June 17, 2019
The practice of sharing workstations with fellow workers is making people increasingly unhappy, according to a survey of more than 1,000 office workers by real estate firm Savills, who for some reason still insist on referring to it as hot desking in spite of the fact that the idea covers a range of practices that […]
June 14, 2019
As climate scientists issue increasingly stark warnings about the global environmental catastrophe that is increasingly likely within a very short time frame, Will Jennings issues a timely reminder in the Architects Journal that the greenest type of building is no building at all. And that is doubly so when the building we are talking about […]
June 12, 2019
Over-work, stress and poor work-life balance are undermining attempts to improve the quality of working lives in the UK, new research from the CIPD claims. Over 5,000 people were surveyed for the UK Working Lives Survey, an annual assessment of job quality across seven different categories including pay and benefits, contracts and employment terms, and […]
June 6, 2019
BT has announced that it plans to close more than 270 offices as part of a five-year programme to cut costs by around £1.5bn. The firm says it will retain 30 sites in its real estate portfolio, primarily those “containing modern, future-fit buildings, including corporate offices, contact centres and specialist sites”. BT has announced the […]
June 4, 2019
While working at a Viennese Obstetric Clinic in the mid 1840s, a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that mothers were far less likely to succumb to a potentially fatal infection called puerperal fever when the medical staff treating them washed their hands. When he started collecting data to confirm his insight, he found that […]
June 3, 2019
As the workplace sector raises its profile and that of the key topics that define it and the world sets out to address the wide range of challenges for the way we live and work, some of them even vital for our existence, this might prove to be something of a seminal year and so […]
May 31, 2019
One of the most commonly used and longstanding recruitment practices should be reconsidered according to new research from academics at Florida State University. Screening job applicants based on their prior work experience is often a mistake for employers because there appears to be little or no correlation between previous experience and future performance, according to […]
May 30, 2019
I’ve sometimes highlighted how our perceptions of the workplace are subject to an apex fallacy. The daily consumption of narratives about wellbeing, agile working, coworking, campuses, tech palaces and ‘cool’ design can obscure the fact that most people don’t experience this stuff in their daily lives. They work in mundane offices or shabby offices or […]
May 30, 2019
London faces the loss of its status as a global magnet for corporate headquarters unless it addresses a range of factors that are diminishing its attractiveness, according to a new report from the Centre for London. Brexit, dated transport infrastructure and worries about its pool of talent are all risks to the capital’s ability to […]
May 28, 2019
Each day you can generally find somebody or other sharing their thoughts on ‘the office of the future’ or ‘the death of the office’. My view is that you should steer clear of taking most of this sort of stuff head-on, on the basis that hardcore deskheads have heard most of it before and already […]
May 28, 2019
Record numbers of over-70s are choosing work over retirement, according to new analysis from Rest Less, a membership community site in the UK to offer work and volunteering opportunities specifically targeted at the over 50s. Using bespoke data provided to Rest Less by the Office for National Statistics, Rest Less’s analysis claims that the number […]
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One dishonest co-worker can disrupt an entire workplace 
Employers admit company culture causes stress at work 
Commercial property sector shifts focus to wellbeing in response to tenant demands 
New BT HQ will be one of the “largest workplace transformations ever” 
Half of self-employed workforce now over 50 
The tipping point for flexible working arrives 
Santander reopens closed branch as coworking space 
The workplace of tomorrow redefined by learning and AI 
Offices still failing to support collaborative work 
The importance of self care for mental health 
Self-employment might be good for mental health 
Flexible offices continue to dominate UK property market 
June 18, 2019
A just in time lesson about office design
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design
The nascent years of new ways of working in the late 80s and early 90s coincided with a widely held but soon to be discarded belief that the Japanese had cracked management practices. So it was perhaps inevitable that the principles of a process called just in time manufacturing – most famously applied in the […]