Colors
brighten workplace
By
TOM DROEGE World Staff Writer
Reprinted from the Tulsa World Business Section
4/12/2002
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Custom
colors
Jena Cheney conducts work over the phone Thursday
under a blue "mood cloud" at Custom
Services, a heating, air conditioning and
plumbing business in Broken Arrow. Each of
three color schemes in the company's new building
is designed to enhance the work atmosphere
in various departments.
KELLY KERR / Tulsa World |
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Custom
Services in Broken Arrow plays up the Caribbean theme.
Blending
work and vacation may sound counter-productive, but
employees of a Broken Arrow business hatched the concept
through the design of their new building to increase
productivity.
"We
all like vacations," said Bob Townsend, president
of Custom Services, a heating, air-conditioning and
plumbing business. Roseanne Bell "kind of brought
the vacation to us."
Bell,
an interior designer with Benham Bellwether, concocted
the Caribbean feel with island colors and "mood
clouds" hanging inside the 5-week-old building
at 901 S. Ninth Street.
The
irregular-shape metal forms hover above various work
spaces in the office. The colors -- one is yellow, one
blue, the other orange -- were all chosen for a work-enhancing
reason.
When
the office opens at 7 a.m., the 20 to 25 technicians
who service furnaces and air-conditioners around town
gather in a room under a yellow cloud where the tile
floor is made to look like water.
The
brightly-lit room is a "high-energy eye-opener"
that connotes cheer and gets employees ready for the
day, Bell said.
The
customer service area, where Townsend said employees
receive 7,000 to 8,000 business calls a year, has a
blue cloud for tranquility.
"Blue
is the color of agreement," Bell said, pointing
to the value of that attribute in customer service.
The
orange cloud hangs over administrative jobs to keep
employees alert while processing repetitive paper work,
she said.
The
35 employees of Custom Services have part ownership
in the business, Townsend said, which is why they helped
come up with the look of their new building.
Ken
Tedder, a sales consultant, works under the blue cloud
in customer service. While he wasn't sure if he and
his co- workers are actually more efficient with the
design concept, he said everyone likes the new building.
"Everybody
dreams of lying on the beach, but we have to work,"
Tedder said. "This is a way to get closer to both."
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