Six Tips for Creating a Quiet Room for Stressed Employees

“My company is considering having a quiet room. I would appreciate any tips on setting up a room with a very small budget and a list of rules you feel will help create an effective environment.”

I received this email inquiry from Kathy Gallagher last week. With stress-related health problems and employee absences on the rise, it is no wonder that an increasing number of companies are looking for low-cost solutions for reducing the stress levels of their employees. One such solution is to provide a “quiet room”; a place of refuge where frazzled employees can go to get a few minutes of solitude.

A couple of months ago I conducted a brief survey that asked respondents who had Quiet Rooms to share their experiences and lessons learned. Steve Bassett who works in Facilities Management for Wachovia Bank said that his company has a quiet room in each of their 13 call centers (6000 employees). He wrote, “Quiet Rooms are considered an important facility need to create a ‘Great Place to Work’ environment. You take care of the call center agents and they’ll take care of your customers. This is proven true for us since we have received #1 customer service award eight years in a row in our industry.”

Six Tips for Creating a Quiet Room for Your Employees

1. When it comes to rules, less is more.
The vast majority of respondents said they do not have many formal rules for using their quiet room. The employees who use Quiet Rooms understand the need to respect others and maintain silence.

2. Avoid allowing the room be used for other purposes.
Resist the temptation to use the room as a break room, meeting room, a place to make phone calls or access the Internet. Some call centers have a separate “fun room” where employees can go to play video games, watch TV, play board games, etc.

3. Involve staff in the creation of the room.
“Many individuals added items to the room from their own homes to make it comfy and fun.”

4. Locate the room adjacent to the call center and include a window to the outside, if possible.
One respondent said that when they moved their quiet room to a more visible location (closer to the door) they noticed an significant increase in usage.  A surprising number of respondents said a quiet room was actually included in the design of their new facility.

5. When furnishing the room focus on comfort.
Standard furnishings include: comfortable chairs, a small table, lights on dimmers, a small clock, soothing colors on the walls (green was popular) and an area rug. Several said that they had message chairs and sound machines in their rooms. Other ideas worth considering: a lending library of books (employees bring in books to share), a fish tank, lava lamp, stuffed animals, soft-piped in music.

6. Not all employees will use the room regularly, but those who do consider it vitally important.
About 48% of the survey respondents said that between 5% and 15% of their employees used the quiet room in the last week. Another 40% of the respondents said that their room was used by 20% to 40% of employees during same period. “The Specialists appreciate the fact that management supports them and understands what they experience every day; providing them with a quiet room communicates that management “gets it.”

If your company doesn’t have a designated quiet room where employees can go when they need to get away from it all, why not suggest it to upper management? If you are fortunate enough to have a room at your company, take advantage of the opportunity by using it yourself and encouraging others, as well.  You will find that taking time out to sit and “do nothing” for as little as 10 minutes during the work day can make the difference between a good Monday and bad one.