The modern office space hardly resembles the funny and quirky atmosphere we’ve seen in the sitcom The Office.
Instead, it is usually a bit boring, where only a small part of a cubicle space is decorated and where a lot of time is wasted on doing mundane jobs that could otherwise be either automated or made much more efficient.
To combat this engineers have put their skills to the test and now we have a plethora of new tools, utensils, and gadgets that are designed to solve some of these problems and make work in an office easier. Be it a faulty internet connection, no time to get to a meeting or whatever else, there is probably a gadget for it.
Wi-Fi extender
Some office spaces, especially older ones that have been adapted for their modern use, tend to have a lack of wiring for utilities. Electric sockets, or what is more common – internet cables can be too far away from many cubicles so the office might have to resort to using Wi-Fi to cover large areas. And while this sometimes functions flawlessly – in some situations when the signal is too weak it can mean no work done for some time.
Wi-Fi extenders, or repeaters, work by receiving the existing signal, amplifying it, and sending it further away. So with this nifty wall-mounted gadget, you can be sure your already present internet will actually be used like it was intended.
Franking Machines
Sending letters may seem like a bit of an anachronism, with all of our modern mailing and texting systems, but nevertheless, it is still part of business life and is even expected as part of formal business etiquette. So while the art of calligraphy is no longer needed and we can just print out our letters, they still need to be sent the old-fashioned way, by mail.
Franking machines have been around for over a century, but have fallen out of favour in recent times even though they have been considerably modernized. Producers such as FP make such apparatus that quicken letter sending by automatically stamping the letter depending on its weight and destination.
The modern variations will be also automatically updated with changed postage prices when they happen. After that, the letter can be picked up by the postperson or dropped at the nearest post-box, without having to wait in lines.
Desktop-mounted cameras
The next big thing that drains a lot of energy and time is office meetings. Having to leave everything you are working and go to the conference room, where you might not even be part of the conversation but just there to listen is, of course, meaningless. The whole meeting in that case could have just been an e-mail.
The solution that presents itself is not having to physically be present, but only viewed and heard through a camera and mic. Versatile and high-quality cameras that can be mounted on a screen or a wall are a great gadget for this, as they allow you to partially continue work in your own space while still being able to hear (and participate in) the meeting.
Charging Stations
As mentioned before, a lack of close electric sockets is sometimes seen in adapted spaces, though it might as well be seen in new ones if the existing sockets are all used up. But having a lot of appliances besides you that need to be constantly charged (smartphones, laptops, and other technicalities) means you will either have to carry a battery with you to the office or go to the nearest socket to “fill up”.
Charging stations are the solutions to this – usually of very slick design and they accept a large range of adapters on them. If properly placed they can create a new version of “water cooler talks”, but also solve the problem of waiting for a free socket.
Handheld Scanner
The smallest in this group, and also the newest on the market, are handheld scanners. They are meant to function by dragging the tip across the desired text and the document will automatically be saved in digital format on a computer or laptop it’s connected to.
The better versions also offer the possibility of automatically translating foreign text to English from a selected number of languages. No more need to take pictures and upload them, or wait for the loud scanner to do its job when all you need is text in digital format.
Technology doesn’t only need to be there to send rockets to space or solve the neverending list of diseases we’re fighting against. Instead – it can and should also be used to make gadgets so our everyday work is easier and more enjoyable.