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Business Lessons from Star Wars: Types of Fire Protection Systems

Posted on January 21, 2016

Fire protection systems refer to residential or commercial systems that have been put in place to reduce the negative effects of fire. One of the most important business lessons from Star Wars trilogy is that when a fire is burning in a building, the most logical course of action after evacuating people from the building is to suppress or extinguish the fire. Fire protection systems help to minimise the impact of fires on buildings, surrounding infrastructures, and people...

Stock Take Procedure - How to by WPD

Posted on November 19, 2015

Here we go... Christmas Holidays are fast approaching, so what better time to organize our stock take for the upcoming busy period if not now... said our keen Warehouse Manager! So we (the web team and the Finance Manager) had to give him a hand on a cold November afternoon and get things done counted in the warehouse. We've put the high vises on, or at least intended to and cracked on. After carefully assigning us to teams, Ben gave everybody warehouse maps and to do lists. Some of us were lucky enough to work inside the warehouse office... Some had to g...

Using Team Building to Develop a Successful Team

Posted on October 08, 2015

Building a great team starts with great leadership. A great leader has many positive attributes such as correcting the course when necessary, making tough decisions, and setting performance standards. Team building and leadership requires ego management, recognition, and continuous development among other things to work well over the short and long term. Businesses that invest in team building are often more successful and have enhanced rapport among team members. It also makes team members feel like contributors to the overall success of their team or company. Leadership’s understanding of team building and team building activities is essential to effectively fostering team synergy. Team building activities are a great way to develop and foster the health o...

Top 5 Workplace Films

Posted on July 30, 2015

We may love to watch movies because they help us escape real life for a few moments. Yet, the popularity of workplace films takes us right back to our desks and keeps us grounded in reality. How Workplace Films Inspire and Motivate Us to Love Our Work Work is always hard. Even if you have your dream job, there are always ups and downs in every office, in every post, in every country across the world. Perhaps that’s why workplace films that inspire and motivate us have become such box office hits in recent years. Here are our top 5 workplace movies that get us inspired and motivated and why we love them. #5: Office Space Roger Ebert reviews the hit film, Office Space, as a “comic cry” of anger towards the hum drum everyday of office life. In spite of the film being a little negative, the determination of the three heroes in the movie does give us a motivational boost. Sometimes it can also help just to have a laugh at the fact that so many office workers across the country can relate to the same struggles of office life. #4: The Social Network The Social Network is one of those films that makes each one of us feel like we could build an empire from our dorm. That’s perhaps why this workplace film debuted at number 1 when it hit box offices in 2010 (according to Box Office Mojo). The film shows the uncertain journey of Facebook’s famous founders as they undergo ups, downs, and roundabouts in their journey to success. It helps prove a point that all you need is a dream and a dedication to pursue professional greatness. #3: The Devil Wears Prada The Devil Wears Prada tells the classic story of the struggle to work hard and advance from the bottom to the top. Although the story revolves around the very specific peculiarities of pursuing a career within the fashion industry, the struggles that the protagonist feels, such as the pressures of a demanding work environment and competition within organisations are transferable to almost every professional field. For this reason, the movie makes it to number 3 in our top 5 workplace movies. #2: The Internship Technology seems to be taking over the workplace. In today’s world, it’s very difficult to get ahead when you aren’t tech savvy. Such is the central plot of the hilarious workplace comedy, The Internship. Two salesmen, whose lack of experience in technology leads them to redundancy, decide to ...

Reasons You Should be Drinking Coffee at Work

Posted on July 23, 2015

Very few office workers can go a few hours, let alone days without their regular caffeine fix. A cup of coffee, be it an Americano, a latte, or an espresso, have often been chalked down as saviours during long working hours, night shifts or getting through sleep-deprived days. But that cuppa mocha latte (my personal favourite) is not only waking you up every morning, it’s doing more wonders than you realize. We have some very big fans of coffee around here at The Workplace Depot and we've put our thoughts together to come up with 8 amazing benefits of coffee (in our opinion of course). So here they are: 1. Coffee Boosts Productivity ...

Fifty Shades of Grey? Cable Ties all the Way!

Posted on February 18, 2015

Unless you don’t have access to the Internet, or a TV, or the radio… In fact unless you’ve been living under a rock in recent times, you will probably be aware that the new movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, was released in cinemas over Valentine’s Day weekend. In case you happen to be unaware of the movie and its plot, Fifty Shades of Grey was actually released in 2011 as a trilogy of novels. The genre of the novels are ‘erotic romance’, with the storyline tracing the relationship of a college graduate named Anastasia Steele and a young, successful businessman named Christian Grey. The book became a best-seller around the world with regards to its explicit content and references to BDSM, having sold over 100 million copies, as well as being translated into 52 different languages, not to mention it being the fastest selling paperback of all time in the UK. You might be wondering what relevance Fifty Shades of Grey has to The Workplace Depot, but we can confirm that a scen...

