How many of us truly love our jobs? With longer work hours, and less opportunity for creativity and personal advancement – it’s no wonder so many of us dread that Monday morning return to work. But, what alternatives do we have? It turns out – there are plenty.

What steps might you take to improve your workspace? We can restructure our work environments to increase innovation, efficiency, and create a space for joy in our work world to eliminate the office gossip and lack of convivial friendship. Gossip often suggests that someone is feeling powerless in a situation or needs help and encouragement to succeed. Perhaps employers could consider paying for activities that bring workers together in a shared activity, such as attending a yoga class or working together on a community project, or create break rooms or other communal spaces so that friendship and camaraderie happen naturally. The old factory model of workplace efficiency—where each worker cog in the system is expected to do what he’s told to do without an understanding of how he’s contributing or the power to control his efforts—is outdated in our information economy. Instead, employers need to find the ways that they can encourage their most important asset—their employees—and strategically foster greater workplace innovation, productivity, and harmony. When we provide employees; with the flexibility to succeed in both their personal and professional lives, we achieve more than an extraordinary workplace, we create an organization that performs at its very best.