About Mark Eltringham

Mark is the publisher of Workplace Insight, IN magazine, Works magazine and is the European Director of Work&Place journal. He has worked in the office design and management sector for over thirty years as a journalist, marketing professional, editor and consultant.

Posts by Mark Eltringham:

The rotting one hit wonders of the workplace

The rotting one hit wonders of the workplace

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Painting of a fruit basket by CaravaggioOn the 8 December, you’ll be able to get your hands on a new book called Out of the Blue: The inside story of Liz Truss and her explosive rise to power. Or not. At the time of writing, its publication still seems to be going ahead, but I’m not even sure this introduction will be current by the time I press ‘publish’ so I wouldn’t bet on it. I imagine the publishers of the book haven’t given the green light to the printers just yet but nothing a change of title, a hasty rewrite and few extra chapters can’t fix. (more…)

Monitoring remote workers is a good idea according to half of bosses

Monitoring remote workers is a good idea according to half of bosses

by • Flexible working, News, Technology

a webcam monitoring remote workersA new poll from the CIPD and HiBob claims that more than half of bosses (55 percent) agree with collecting information on regular home workers, including the amount of time spent on laptops each day and email sending behaviours to identify risk of burnout. However, only three in ten (28 percent) leaders say their organisations are using software for monitoring remote workers and their productivity, according to the study. Where workplace monitoring is in place, the CIPD and HiBob urge employers to consider its purpose, and to be clear to staff about what is being monitored and why. (more…)

Gallery: British Council for Offices announces winners of national awards

Gallery: British Council for Offices announces winners of national awards

by • News, Property, Workplace design, Works Magazine

Sunderland City Hall was celebrated as ‘Best of the Best’ at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) National Awards at the Grosvenor House hotel in London last night, also taking home the ‘Corporate Workplace’ award. The office was joined by six other award winners recognised as leading examples of excellence in office space across the UK. The BCO’s National Awards programme claims to recognises top quality office design and functionality and says it sets the standard for excellence across the office sector. (more…)

The Great Workplace Debate continues to improve (mostly)

The Great Workplace Debate continues to improve (mostly)

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The great bandwagon of bullshit that is the home v office debate looks set to trundle into a third year. What is increasingly obvious is that it is the mainstream media that is holding the reins and refusing to release them. Here’s a BBC story from this week that doesn’t exactly mischaracterise the Microsoft report on which it is based, but does place the emphasis where it doesn’t need to be. The binary headline doesn’t help, of course, except to launder the idea and drive a needless wave of social media chatter. (more…)

Calling time on the quiet quitting hysteria

Calling time on the quiet quitting hysteria

by • Comment, Flexible working

quiet quittingIn a 2002 speech, the author Michael Crichton coined the term Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, after the physicist Murray Gell-Mann. He used it to describe a particular phenomenon in which experts in a given field will believe news and opinions in the media, even though they know the same media can be spectacularly unreliable on matters related to their own area of expertise. (more…)

Right to disconnect laws are a turn-off for a third of employers

Right to disconnect laws are a turn-off for a third of employers

by • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

right to disconnectOver a third of business leaders admit they don’t agree with the introduction of a law in the UK that would protect an employee’s right to disconnect, similar to the law in place in France, a new poll from iCompario claims. One in seven remain unsure (14 percent). The legislation, which was introduced in France in 2017, forbids employers from expecting their employees to engage in communications, such as emails outside of working hours. The data suggests that substantial two thirds (66 percent) of UK workers would support a similar law being introduced in the UK. (more…)

Exploring the best current thinking about work and the workplace

Exploring the best current thinking about work and the workplace

by • IN Magazine, News, Premium Content

Issue 12 of IN Magazine is in production, but in the meantime Issue 11 explores the best and latest thinking from the world of work. In this issue: we talk to Joanna Frank about active design; visit the offices of Drees and Sommer in Stuttgart; consider the role of routines in creativity; argue that we need to understand the past before we can shape the future; discover Iceland’s new Science City; hear about the changing nature of workplace experiences; and much more. Includes our latest supplement, exploring the role of internal comms in hybrid work cultures, published in association with Magenta. Print copies will be mailed out in the next few days. (more…)

Personal space is not merely an issue of hygiene, but a biological imperative

Personal space is not merely an issue of hygiene, but a biological imperative

by • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

personal space and office designThe current debate about how much space we will need in the office from now on is not new. As with many of the debate’s facets, the point at which we find ourselves has long been our destination. We’re just here earlier than we might have expected. (more…)

KI furniture helps Crunch Digital reimagine Swansea HQ for hybrid working

KI furniture helps Crunch Digital reimagine Swansea HQ for hybrid working

by • Company news

KI furnitureAs part of their ‘return to the office’ following the COVID-19 pandemic, Crunch Digital, a digital media specialist that focuses on SEO, pay-per-click-social media, programmatic, technical, and creative services, wanted to create a new office space that promoted both safety and collaboration. The office design, carried out in partnership with Ministry of Furniture and KI furniture also needed to reflect the ethos and culture of the company and cater to a young and innovative workforce. (more…)

Have we arrived at a point of equilibrium in the great workplace conversation?

Have we arrived at a point of equilibrium in the great workplace conversation?

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

Perhaps the greatest irony of the tedious home v office debate is that the absolutists on both sides rely on many of the same fallacies. They tend to build their arguments around a simplistic view of the office and remote work that has little basis in reality. Unsurprisingly, when they do get their way, reality often bites them in the arse. (more…)

The perfect storm shouldn’t force us to jump aboard the wrong ship

The perfect storm shouldn’t force us to jump aboard the wrong ship

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

For all the millions of words written and gabbed about work and its future over the past couple of years, one of the few things we can say with any certainty is that we still don’t know which parts of it all are short-term responses to events, and which are permanent long-term shifts.

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How I learned to stop worrying and embrace uncertainty

How I learned to stop worrying and embrace uncertainty

by • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

One of the ways I have found to inoculate myself against the hyperbolic certitude of the world’s futurologists is to watch YouTube clips of an old TV show called Rab C Nesbitt and observe the automated captioning as it struggles to cope with Glaswegians. And sometimes gives it up as a bad job. Works with Limmy’s Show too. Try it for yourself at the bottom. Includes bad language. A meringue? (more…)

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