• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Engineering Management Institute

UPCOMING TRAINING

Call us 800.920.4007

  • About
    • Meet Anthony Fasano, P.E.
    • EMI’s Mission, Vision & Values
    • Meet Team EMI
  • Content
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
      • The Engineering Career Coach Podcast
      • The Civil Engineering Podcast
        • Women in Civil Engineering
        • Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs
        • The Civil Engineering CEO Podcast
      • The Structural Engineering Channel
      • The Geotechnical Engineering Podcast
      • The Engineering Quality Control Podcast
      • This Week in Civil Engineering
    • TV
    • Videos
    • Books
    • Recommended Reading
    • Sponsors
  • Training
  • Hiring Solutions
  • FE-PE Exams
  • Start
  • Clients
  • Contact

TCEP 095: Office Layout and How It Impacts Productivity and Culture

August 29, 2018 By EMI

http://media.blubrry.com/engineeringcareercoach/p/traffic.libsyn.com/civilengineeringpodcast/TCEP095.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Office LayoutIn episode 095 of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I am bringing you with me to the offices of Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (MRCE) to sit down with Senior Partner Peter Deming and myself. We will be talking about the importance of your physical office layout and how it impacts productivity and culture.  This is a topic you might not consider as important until you hear Peter discuss it.

Here are some of the questions I ask Peter Deming:

  • How did you decide how to setup the people throughout your office?
  • Can you talk about the importance of the library and the locker room that you have at your offices?
  • What comes to mind when I say the word “culture”?
  • How did you get to the point where you wanted to drive change in your career?

Engineering Quotes:

Office Layout

Here are some key points discussed in this episode on the impact of office layout and culture:

  • It takes experience, time, and many projects to build your experience as an engineer.
  • Figuring out a problem comes from experience upon experience.
  • Our focus around the office layout was to provide distribution of leadership throughout the firm. We decided to put experienced people’s offices closer to less experienced people. We also tried to develop more areas where people could communicate and established smaller conference rooms.
  • There are three different cubicle sizes at the firm. The young engineers are in the smallest (yet practical) cubicles and the medium level engineers in slightly bigger cubicles. This allows the more experienced engineer to accommodate a visitor. The senior-level cubicles are laid out at the window grid and can accommodate more than one visitor at a time. Lastly, we have partner offices which all have a visitor table, three chairs, and a desk. This is the only office type which has a door and is spread out throughout the company.
  • Simply by volunteering your experiences, people share quite a bit. Sharing is where the office layout needs to take us. We can’t sit in a cubicle and gain experience from others around us. We have to be able to see them, know them, talk with them and share experiences.
  • One thing that works well in our offices is the group offices we have set-up for the staff who do  fieldwork.
  • In the world we live in today, there are enough things to worry about. If there is any way that you can make it easier for your employees to feel comfortable and at home in their offices, you should do it.
  • Culture is a very important aspect of our company and culture for us means communication.  All of the office layout design factors into better communication.

More details in this episode…

About Peter Deming

Office LayoutPeter Deming, a geotechnical engineer, joined Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers in 1979. He managed the soil mechanics laboratory for eight years. Peter was promoted to Partner in 1998. Peter’s project experience includes the design of earthwork, deep excavations and the excavation process, hydraulic barriers for groundwater control, foundations, and waterfront structures. Many of his projects are located outside of the NY metropolitan area.

Sources/References:

Engineering Management Accelerator Workshop (Online) | 5 PDHs
Engineering Management Institute Professional Membership
Peter Deming LinkedIn Account
Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers

This episode is brought to you by PPI, the leader of civil engineering FE or PE exam preparations. Use promo code TCE8 for a 20 % discount at ppi2pass.com

Please leave your comments or questions in the section below on office layout, productivity and culture.

  • If you enjoyed this post, please consider downloading our free list of 33 Productivity Routines of Top Engineering Executives. Click the button below to download.

    Download the Productivity Routines

To your success,

Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP
Engineering Managment Institute
Author of Engineer Your Own Success

Related Posts

  • TCEP 082: One Civil Engineer's Passion for Culture and Community
  • TCEP 143: COVID-19: Mitigating Impacts on Construction Projects
  • TCEP 047: Keeping Young Civil Engineers Billable
  • TCEP 020: Business Development for Smart Civil Engineers
  • Work From Home Productivity Tips for Engineers

Filed Under: Business Development, TCEP-The Civil Engineering Podcast Tagged With: build your experience, career, communicate, communication, conference rooms, culture, distribution of leadership, experienced people, geotechnical engineer, Office Layout, offices, Peter Deming, Productivity

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

And Get Custom Content Delivered To You Weekly

PM Training

engineering management lessons

career readiness

Categories

  • Blog
    • Business Development
    • Business/Entrepreneurship
    • Career Goals and Challenges
    • Communication/Public Speaking
    • COVID19
    • Credentials
    • Enlightenment
    • Ethics & Integrity
    • Job Search/Salary/Relocation
    • Leadership/Management
    • Mentoring
    • Networking/Client Relations
    • News and Events
    • Organization/Productivity/Time Management
    • Personal Development and Professionalism
    • Program Management
    • Project Management
    • Travel
    • Work Life Balance
  • Engineering Career TV
  • Engineering Technology
  • TCEP-The Civil Engineering Podcast
    • Business Development
    • Business/Entrepreneurship
    • Career Goals and Challenges
    • Civil Engineering Entrepreneurs
    • Communication & Public Speaking
    • Credentials
    • Ethics/Integrity
    • Infrastructure
    • Job Search/Salary/Relocation
    • Leadership/Management
    • Mentoring
    • Project Management
    • Women in Engineering
  • TECC Podcast-The Engineering Career Coach Podcast
    • Business/Entrepreneurship
    • Career Game Changers
    • Career Goals and Challenges
    • Communication/Public Speaking
    • Credentials
    • Enlightenment
    • Job Search/Salary/Relocation
    • Leadership/Management
    • Mentoring
    • Networking/Client Relations
    • News and Events
    • Organization/Productivity/Time Management
    • Personal Development and Professionalism
    • Project Management
    • Work Life Balance
  • TEQC – The Engineering Quality Control Podcast
  • TGEP – The Geotechnical Engineering Podcast
  • TSEC-The Structural Engineering Channel
  • TWiCE
  • Uncategorized
  • Women in Engineering

TECC Sidebar Featured Final

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

We Can Help You:

  • Build solutions to attract talented professionals.
  • Develop your staff’s people skills.
  • Create career roadmaps for your staff.
  • Provide PM training for your professionals.
  • Build custom development programs.
  • Scale sustainably.

Location:

50 E. Ridgewood Avenue #129

Ridgewood NJ, 07450

800-920-4007

Copyright © 2022 • All Rights Reserved • Property of Engineering Management Institute • Terms of Service • Privacy Policy

SPECIAL DOWNLOAD

33 Productivity Routines of
Top Engineering Executives

x