It's been a tough day at the Zen Den

You walk past the fishtank, mulling over the meetings and intrigue. After pacing for a while, you seat yourself on a gigantic cushion and lean back. Maybe even close your eyes. It feels good not to wear a tie. You finally begin to relax.

You walk past the fishtank, mulling over the meetings and intrigue. After pacing for a while, you seat yourself on a gigantic cushion and lean back. Maybe even close your eyes. It feels good not to wear a tie. You finally begin to relax.

Then you go home.

Welcome to the new world of MLC employees. Begun last year and to be completed by April 2000, Campus MLC is an initiative designed to give employees the work environment they want.

The idea is that the longer you provide a stimulating and relaxed environment to work, the longer your employee will stay with you. In today's decidedly competi-tive financial services industry, this is crucial for ongoing success. With global players entering the market and a spate of mergers and acquisitions within the industry, competition for good employees is tougher than ever. In or-der to retain staff, you need to offer more than just a decent salary.

At least that is the opinion of MLC's general manager of people, Rosemary Kirkby.

"The old idea of working for MLC for life is over," Kirkby says. "Now employees have the attitude of 'while it's good for you and for me, I'll stay'."

"Today's workforce is the best educated in history. People are spending long hours in the workplace and the work is not easy. The workplace may be the only sense of community people may experience, so they expect to participate in deci-sions."

Enter James Calder and the design team at London-based architects DEGW, who worked in conjunction with MLC staff to design the workplace they wanted.

MLC staff were involved in the redesign of their building from the outset. Ref-erence groups were set up to make suggestions on everything from the design of workstations to colours. There was even a toilet reference group.

One of the central themes of the redesign was the notion of equality and commu-nity. All of the workstations within MLC are now open plan. There is no personal office space, even for senior managers. Kirkby says MLC chief executive Peter Scott sits at a workstation among his employees.

In order to further the idea of communal working, a central staircase cuts through the middle of the building. This staircase currently runs on most of the floors. Upon completion of Campus MLC next year, it will run through the entire building. This is to give employees the chance to walk between floors instead of staying in their own area. For those not entirely enamoured of socialising with co-workers, beware: it is expected that lifts operating in the building next year will only stop on every second floor.

In keeping with the project-based employment of its staff, Campus MLC offers ex-tensive meeting place from the more formal rooms to relaxed settings, such as the Zen Den which incorporates Japanese-style design such as low tables, a ma-rine fishtank, small benches and a sculpture by Richard Goodwin.

Each floor in Campus MLC has a theme. The idea is to maintain a relaxed, flexi-ble (and dare we say it) fun working environment for employees.

"We asked people where they ate at 9.30 at night when they were still working and they told us it was McDonalds. This was dreadful. Why shouldn't chef Tony Bilson cook them something in the workplace? Now we have a large kitchen, and people can cook bacon and eggs in the morning while they're working, if they wish," Kirkby says.

At the moment MLC, through its Lend Lease Foundation of employee benefits, has organised two chefs from fashionable Sydney restaurant Ampersand to show employ-ees how to cook sushi.

Mindful of workers cutting business deals in cafes around the building, MLC have also set up their own commercial café. This is operated by a private proprietor, and is available for coffee breaks and meetings.

Kirkby says a modern workplace should be flexible for employees, who are both highly skilled and highly mobile.

"Why shouldn't work be more like home?" she says.