About Elyas Coutts

Elyas Coutts is CEO of Connect Vending, where he works with organisations across the UK to shape workplace environments that support employee wellbeing, engagement and day-to-day experience. Through conversations with employers across a range of sectors, he has developed a particular interest in how the design of workplaces influences behaviour, culture and connection.

Posts by Elyas Coutts:

July 7, 2026

What frictionless work is removing from the working day

by Elyas Coutts • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

If you look around most offices at midday on a Tuesday, you will likely see a variation of the same scene: employees sitting at their desks with headphones in and responding to Slack messages while eating lunch. The physical environment of the workplace may still be thoughtfully designed, with ergonomic furniture, curated lighting and acoustic panels; however, the atmosphere often still feels flat. Creating a highly optimised, frictionless workplace means removing physical hurdles and operational delays, but it can also strip away the small moments of variation, spontaneity and connection that give working life its texture. Often, the result of frictionless work is an environment that feels psychologically monotonous and socially thin. (more…)