends! To get the best idea of what benefits each work environment offers, we’ve done a Speller Special Investigation on the subject. Keep reading to learn what we discovered.

Straight Up Suits:

The pros:

The idea of a corporate office is to create a professional environment where people work hard and achieve great results. A corporate environment can be a very stringent environment, but many people enjoy working within specific boundaries, logging specific hours and coming to work just to get the job done.

Dressing up each day in corporate attire can give you a sense of confidence and purpose. Many people find suiting up gives them a sense of getting ready for battle – to go in and smash it!

The cons:

A corporate environment can come off as stale and lifeless. In some offices, people are like robots: they come in and sit at their desks, do their job then go home. Of course, this isn’t true of all corporate offices and many firms, despite their corporate appearance, put a lot of effort into fostering great teams and excellent engagement from staff.

A focus on work only can lead to conflicting pressures from home and other aspects of employees’ lives, causing burn out and lowered job satisfaction.

Casual every day (not just Friday):

Pros:

A casual environment can have flexible working arrangements, like hot desks and working from home options, making it easier to balance responsibilities.

A more relaxed format for work encourages colleagues to speak to one another, build personal relationships at work and, most importantly, encourages people to have fun and have a laugh.

Going to work each day in casual attire can be great logistically (no need to worry about ironing that shirt!) but can also give you a more relaxed mindset which can lead to a more relaxed work output.

Cons:

Hot desks and working from home can be great but there is also the risk of a disjointed workforce as teams are often spread out and not working closely with each other.

Casual dress codes require monitoring and boundaries (jeans are okay, trackies are not!). Issues can arise if communication is not clear.

Giving employees the space to interact and have a good time at work can result in some people taking liberties. Managers must be diligent and fair to ensure that collaboration and camaraderie are not mistaken for slacking off – and vice versa.

In closing

The current trend for larger companies, particularly those providing services or connecting people, is to use a casual dress code, flexible working hours and relaxed offices to show staff they care – and it works. Google, LinkedIn and Facebook are listed in the top 10 most relaxed and casual companies on Earth, and are 3 of the largest and most successful. They want to attract people, train them, give them all the work tools but, most importantly, want to be portrayed as a fantastic company, values and ethics.

While this may not work quite yet for companies in very corporate industries like financial or legal, the hope is that eventually all businesses will allow for greater work life balance (even if their employees still need to wear a suit to that breakfast meeting!).

So there you have it! Our first Speller Special Investigation is complete. See below for the breakdown of our findings in handy bullet points.

Casual

• Can be laid back and create creativity and potentially out of the box thinking

• People can go to the gym, or do chores without leaving work so they spend less time away from the ‘office’

• Easier to promote healthy living – healthy mind healthy work

• Pride in where you work and the outside world find out about this and the reputation so easier to hire

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Corporate

• Always dressed and ready for meetings

• Professional dress can be empowering

• Sense of office and home – wont get the two mixed up

• Corporate guides businesses to their goals

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What kind of workplace do you work in? Do you agree with our list?