You’ve heard of the proverbial "water cooler" — a place in the office where all the employees gather to gossip during the day.  This place doesn’t always have to be a water cooler, though.  It’s usually just someplace where people tend to go periodically throughout the day.  It could be work related — for instance, the room where you keep fax machines, printers, copiers, or electric paper cutters.  It could also be someplace the employees visit on short breaks, such as the bathroom, water fountain, kitchenette, break room, or coffee maker.

It’s good for employees to have an opportunity to destress and chat a little bit throughout the day, but of course you’ll want to make sure it doesn’t get out of control.  If you start noticing that people are gathered at your office’s version of the water cooler almost continuously throughout the day, it’s probably either time to set and enforce some rules, or to call a staff meeting.

Here are some examples of things you could do to prevent gatherings like these from interfering with work productivity:

• Put fax machines, paper cutting machines, etc. someplace that is highly visible.  Employees are less likely to congregate if they are in plain view — particularly of their supervisors!
• Or, you could put machines like this in a room that requires a badge to electronically unlock the door.  This way there is a sense of being monitored, which may prevent employees from lingering too long.  This is an especially good idea if you have expensive equipment that you don’t want to be subject to coffee spills or personal use, such as paper stack cutters.
• Send a questionnaire around asking employees about their opinions on their work hours, break times, etc.  Sometimes the problem may be as simple as your employees feeling overworked.  A different break policy could resolve the problem.

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