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:

What ever happened to The Great Resignation?

What ever happened to The Great Resignation?

by • Comment, Wellbeing

You may recall that a couple of years ago, The Great Resignation was one of a handful of things with which certain people had become obsessedYou may recall that a couple of years ago, The Great Resignation was one of a handful of things with which certain people had become obsessed. Over a period of about six months at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022, we were told repeatedly that huge numbers of people were about to quit their jobs to move to something better, pursue their dream of self-employment or whatever. But, the proportion of people saying this was more or less the same as it had always been. Ask people at the end of any year about their plans for the next twelve months, and around 30-40 percent of them will tell you they want a new job or to pursue an old dream.   (more…)

Unpicking the retrofit enigma

Unpicking the retrofit enigma

by • Briefing, News, Property, Workplace design

We explore many of the issues around the crucial subject of retrofit in this supplement produced in partnership with BVNEarlier this year, a report from building consultancy Mace advocated for a retrofit first principle for buildings. The report highlighted how non-domestic buildings in the UK make up about an eighth of the country’s building stock but account for around a quarter of the country’s carbon emissions. The solution argued for in the report was to look at how best to retrofit around 3.5 million such buildings over the next ten years. We explore many of the issues around this crucial subject in this supplement produced in partnership with BVN. It represents both a snapshot of the current conversations about retrofit while pointing a way ahead. This one will run and run, but we need to get it right. (more…)

The final word on… workplace trends

The final word on… workplace trends

by • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

You would not believe the number of firms that ask us to publish a list of workplace trends each week. Or maybe you wouldYou would not believe the number of firms that ask us to publish a list of workplace trends each week. Or maybe you would, given the number that have appeared – and are appearing -elsewhere. Each firm perhaps convinced they are saying something original, unique or interesting, or maybe simply convinced they stand out in some way, while pushing the same timid, stale narratives about the workplace. They will proliferate over the next month or so at the turn of another year. (more…)

Oscillate wildly between the death of the office and the death of hybrid working

Oscillate wildly between the death of the office and the death of hybrid working

by • Comment, Flexible working

The media's twisting between the death of the office and the death of hybrid working shows we've reached a point of equilibriumIt’s March 2020, very early days of lockdowns and the first catastrophising headlines appear. Is this the death of the office? Is this the death of handshakes? Is this the death of the open plan? I dismissed them at the time in this piece from March the 19th, citing Betteridge’s Law which states: “any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with the word no”. (more…)

Manchester is now a major draw for office design firms

Manchester is now a major draw for office design firms

by • Cities, Features, Workplace design

Way before the lockdown rewired the whole events scene in cities around the world, I was given a task by an old, now departed, friend. He wanted to explore the possibility of creating something like Clerkenwell Design Week in Manchester. The obvious problem was that, for some of its historic parallels, Manchester isn’t Clerkenwell and it certainly isn’t London. What it particularly lacked for this type of event was a hothouse of office design showrooms sharing space with a youthful community of architects and designers. The ecosystem for such an event didn’t really exist in the same way. (more…)

Republished: The brain-dead megaphone of work

Republished: The brain-dead megaphone of work

by • Comment, Working lives

There is nothing new about any of this. And yet it’s all new. I’ve spent months talking to people who really know their stuff about work and workplaces and underlying nearly all of those conversations is the following paradox. They know about flexible working, the under-utilisation of space, the twenty minute neighbourhood, the work ecosystem, universal basic income, the digital workspace, the office as club, all the rest of it. Heard it all before, often many times, over many years. Some of them have been living it too, and yet… (more…)

Financial uncertainty, wellbeing and supply chain disruption revealed as top risk factors 

Financial uncertainty, wellbeing and supply chain disruption revealed as top risk factors 

by • Business, News

Companies across the UK are most concerned about the risk of financial uncertainty (34 percent), employee health and wellbeing (31 percent) and supply chain disruption (23 percent) on their businesses over the next 12 monthsAccording to new research by Marsh, an insurance broker and risk advisor, companies across the UK are most concerned about the impact of financial uncertainty (34 percent), employee health and wellbeing (31 percent) and supply chain disruption (23 percent) on their businesses over the next 12 months. The findings come from Marsh’s UK Business Risk Report 2023 [registration], which features data obtained in May and June 2023 from over 2,100 UK businesses with turnover of between £100,000 and £500 million + per year. Now in its third year, the report explores how circumstances over the last 12 months have impacted the business risk appetite and approach to risk management among UK companies, and identifies their priorities for the year ahead.  (more…)

The Workplace Cocktail Hour. Chris Moriarty on AI, toxic workplaces and more

The Workplace Cocktail Hour. Chris Moriarty on AI, toxic workplaces and more

by • AI, News, Podcasts, Technology, Workplace, Workplace Cocktail Hour

In the first of a new series of news-based podcasts, I catch up with Chris Moriarty, the co-founder of Audiem and much besides. Over a glass of gin and tonic, we discuss the AI Safety Summit and the proclamations of imminent doom that came before and after it. We also talk about the covid inquiry and the toxic workplace culture it exposed as an intriguing subplot. (more…)

A Newtonian perspective on reason, productivity and creativity

A Newtonian perspective on reason, productivity and creativity

by • Comment

On the doorstep of the British Library, you will find Edouardo Paolozzi’s imposing statue of Sir Isaac Newton. At first glance, this position seems to make perfect sense. Where better for a monument to the Enlightenment’s poster boy than raised on a plinth at the entrance to the world’s second largest library? And yet, there’s more going on here than is evident at first glance. (more…)

It’s hard to keep dead tech down

It’s hard to keep dead tech down

by • Comment, Technology

People are curiously slow to give up on dead tech, sometimes for sound practical reasons and sometimes not so muchIn 2022, Cormac McCarthy published two novels at the age of 89. An impressive feat, doubly so because he wrote them on the same old dead tech typewriter he’d bought from a pawn shop in 1963. Prior to his death, he no longer had the original, a light blue Olivetti Lettera 32, because that was sold at a charity auction for a quarter of million dollars in 2009. A friend replaced it with an identical model for just $11. But one that lacked the cultural imprint, clearly. (more…)

Half of people would reject a job with no flexible working

Half of people would reject a job with no flexible working

by • Flexible working, News

According to a new poll, a lack of flexible working would drive almost half of UK workers to reject a job offerThe latest report outlining how the lack of some or other workplace feature would lead to mass resignations and job rejections arrives from recruitment firm Robert Half. And yes, we do wish PR companies and their clients would knock it off now. If we added up all these polls, nobody would stay in or accept any job. According to the poll, a lack of flexible working would drive almost half of UK workers to reject a job offer. (more…)

The office needs to take on the characteristics of the city. Despina Katsikakis IN conversation

The office needs to take on the characteristics of the city. Despina Katsikakis IN conversation

by • Facilities management, Features, Property, Workplace design

Despina Katsikakis, the new President of the BCO has been shaping the way we think about offices for four decades

One of the unintended consequences of the era of online meetings is a chance to gain an insight into people’s actual lives. So it is that as Despina Katsikakis and I are talking, she spots my whippet Luna wandering into shot in the background and lets out an exclamation. She too has a whippet by her feet. And as a result, this abnormal, formal situation becomes a lot more normal and relaxed.   (more…)

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