Leasing office space is no joke!

Aruna, a twenty something, petite and gregarious girl reaches her office every day by 9am sharp. A systems analyst working in a newly minted, glittering office tower that rises 15 stories up in a busy stretch dotted with IT buildings-symbolic of the new urban India growth story-she gets picked up from Chennai’s western suburbs and reaches the premises in air-conditioned cushioned comfort that the employer run Volvo multi-axle city coach provides mercifully.

Even as she enters the office she jostles for space to walk across the main entry door which surprisingly looks dwarf against the mammoth reception foyer beneath. As hundreds of employees emptied by the countless buses and cars, rush past the door to reach the lift lobby within a window of 20-25 minutes, there is a near stampede. It is an everyday spectacle! Aruna squeezes past,not failing to smile at acquaintances that look equally harried!

As she approaches the lift bank,the usual exasperation returns to her face seeing the huge crowd that is already waiting to hurry into any of the half a dozen20-passenger capacity elevators that seem to be in eternal motion. For a moment she thinks about taking the stairs but drops the idea as the stairs are too steep and narrow for comfort. Try as she might, it takes a good ten minutes before she manages to squeeze herself into one of the noiseless&sleek machines. As she enters her office in the sixth floor, it is invariably 9.25! Late!! The swipe card attendance system never lies!!

She soon squeezes herself into her 4’ x 4’ workstation and throws herself into the daily chores that await her. As more and more youngsters troop in, the office brims with people even as the glazed cabins abutting the walls get occupied by the senior executives. Meeting rooms get engaged as the morning grind of project discussions start. Even as the daily rhythm of the office gets fully set, she starts feeling choked and soon enough it is followed by mild sweating. Aruna cranes her neck and looks around, as she does every day, and exchanges troubled glances with the neighboring staff, who too start feeling the lack of ventilation!At around half past 11, when the office activity peaks all over the building,the air-conditioning system seemingly starts sputtering &gasping, a routine they have come to experience.

Soon it becomes too hot what with so many computers and assorted machines throwing out streams of heat adding to the body heat from the 340 odd staff who have checked in for work today. Someone switches on the pedestal fans bought for this purpose hoping some circulation will help. It does help, but in a limited way. The disturbance created by the lack of adequate ventilation soon tells on the work as batches of staffwalk towards the coffee vending machine, collect their brew and disperse into the adjoining passage hoping to get some fresh air. Someone looks for some window type openings in the glazed façade on south side to let in some fresh air but without success as no operable windows within reach have been provided. It’s all steel, aluminum panels and glass fixed and pasted, all the way!

Aruna decidesto freshen up! As she reachesthe rest room, she realizes it is crowded as always. With only six restrooms for about two hundred women in the floor, the situation is almost chaotic there. All of a sudden the power fails and the whole place is engulfed in semi darkness as the scope for natural lighting is very limited.It seems an eternity before the roar of the generating sets could be heard signaling the standby power mode ‘coming on’.

If you are an employee in a large and modern office complex, it is quite possible some of you would have experienced a few, if not most, of the problems listed above.

Why at all do they happen in the first place?

To put matters in simpler perspective, all these stem from the fact that the space leased by the employer is not engineered to handle the population it would ultimately hold nor have the relevant standards been followed in the development and choice of critical equipment.

Right from the regular stampede at the main entry, the long wait for the elevator, steep and narrow stairs, absence of operable windows at lower heights, sub-optimal air-conditioning, power generators not kicking in quickly, poor natural lighting to the inadequacy of rest rooms, all these are attributable to the failure in following modern standards and poor engineering in office design and construction.

Apart from these known weaknesses, there could be many more unseen and non-apparent defects waiting to create havoc!

No doubt all these result in loss of productivity; issues like poor ventilation will be a health hazard too; there could be life threatening issues if windows cannot be opened in case of a major fire which will result in smoke accumulation and people choking to death. Similarly steep & narrow staircases result in people not being encouraged to use them, even if willing; this may even be a death trap in case of an emergency evacuation.

Could the above weaknesses in the office space have been foreseen and avoided?

YES-if the management had carried out a proper& systematic technical due-diligence study of the premises through a competent engineering firm before they signed off the lease deal. It could have cost some money and taken about couple of weeks but would have saved the company the serious blushes apart from the everyday invisible productivity losses, not to speak of the looming safety hazards. 

Such a due-diligence covering all aspects of the construction would have brought out these serious handicaps and the company could have chosen a better premises, had they been meticulous enough!

Do write to us in case you have some interesting information or feedback!

BVe Consulting Engineers

Engineering Project Consultancy & Property Advisory Services,

Residential-Commercial-Industrial-Infrastructure Designs

Due-diligence studies -Asset valuation services

Chennai -600 083

bv.consultingengrs@gmail.com

www.bveconsultingengineers.in

www.bveconsultingengineers.com