The roll out of hybrid policies is giving employees the flexibility to choose their own work settings. But it has also set the clock for businesses to provide the spaces staff want and need for their days in the office.
Relaxation spaces, healthy food services and outdoor areas top the list of amenities that can lure workers into their city offices as they seek a feeling of connectedness with colleagues along with environments that are as comfortable as home, according to a survey of office workers in the “Regenerative Workplace” report by JLL.
Knowing what will get optimum engagement and productivity from workers is one thing. But right now, only 17 percent of workers have access to relaxation spaces, 19 percent to healthy food, and 25 percent to outdoor areas. For those that do, uptake of wellbeing amenities in the office is high, with 70 percent of workers using them weekly, JLL found.
Companies who don’t take these wishes into account and build a strategy around how to implement them may find it difficult to recruit and retain top talent. This is a chance of a lifetime for employers to reconcile wellbeing with performance.
Here’s a deeper dive into the top three wishes of corporate employees.
Outdoor Spaces
Having pots of nature around brought numerous benefits to offices pre-pandemic. And during lockdowns, indoor plants became the home-worker’s must-have.
There’s a reason: nature and outdoor spaces relieve stress, boost wellbeing, bring happiness—and in the workplace—can build job satisfaction. It is why 41 percent of workers have put outdoor spaces in their top three expectations of a wellbeing-oriented office.
JLL San Diego office entryway
“In the San Diego office we wanted to bring the outdoors in to increase health and wellbeing. The office design incorporates a live green wall, 16-foot-tall windows that bring in an abundance of natural light, and we used natural materials throughout the space,” said Tim Olson, Market Lead, JLL.
For outdoor space, there’s a variety of options employers can incorporate to encourage workers to take a break from the indoors. Examples include breakrooms that open to the outdoors, patio tables and benches for outdoor collaboration and exterior gardens and relaxation spaces.
JLL – Office 2
“In our San Diego office, the breakroom is designed with bi-fold doors to create an indoor-outdoor environment with direct access to a patio complete with lunch tables and extensive views of the surrounding area,” said Olson.
Some 25 percent of workers say they are currently able to access stimulating outdoor spaces – most likely because of existing office designs – which suggests employers have been better at delivering on this front than healthy food and relaxation spaces.
Relaxation Spaces
Collectively, workers put office spaces geared towards relaxation at the very top of their expectations. Some 45 percent of survey respondents cited it as important to restoring their wellbeing and achieving sustainable performance.
Office space should be designed to offer a working experience as comfortable as home but with a sense of community that is not possible remotely. This will encourage employees to return to the office not only to work but for team events and collaboration opportunities.
JLL Orange County breakroom featuring flexible lounge seating
Some organizations are creating relaxation with common spaces around the best views, and with comfortable furnishings around the office such as quiet areas that are tucked away from main traffic areas, seats in an outdoor location, or reclining chairs behind curtains.
JLL Orange County flexible focus areas and quiet space
Healthy food services
A close second, with 44 percent of workers choosing this as an important office amenity, is healthy food services. This is something global tech giants have led the way on for years.
A flexible work environment should also include flexible eating options. Employees today are looking for high-quality, easy to eat options like sushi, barista-made coffee, and fresh juices.
Additionally, changing working patterns means food availability at various times of day must be considered. Health-conscious vending machines and snack stations scattered throughout the workplace can address this.
JLL Chicago lounge featuring baristas who serve coffee, tea, and beverages throughout the day
However, office health doesn’t start and end with what’s available to eat. It also covers the surrounding environment.
By creating a whole setting approach with welcoming spaces to enjoy meals, meetings, and to work within, employees will be more productive, satisfied in their jobs, less stressed and anxious, have fewer sick days and more likely to stay with their employer.
A perfectly designed home rarely happens by accident. Those kitchens that feel effortless and rooms that seem to tell a story the second you walk in? They’re usually the work of someone who knows exactly what they’re doing.
It’s knowing which ideas will actually work, which materials will hold up over time, and how to turn a collection of choices into a space that feels intentional. That’s where a professional interior designer comes in.
For the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) California San Diego Chapter, the goal is to help people see interior design as more than just the finished look. Behind every well-designed space is a process built on technical expertise. Designers are educated in everything from professional software and construction details to building codes, space planning, materials, and functionality.
