Paperstone – Office life, work and fun

Office supplies industry news 17th November 2008

By Paperstone on November 17, 2008 in Office Supplies, Office Workers

Office supplies industry news 17th November

Not surprisingly, more gloomy than cheery. US office furniture shipments fell in September and the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association expected negative growth for office furniture for the rest of 2008 and 2009. Stationery retailer WH Smith reported 4% high street sales fall but said this was in line with expectations. On a brighter note the UK government is expected to announce that the the Post Office will retain a £1bn five-year contract to distribute benefits, a move expected to save 3,000 Post Offices from closure. In the US, OfficeMax, the US’ third biggest office supplies retailer, has struck a deal with Safeway to sell its products in stores operated by Safeway.

Office life

Every year workers spend £5.5bn on shop-bought lunches, about the same value as the lunch foods such as bread, cheese, crisps and fruit which we leave to go off at home and bin, according to a survey commissioned by Love Food Hate Waste. According to the research, about a third of workers bring in pack lunches every day of the week while 28% say they would never bring in lunch from home. (See WRAP for more information about reducing waste and recycling more).

Meanwhile, government-supported consultants Envirowise have recommended to businesses that they appoint tea task forces or tea monitors to ensure the efficiency of tea-making operations in the office to cut down on carbon emissions. This means boiling only the amount of water you need for a round of hot drinks and other such intricacies.

Call centre workers take twice as many sickies as other professions according to a new report by the office for national statistics.

The operating system successor to Windows Vista, Windows 7, may be released as soon as June 2009 and not early 2010 as expected.

Stationery abuse

MP Dari Taylor (Labour, Stockton South) has been reprimanded by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee for repeated misuse of free House of Commons stationery, among other things using free stationery to send unsolicited letters to her constituents. She has been asked to return £500 and apologise unequivocally.

Recycling mishap?

Recycling plant workers were shocked to find a crushed man’s body inside a 700-kilo Paper bale in Idaho on Monday. For the time being it remains uncertain as to how it got there, but authorities said the injuries were consistent with being crushes by a Paper compactor.

If you’re bored at work…

Having successfully embraced technology in his campaign, America’s President elect is now the subject of a new free online video game, Super Obama World in which Obama (formerly Mario) collects flags and dodges hazards such as lipstick-wearing pit bulls. Incidentally, Paperstone doesn’t as yet stock politically themed stationery but Leftique – “The Boutique for Democrats” – offers Barack Obama greetings cards and journals among other paraphernalia.

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