The French architect Francois Spoerry conceived of and created the canalised town of Port Grimaud in the Gulf of St Tropez in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It consists largely of small houses – maisons a pecheur – which have a mooring in front of their garden. He originally imagined his houses would be inhabited by fishermen who moored their boats at their houses. In reality Port Grimaud has become a popular holiday destination and a model for other towns on the water worldwide. His concept was to have one foot in the water and one in the world.
What I think Port Grimaud and its creator build on so well is variety. The contrast between land and sea, work and play embodied in a house with a boat moored in front of it. Variety matters in working life whether it is getting away from your virtual or real office or finding different ways to do things.
This is an important topic. The University of Queensland in Australia is conducting research on Is variety the spice of working life? commenting in an era where burnout is becoming more and more prevalent in the workforce, the study will look at the effect a varied work role has on employees’ wellbeing and performance.While this older study from the University of Leicester concludes People who are given greater variety and independence in their jobs feel both less stressed and more satisfied.
The World Happiness Report 2017 (yes there is such a thing and it is a serious work with the authors on the section On Happiness at work from Said Business School University of Oxford and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) suggests that Variety and education are valuable. If you do the same thing every day, you’re going to be unsatisfied. Workers with some variety in their work, and those who have the opportunity to learn new skills regularly report higher levels of happiness and well being.
Of course, you can go too far in this day and age of instant communication when multi-tasking can itself be stressful. Still working on your smart phone on a beach in the sunshine in the South of France is still very different from doing the same thing all the time in an office building in Slough (a town in the UK’s Thames Valley).
As Coco Chanel said There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.
It was William Cowper the Eighteenth-Century English poet and hymnist who originally wrote Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavour.I think he was very right.
What I think Port Grimaud and its creator build on so well is variety. The contrast between land and sea, work and play embodied in a house with a boat moored in front of it. Variety matters in working life whether it is getting away from your virtual or real office or finding different ways to do things.
This is an important topic. The University of Queensland in Australia is conducting research on Is variety the spice of working life? commenting in an era where burnout is becoming more and more prevalent in the workforce, the study will look at the effect a varied work role has on employees’ wellbeing and performance.While this older study from the University of Leicester concludes People who are given greater variety and independence in their jobs feel both less stressed and more satisfied.
The World Happiness Report 2017 (yes there is such a thing and it is a serious work with the authors on the section On Happiness at work from Said Business School University of Oxford and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) suggests that Variety and education are valuable. If you do the same thing every day, you’re going to be unsatisfied. Workers with some variety in their work, and those who have the opportunity to learn new skills regularly report higher levels of happiness and well being.
Of course, you can go too far in this day and age of instant communication when multi-tasking can itself be stressful. Still working on your smart phone on a beach in the sunshine in the South of France is still very different from doing the same thing all the time in an office building in Slough (a town in the UK’s Thames Valley).
As Coco Chanel said There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.
It was William Cowper the Eighteenth-Century English poet and hymnist who originally wrote Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavour.I think he was very right.
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