This week I’m changing work locations. As part of this I was comparing the space I work in to the new space and trying to quantify which is better.  I remember that a while back I posted about Environmental Factors in helping to create the best possible work experience.  And then I was thinking about how to rate each space.  My idea was to come up with some nice scale, but it’s pretty obvious that each of these things is subjective and a single scale doesn’t work.  So here’s my idea instead:

1). ORDER THE LIST: Rate the following twenty items in order of importance to you.  Use a 1 for Least Important and a 20 for Most Important.  No Item can have the same number.  Now, here’s the important bit: If you don’t agree with the list, or something on the list isn’t a factor, replace it with something else.  It doesn’t matter what the items in the list are, so much as that there are 20 of them.

• Privacy
• Seclusion from Other People
• Inclusion with Other People
• Ability to Listen to Music Openly
• Ability to Listen to Music on Headphones
• Ability to Modify Environment Lighting
• Cleanliness in Work Environment
• Ability to See Outside
• Ability to Hang Posters or Artwork
• Lots of Wall Space
• Lots of Desk Space
• Lots of Floor Space
• File Cabinet Storage Space
• Nice Furniture
• Comfortable Chair
• Bookshelves
• Ability to Wear Jeans and Flipflops
• Access to the Internet
• High Quality Computing Hardware
• High Quality Computing Software

2). RATE EACH ITEM: Now go through and rate your workplace/workspace on each of the items from 1 to 5 where 1 means NO or LEAST and 5 means YES or MOST.

3). FACTOR EACH LINE: Multiple the rating from Step1 by the Rating from Step2 for each line.

4). TOTAL IT UP: Add all the numbers from Step 3.

5). DERIVE THE SCORE: Divide the result from Step 4 by 105 and round down.  This is your WCLRS score.  Use the following reference to help you determine how good your score is:

2 = PRISON = You work basically in a prison cell without the perk of the inmate on inmate love.  Get a new job.

3 = ABYSMAL = Things are pretty piss poor in your workplace if you are seeing a score like this.  Get a new job.

4 = BAD = Your workplace comfort is really pretty bad and that is keeping you from working at the top of your game.  You could try sprucing things up a bit with fake plants and the like, but without a concerted effort by management to create a better workplace, you’re pretty much screwed. Get a new job.

5 = NOT GOOD = It’s getting better, but really it’s not very good at all.  You could try working with your company to fix things, but I doubt you’ll be able to effect change.  Pity though.  You might consider getting a new job.

6 = ADEQUATE = Okay, your workplace is adequate.  It’s not great but it also beat working in prison.  Plus, clearly your company knows some of these factors are important and they might be willing to work on the other things. You might also consider getting a new job.

7 = PRETTY GOOD = This is down right pretty good.  Your working in a fairly comfortable place and clearly your employer values creating a decent place for its employees.  This, by the way, is the minimum rating for someone who works at home.  If you work at home and get below a 7, just chuck it all and go live on a beach in Guam.

8 = DAMN GOOD = You’re doing damn good.  It’s a nice work space, very comfortable, very enjoyable.  So long as the work doesn’t suck and the people you work with are not complete wankers, this is an excellent job.

9 = AWESOME = Damn near perfect.  You should keep this job even if you don’t like the people you work with.

10 = PERFECT = The gold star standard of workplace comfort.  If you work here, please email me at |a r e i .at. a r e i .dot. n e t| and let me know if you are hiring.

Here’s how I rated my current workplace, and how I rate the workplace I am moving to:

STEP 1 ORDER THE LIST:  For me the list is ordered like this…

01 = Ability to See Outside
02 = Ability to Listen to Music Openly
03 = Lots of Wall Space
04 = Lots of Floor Space
05 = Inclusion with Other People
06 = Carpeting
07 = File Cabinet Storage Space
08 = Nice Furniture
09 = Ability to Hang Posters or Artwork
10 = Bookshelves
11 = Lots of Desk Space
12 = Comfortable Chair
13 = Cleanliness in Work Environment
14 = High Quality Computing Hardware
15 = High Quality Computing Software
16 = Ability to Modify Environment Lighting
17 = Ability to Listen to Music on Headphones
18 = Access to the Internet
19 = Privacy
20 = Seclusion from Other People

STEP 2 RATE EACH ITEM: Here’s my CURRENT and my NEW workplace ratings.  The first number is the current, the second number is the new as shown here: current/new

4/2 = Ability to See Outside
1/2 = Ability to Listen to Music Openly
1/2 = Lots of Wall Space
1/1 = Lots of Floor Space
1/4 = Inclusion with Other People
3/2 = Carpeting
2/2 = File Cabinet Storage Space
2/1 = Nice Furniture
1/2 = Ability to Hang Posters or Artwork
1/1 = Bookshelves
1/2 = Lots of Desk Space
2/1 = Comfortable Chair
5/1 = Cleanliness in Work Environment
5/2 = High Quality Computing Hardware
5/2 = High Quality Computing Software
3/1 = Ability to Modify Environment Lighting
5/2 = Ability to Listen to Music on Headphones
4/2 = Access to the Internet
2/3 = Privacy
1/2 = Seclusion from Other People

STEP 3 FACTOR EACH LINE: Just multiple each lines rating by the order position, gives me the numbers below again in current/new format.

04/02 = Ability to See Outside
02/04 = Ability to Listen to Music Openly
03/06 = Lots of Wall Space
04/04 = Lots of Floor Space
05/20 = Inclusion with Other People
18/12 = Carpeting
14/14 = File Cabinet Storage Space
16/08 = Nice Furniture
09/18 = Ability to Hang Posters or Artwork
10/10 = Bookshelves
11/22 = Lots of Desk Space
24/12 = Comfortable Chair
65/13 = Cleanliness in Work Environment
70/28 = High Quality Computing Hardware
75/30 = High Quality Computing Software
48/16 = Ability to Modify Environment Lighting
85/34 = Ability to Listen to Music on Headphones
72/36 = Access to the Internet
38/57 = Privacy
20/40 = Seclusion from Other People

STEP 4 TOTAL IT UP: Add up each number for current and each for new to get the totals:

Current: 594

New:386

STEP 5 DERIVE THE SCORE: So here I take the totals and divide by 105 for my score:

Current: 594/105 = 6 = ADEQUATE

New: 386/105 = 4 = BAD

So, now that I have it all figured out, I am basically going from ADEQUATE to BAD.  That doesn’t sound like an upgrade to me at all.

Time to get a new job.