Estimated reading time: 7 mins
Once you set up your own company, your main aim will be to grow and develop it. And there is no way you will be able to do that if your company is just you working from your spare bedroom! So, at one point, you will need to think about renting out an office space somewhere. And with that office space, you need to find some employees to work for you.
One the face of it, there isn’t much that you need to worry about when it comes to finding a new office and employees. As long as you have a watertight recruitment process, then you can be happy knowing that you have employed the best people to join your team. However, bringing lots of new people together into a new office all at once can flag up some potential issues. Not only that, though, but further down the line you could run into some office problems that might even turn into nightmares.
Here are some of the most common office nightmares that business owners might have to deal with at one point in their company’s lifespan. I’ve also mentioned some useful solutions and fixes so that you can quickly overcome any issue that might crop up in your office.
Confrontations Between Employees
More often than not, you won’t have to worry too much about your employees. As long as you have recruited the best people for the jobs within your business, then you should be alright simply letting them get on with their work. Experienced and highly motivated people won’t need constant supervision from you, so you will have a lot more time to get on with your own stuff. However, there might be times when your employees have slight disagreements with each other. Usually, these disagreements will pass over and will quickly be forgotten about. However, there could be some times when the arguments stick and turn quite confrontational. The first thing you should do is to bring in the arguing employees into your office so that they have the chance to discuss things privately like adults. This should hopefully clear the air. If that doesn’t work, then you need to work out an amicable resolution. I’m sure that each employee will have his or her own demands, and it could be worth giving into one set of demands just so you can end all of the disputes.
Loud Employees
As the company boss, you will probably have your very own office where you can work in perfect peace and quiet. However, there is a good chance that your employees won’t be able to have their own office to themselves – there just won’t be the space! So, you need to understand that you might hear complaints of some very loud employees working for your company. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can deal with people who won’t keep it down. First of all, it’s a good idea to simply have a chat with all your employees to make sure that they know they should respect their coworkers and try to work as quietly as possible. You might run into the problem that some of your employees concentrate better with the radio on in the background while others prefer complete silence. If this is the case in your open-plan office, you could always have one section of the office for those who want a radio. As long as they keep it down, the other workers who prefer silence won’t have to worry about overhearing it.
Temperature Control Issues
If you move into a particularly old office building, you might find that you have a bit of a problem with the temperature of your office. This can be particularly the case in hot summers, as not many old buildings have efficient air conditioning units installed in them. Thankfully, though, getting a new one added shouldn’t be too much of a big problem. A local air conditioning specialist will be able to install a new model in no time at all. They might even be able to service your current one to ensure that it works as well as it should. Likewise, old buildings won’t have the best heating systems in place, which means you could be in store for a very chilly winter! It’s easy for a heating firm to add some modern central heating to your office, so why not call your local company up today to get a quote?
Office Security Problems
If you rent a small office in a large office building or tower block, then the building management company should take care of the overall security of the building. More often than not, this should be enough to keep your own office safe and secure from any external threats. However, there are some other steps you should take as well to ensure that your company is as secure as possible. First of all, make sure that the main entrance into your own office space has its own lock. Only you and your office receptionist should have the keys for this. Sure, you could give each of your employees a copy of the key but then that increases the number of sets of keys that could go missing. And a missing set of keys could cause a security breach! Not only that, though, but it’s worth investing in some CCTV cameras even if you are happy with the building’s security. Nothing is ever quite as secure as we think, and CCTV will provide you with some evidence for the police in the event that someone does end up breaking in.
Calendar Clashes
If there is one thing that will annoy you and your employees, it will be a calendar clash. This could be two appointments overlapping, or it might be that two different employees have somehow managed to double book the meeting room. As you can probably tell, this could lead to a few disputes. But even if your employees aren’t all that annoyed by it, those calendar clashes could cause everyone to lose time that could have been put to good use. So, to prevent any calendar clashes in the first place, make sure that everyone in your business is using an efficient organizational app, such as Google Calendar. Everyone needs to use the same app as this will ensure that everyone knows what is going on in each meeting room and what all their colleagues have planned for their work days.
Maintenance Issues
The building management firm who look after your whole building should take care of any repairs and maintenance in your office. However, there are some of these companies that are quite slow to act or they might ignore your maintenance requests altogether.In these situations, it’s important that you take things into your own hands so that the problems don’t become too nightmarish. You can take a look online to find out more about the types of firms who you can call to get you out of a maintenance pickle. There are lots of groundwork firms, plumbers, electricians, and handymen who will be able to come to your help when the building manager is ignoring all your calls!
A Lack Of Space
Once you start to hire more people as your business expands, you might find that you start to run out of space. Even if you don’t have a big recruitment push, you and your team could end up amassing a lot of clutter in the office which could make your space feel a lot smaller than what it actually is! If you find that you have a lack of space because of all your extra employees, it could be time to think about moving out to a larger office. Of course, this will largely depend on your budget and whether or not you can afford to move. Is it clutter that is giving you space problems? There’s just one thing for it – you need to tidy up and get rid of all the clutter that you no longer need! If you and your team can’t bear to part with anything, you could always just invest in more storage units and cupboards. Just as long as all the clutter is out of the way and isn’t causing too many hazards by being strewn across the floor!
Stolen Office Equipment
Do some of your employees keep on taking bits of office equipment home with them? This might be fine if they take the odd small box of staples with them, but it they continually do it, it will be costing you and your company a lot of money. Not only that, though, but this is technically theft, so you should do whatever you can to prevent them from taking any equipment from the office. You can do this by creating a detailed inventory of all the equipment. This will help ensure that everything is returned at the end of the day. If that doesn’t work, you might have to start locking your storage cupboards!
Office nightmares? What office nightmares!
