<p>Despite the existing literature on thriving at work emphasizing the role of social factors in promoting individual thriving, prior research has largely overlooked the potential contributions of the physical environment, particularly workplace plant settings, to employee thriving. Drawing on attention restoration theory and the thriving at work literature, this study aims to examine how and when exposure to plants at work enables employees to thrive, thereby enhancing their performance and job satisfaction. An experiment (<i>N</i> = 190) and a four-wave survey (<i>N</i> = 304) were conducted to explore the underlying mechanisms. Participants in the experimental study were recruited from diverse industries (e.g., technology, education, healthcare), and the survey sample primarily comprised employees across multiple industries (e.g., finance, manufacturing, services). Our findings reveal that exposure to plants at work serves as a catalyst for employee performance and job satisfaction through thriving. Specifically, exposure to plants at work promotes employees’ thriving through parallel mediation, by simultaneously benefiting both work focus and energy, thereby enhancing their performance and job satisfaction. The effect is particularly strong for employees with lower extraversion. By demonstrating how thriving can be achieved through interactions with the physical environment, this study broadens the scope of known antecedents of thriving at work. Thus, organizations can effectively enhance employee thriving by incorporating plants into office design and implementing supportive green space policies, thereby generating positive work outcomes.</p>