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2015

Love it or loathe it, it's Valentine’s Day once again. The one day of the year where couples all around the world can celebrate their love for each other, whilst the single ones amongst us either eat their body weight in ice cream or go out with fellow singletons in the hope to try and forget the meaning of the day! Whichever group you fall in to, the majority of people probably all have the same thought process for Valentine’s Day – why do we need this day to declare our love for our partner? Well although the answer on most people’s minds is probably somewhere along the lines of ‘we don’t – it’s a money making holiday’, we nevertheless continue to buy cards, chocolates and flowers to celebrate the cause. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with the day if you ask me, even if it is actually just an excuse to go out and eat a lot of fancy food! Top Tips If you’re struggling for ideas this Valentine’s Day, especially as it has fallen on a S...

Is it a Blue Monday for You?

Posted on January 19, 2015

We’re just over midway through January now, New Year greetings are officially over and normal life appears to have been fully resumed. However, today, Monday 19th January has officially been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’. Apparently, today is the day when the entire population feel a bit miserable, the weather’s dreary, New Year’s Resolutions become undone, and the infamous January blues have officially set in after all the hype of the festivities. It is also probably the week before most people’s paydays since Christmas and it has been a long month after paying for all those Christmas presents. Blue Monday was supposedly first discovered by Dr Cliff Arnall – who reinforces that all of these factors contribute simultaneously to people around the world. The day has become recognised globally, with #bluemonday trending worldwide on Twitter this morning, along with websites such as ...

Happy New Year 2015!

Posted on December 31, 2014

New Year’s Eve is one of those nights where we all get together and reminisce on the year gone by; have we achieved all we wanted to? Where do we see ourselves this time next year? And of course, what are our New Year’s resolutions? Depending on where you are in the world, whether you are watching a firework display, out dancing the night away, or having a quiet night in with family and friends, New Year’s Eve gives us all the chance for a fresh start! If you are lucky enough to be travelling or on holiday when the clock strikes midnight this year (or should I say next year) will you be in one of the most popular places to spend New Year’s Eve in the world? After browsing the Internet, we found some of the most fantastic places to visit at this time of year, including: The Northern Lights – Reykjavik, Iceland ...

Fancy Dress for Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2014

Although perhaps not commonly associated with Christmas, fancy dress ideas for this season are becoming more creatively entertaining by the year! Whether it’s your workplace requesting you in fancy dress for the annual Christmas party, or you have been invited to a Christmas Eve knees up with the instruction to sport your best fancy dress ideas - we think there are some fantastic designs to win you the best dressed prize there! (We are talking more than Christmas jumpers here, but for more on those, read our previous blog post). You can be anything these days from a giant Gingerbread man, a Turkey, or even a walking, talking Christmas tree! ...

Office Christmas Party Games

Posted on December 10, 2014

It’s getting in to the last few working weeks of the year and workplaces might be mellowing out for Christmas, so what better way to introduce some fun in to the office to get your staff in to the festive spirit. A couple of examples we have gathered should get everyone involved in some games, even using some of The Workplace Depot products! Two Spoons (Egg and Spoon Race with a Twist) Staff are separated in to two different teams, whilst a finish line is created at the opposite end of the room by hanging up some tape. Give the first player on each team a spoon with a Christmas bauble balanced on it, then on the word ‘go’ both players must run to the finish line and back again without the bauble dropping off. The race acts as a relay so the spoon/bauble is then p...

The Rise of the Christmas Jumpers

Posted on December 07, 2014

A few years ago, patterned Christmas jumpers were definitely not seen as a fashion statement. From the moment Mark Darcy donned his Christmas reindeer jumper in Bridget Jones’s Diary, the look wasn't exactly supposed to portray a trendsetter. Little did we know however, a few years later the craze of Christmas jumpers would catch on in the UK; with fashionable chains such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters not only supplying a wide range of jumpers, but complete outfits with holly leaves and snowmen on them to meet the demands of thousands of people who were jumping on the bandwagon. It’s thought that the trend of the Christmas jumper stems from the younger generation adopting a more ‘thrift-store’ style of tight jeans, over-sized glasses and baggy t-shirts; therefore being able to pull off these quirky, patterned jumpers. Having said this, if stores such as Marks and Spencer were to sell the characterised clothes, it is thought that they wouldn't catch on as much as they ha...