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:

August 22, 2018

People working in fully open plan spaces are generally fitter and less stressed

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

The open plan debate grinds on, and the latest grist to its mill is a study from researchers led by Esther Sternberg of the University of Arizona which suggests that it is those people who work in open plan spaces that are fitter and happier than their associate employee contemporaries in cubicles and private offices. The study, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, used wearable sensors to study 231 US workers in four government office buildings. It’s worth noting that this is five times as many workers and twice as many offices as the much publicised recent study that we were told by various media outlets and commentators was the ‘final word’ on the subject.

August 21, 2018

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be the most disruptive yet, senior economist predicts

by Mark Eltringham • AI, News, Technology

The rise of artificial intelligence and automation will create a Fourth Industrial Revolution that will be be significantly more disruptive than the three previous industrial revolutions, according to the Bank of England’s chief economist. According to Andy Haldane, the transformation caused by automation of cognitive skills had the potential to have a greater impact than Britain’s first industrial revolution, when coal and steam changed the country, the second industrial revolution which brought chemical engineering and the combustion engine, or the widespread use of computers in the 20th and 21st centuries.

August 16, 2018

The office will always live on because nothing propinks like propinquity

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Property, Workplace design

Perhaps the most pervasive and enduring myth about the office is that it is somehow dying off. It’s a blast of guff originally farted out at the dawn of the technological revolution in the early 1990s, which has somehow lingered and been stinking the place out ever since. The essential premise behind the idea of the death of the office is that mobile technology makes it possible for us to work from ‘anywhere’ and so that must mean ‘somewhere’ is no longer needed. More →

August 13, 2018

Nine workplace stories that have challenged and informed us in the last week

by Mark Eltringham • Features, Property, Technology, Workplace design

How blue light from screens literally blinds us

Physical closeness makes people and things more desirable

Non-monetary incentives and the implications of work as a source of meaning

How clean is your desk? The unwelcome reality of office hygiene

The utter uselessness of the Cat A habit

UK can thrive post-Brexit, but only with design

New Zealand firm’s four-day week an unmitigated success

Real Estate and technological denial

Biophilic design for the workplace is so much more than plants

Image: Hunt of the Unicorn (tapestry circa 1500) housed at Stirling Castle

August 13, 2018

Third of British workers say they lack the computer skills they need to do their jobs

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology

Nearly a third of Britons don’t think they have the required computer skills to do their jobs properly in spite of the fact that around 9 in 10 households now have internet access, according to a study from the Office for National Statistics. Although the Government continues to encourage the residual ten percent to embrace the online world, the report also suggests that it should focus on developing the skills people need to use technology to do their jobs as well as they can.

August 12, 2018

The mere expectation that we check emails outside working hours harms our wellbeing

by Mark Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Employer expectations of work email monitoring outside of normal working hours are detrimental to the health and wellbeing of not only employees but their family members as well. A new study suggests that employees do not need to spend actual time on work in their off-hours to experience the harmful effects. The mere expectations of availability increase strain for employees and their families, even when employees do not engage in any actual work.

August 12, 2018

Gig economy workers are overworked, underpaid and constantly monitored

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

A study of the wellbeing of workers in the so-called gig economy from academics at Oxford University claims that they are stressed, isolated, micro-managed by algorithms and face constant downward pressure on their incomes. The focus of the research was on workers contracted by digital platforms and subject to selection by algorithms. The study, Good Gig, Bad Big: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy, looked at the impact on the personal wellbeing of computer programmers, translators, researchers and people in similar roles contracted through online freelance platforms.

August 6, 2018

Levels of digital dependency hit new heights

by Mark Eltringham • News, Technology, Wellbeing

Most people in the UK are dependent on their digital devices, and need a constant connection to the internet, following a decade of digital dependency and transformation claims a report from regulatory body Ofcom. The findings are from Ofcom’s Communications Market Report, which it claims is the most comprehensive study of how communications services in the UK are changing. Around 17 percent of people owned a smartphone a decade ago. That has now reached 78 percent and 95 percent among 16-24 year-olds. The smartphone is now the device people say they would miss the most, dominating many people’s lives in both positive and negative ways.

August 6, 2018

Government launches challenge to shape future transportation strategies

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Flexible working, News, Technology

The UK government has begun work on its Future of Mobility Grand Challenge. First announced in May, the government believes the initiative has the potential to make the UK a world leader in strategies for moving people and goods. The announcement includes two calls for evidence, the first focused on improving first mile/last mile transportation connections, with a focus on electric vehicles and microtransit. The second addresses the more general issue of new technology and trends for urban transport. The government also claims the move will address changes in working cultures including lower levels of commuting and flexible working.

July 31, 2018

How Charles Eames came to have mixed feelings for his most famous chair

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

As any honest smartphone user would attest, the things we own sometimes end up owning us. Equally, the things we create can end up owning us. The most famous item designed by Charles Eames is a moulded plywood, leather upholstered lounge chair and matching ottoman that are timelessly iconic, have spawned thousands of rip-off versions, invariably feature in any anthology of classic Twentieth Century design and are now part of a permanent exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Yet Eames himself never intended it to go into production in the first place and didn’t even view it as his best product. In an interview in Time magazine he revealed that it was originally designed as a gift for a friend. ‘I made it as a present for Billy Wilder,’ he said. ‘Billy had made a picture in East Germany and found a Marcel Breuer chair and brought it back to me and this was a return present.’

July 25, 2018

New study claims to confirm the benefits of sit-stand workstations

by Mark Eltringham • News

A new study suggests that height adjustable or sit-stand workstations may be beneficial in reducing sedentary behaviour and supporting health outside the workplace. The study’s results have been published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management. Funded by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation’s Transform grant, interim study results were announced on the ASID website last year. The final study, “Stand Up to Work: Assessing the Health Impacts of Adjustable Workstations,” found that sit-stand workstations are linked to increased productivity, better mental concentration, and improved overall health in employees who used sit-stand desks over a 12-month period. Most employees reported that the sit-stand desks had a positive impact on their health outside the workplace.

July 23, 2018

WeWork launches new brokering service aimed at small and medium sized businesses

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Workplace design

WeWork’s announcement of a meat ban last week has attracted a great deal of attention in the media but a quiet announcement put out on the firm’s website on Friday will have more profound implications for the facilities management, workplace and commercial property worlds. In September the firm will launch WeWork Space Services which is targeted at small and medium sized businesses including those that are not current members. It claims that the service will be a ‘holistic, one-stop’ that will meet the real estate needs of its target audience, including finding them the most appropriate office space and resources as well as free membership of WeWork spaces around the world.