By Dorothy Rogers-Bullis
At some point along the way, the term “trendy” became pejorative—a design concept to be avoided—evoking images of orange shag carpet and Harvest Gold appliances.
When it comes to office design, however, the latest trends aren’t just about flash-in-the-pan materials or color palettes. More often than not, today’s innovations in workplace technology and space planning allow for increased productivity, better ergonomics, and higher employee satisfaction.
Is your workspace keeping up with the times? Here are just a few of the many trends we are seeing in workplace design in 2019.
“Resimercial” style
Increasingly, office workers are seeking the comfortable furniture and settings they enjoy at home, but companies still desire the durability of traditional office products and materials.
Blending residential warmth and familiarity with pragmatic commercial design elements, the so-called “resimercial” trend sits at the intersection of the home and the office. This less formal, highly adaptable style appeals to younger workers, as well as to forward-thinking industries like technology and marketing. It can boost productivity, creativity, and even employee wellness.

By Jim Marco
In the 1920s and 1930s, Elton Mayo conducted a series of experiments at the Hawthorne Electric Plant near Chicago. The study was intended to find out how different aspects of the work environment, like lighting, the timing of breaks and the length of the workday affected worker productivity.
The hypothesis was to see if changes in these environmental factors could increase productivity. The researchers found that productivity increased, for a while, and returned to normal once the experiment was over. This became known as “The Hawthorne Effect.”
We read a lot today about the new workplace; flexible office space, fully stocked kitchens, ping pong tables, bean bag chairs, stand up desks, even bringing dogs to work. Employers are trying to copy the superficial trappings of really successful companies like Google and Apple. They hope that these trappings will create a “culture” that will allow them to achieve some terrific level of success.
It won’t, and these programs will be abandoned, because the companies will not get the desired productivity or engagement boost from their workforces. Like Hawthorne electric, the effect is only temporary.

by Richard Ruzzo
On July 26, the Shield Act was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to direct that better security measures and policies are put in place by all business that store, maintain or electronically handle non-public personal information (NPPI) to help protect against hackers obtaining an individual’s personal and private information.
The law is set to take effect March 21.
What determines a breach in a security system?
A breach occurs when one’s NPPI is exposed, made vulnerable or stolen from the host organization by unscrupulous data thieves. The information at risk and covered by the new statue is as follows:
Any data that is compromised and consisting of any combination of; name, Social Security number, driver’s license number or non-driver identification card, account number, credit card number, security access code, password or PIN to a financial account, username/email address with a security question/password and any biometric data information based on unique features that can be viewed digitally.