Courtesy of ASID
“People don’t always realize how much goes on behind the scenes,” Kirsten Recce , current president of the ASID California San Diego Chapter, says. “Our designers are not just doing furniture placement and color selection and picking out new fluffy pillows. That’s not what they’re trained for.”
ASID members bring formal education, continued learning, and industry knowledge to their projects, helping create spaces that are not only beautiful, but designed to work. A paint color that changes completely depending on the lighting. A material that looks beautiful in a showroom but doesn’t make sense for everyday life. A layout that photographs well but doesn’t function for the people living there. These are the details where professional guidance can make all the difference.
Still, one of the biggest misconceptions about hiring an interior designer is that it’s reserved for massive renovations, luxury homes, or people who already know exactly what they want. The process can feel intimidating. Where do you begin? Is a designer worth the investment? What if you only need help with one room?
ASID’s answer: start with one hour.
ASID’s Spruce Up events break down one of the biggest barriers between homeowners and professional design: knowing where to begin. Held twice a year, the community program gives homeowners the chance to work directly with an ASID designer through a one-hour, $125 consultation in their own home. Whether you’re looking for advice on furniture placement, window treatments, kitchen and bath updates, remodeling ideas, vacation rentals, color selections or something else entirely, the upcoming September 2026 event offers an approachable way to get expert guidance before committing to a full project. Signups are open through Sept. 7, with consultations taking place Sept. 21 through Oct. 31. Proceeds benefit ASID San Diego’s educational and community programs. Register here!
Courtesy of ASID
“It’s a great opportunity for people who are in that exploratory phase,” Recce says. “Maybe they’re not sure they want to hire an interior designer yet, or they think it sounds daunting or expensive. This gives them a chance to discover what working with a designer is actually like.”
Design is personal. A good designer isn’t just creating a beautiful room; they’re helping create a space that fits the way someone lives.
“We’re a resource to all of San Diego County,” Recce says. “It doesn’t cost anything to pick up the phone and call and ask. We’ll answer.”
Mai Vue was just 34 weeks pregnant when she delivered her baby. Her pregnancy had been complicated, and she’d had a recent second trimester pregnancy loss, which led to her receiving specialized care from Sean Daneshmand, MD, a Scripps Clinic perinatologist who oversees high-risk pregnancies. Dr. Daneshmand and his team took care of Mai during her pregnancy, through the birth of her healthy baby girl and beyond. Mai was part of a program Scripps launched to provide support to new moms in the weeks and months after delivery. The postpartum program, known as Scripps Health’s Fourth Trimester Continuum of Care, provides care for women with high-risk pregnancies to optimize their health after childbirth and reduce the risk of complications in future pregnancies. Click here to learn more.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
It’s estimated that one in five people in the U.S. will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives. When you factor in living in a sun-soaked city like San Diego and the outdoorsy lifestyle that comes with it, that figure can jump to as high as one in three, which makes early detection and intervention all the more important. Dermatologists at Bighorn Mohs and Dermatology Center are using innovative imaging methods and advanced surgical techniques to diagnose and treat skin cancer. For certain cancers in sensitive spots, like the face, dermatologists perform Mohs surgery, removing skin tissue layer by layer until reaching healthy, cancer-free tissue. They also use a process called immunohistochemistry to view tissue samples taken during Mohs surgery in far greater detail than previous methods. Read more about how Scripps is advancing skin cancer care here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
When endurance athlete Isaac Sanchez learned he had cancer, he felt blindsided. He was healthy, surfed often and was training for an Ironman triathlon. But he had to put that on hold to undergo treatment. His physicians at Scripps Cancer Center developed a plan to treat the cancer in his tonsil and lymph nodes that included six-and-a-half weeks of near-daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy. He also worked with a Scripps Cancer Center dietitian to enhance his nutrition to promote strength and healing. Today, Isaac’s back to doing what he loves. Read more of his story here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
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Chemotherapy and radiation have long been considered gold standards of cancer treatment, but they can cause severe side effects. A promising new approach called theranostics—a combination of “therapeutics” and “diagnostics”—could offer patients with certain types of metastatic cancers new hope. It’s a two-step process that uses a drug that binds to specific receptors on cancer cells. Advanced imaging detects this radioisotope, allowing doctors to then use a second radioisotope that binds to the cancer cells and destroys them. Click here to learn more about how specialists at Scripps Cancer Center are using theranostics.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
