January 20, 2025

Forget all the talk of Blue Monday; work is still (largely) good for us

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Wellbeing, Workplace

So here it is. Blue Monday. Today. Officially the most depressing day of the year. We say ‘officially’, but like the idea of ‘Body Odour’ its common usage hides the fact that it was originally created as part of a PR campaign, in this case one for Sky’s travel channel in 2005. The whole idea of Blue Monday is couched in a pseudo-mathematical equation which includes factors like the weather, levels of debt, time since Christmas, low levels of motivation and, apparently, an unspecified variable known simply as ‘D’. More →

December 17, 2024

How Charles Handy changed the way we speak about the workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management

Originally published in 2019. There are writers whose language pervades our discourse so extensively that even those who have never heard of them will echo not only their sentiments but also their means of expression. One of these people is Charles Handy, who has just published his latest book 21 Letters on Life and its Challenges at the age of 87. His work resonates to this day and not least because he was so far ahead of the curve in detailing many of the characteristics of modern organisations and the challenges created for everybody by the changing nature of work and business. More →

November 8, 2024

That conversation about hybrid working? Same as it ever was

by Marcus Bowen • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Property

Recently I wrote a short article based on a 1993 Architects’ Journal interview with IBM’s then design manager of property, Peter Wingrave. It reminded me how discussions about new ways of working – now including that neologism hybrid working – have been a constant throughout my career. In that interview, Wingrave is quoted as saying: “I think there are interesting times ahead for offices. We are already seeing the slow breakdown of the traditional office which people come to in the morning and leave at night…We would like our offices to catch the social spirit of an old gentleman’s club; you just pop in when you need to. You get more out of people that way… we’re lucky if our marketing areas are ever 40 per cent occupied … It’s crazy to build, run, heat, light and decorate a building as if people were there when 60 per cent of the time you know they are not”. More →

October 29, 2024

How commercial property owners can boost revenues and occupancy in light of the Autumn Budget

by Dieter Wood • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

The Autumn Budget is anticipated to introduce a series of tax increases that could directly impact commercial property owners, including changes to capital gains tax (CGT), national insurance contributions, and business rates. These changes could have a ripple effect across the property market, influencing both investment decisions and tenant demand. These are the key areas of concern for commercial property owners. More →

September 18, 2024

You get what you give at the CoreNet Global Summit 2024 in Berlin

by Jo Sutherland • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Wellbeing

Have you ever attended a conference and been asked to gaze deeply into a stranger’s eyes for several minutes, standing just a metre apart in silence? No? Neither have I – until this September at the CoreNet Global Summit in Berlin. Gone are the days of handshakes and small talk. Today, it’s all about relationality, empathy, and hugging it out. For some, the summit’s emphasis on fostering human connections was a joyful opportunity to bond and share meaningful moments with fellow professionals. For others, it felt like being trapped in a never-ending therapy session nobody signed up for. More →

September 13, 2024

Parliament refit could hold back UK net zero efforts for 40 years

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

The extensive refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster, a project estimated to cost over £20 billion, could significantly impact the availability of specialist craftworkers needed for the UK’s net zero targets, according to Historic England. The public body is warning that the project, which could take up to 43 years and require around 3,000 specialist workers annually, would absorb a large portion of the nation’s skilled heritage plasterers, carpenters, and window specialists. This is likely to strain an already limited workforce at a time when the country faces a shortage of traditional building crafts essential for refurbishing older buildings. More →

September 12, 2024

Traditional models of facilities management are no longer fit for purpose, report claims

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News

facilities managmentWorkplaces need to be maintained and managed in a more agile and responsive way if they are to serve the needs of hybrid working and the so-called return to the office, according to new research from Colliers. Colliers Global Occupier Services’ new report Adaptive Facilities Management – a new vision in agility reveals traditional facilities management (FM) models, where services are delivered at fixed frequencies and costs, are no longer fit for purpose, due to occupancy levels at many workplaces remaining in flux. More →

July 19, 2024

Book review: Workspace Made Easy

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

There’s a dog-eared, yellowing paperback on my bookshelf called Understanding Offices. Written by Joanna Eley and Alexi Marmot, it dates from 1995. It is a handbook for everybody who needed to know how to develop a workplace strategy during the infant phase of the digital and cultural revolution of the late 20th Century. I used to refer to it all the time, but now it serves mainly as a reminder of how much has changed over the past thirty years, and also how little. More →

July 11, 2024

How AI will transform the way we design and manage the places we work

by Nell Watson • AI, Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design

The integration of Artificial Intelligence into the workplace is not just a technological shift; it’s a fundamental reimagining of how we work, interact, and manage our professional environments. As AI capabilities rapidly evolve, they promise to transform every aspect of workplace design and management, from physical layouts to organizational structures and employee experiences. More →

July 10, 2024

The facilities manager’s fear of the penalty kick

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management

On the whole, football is not a great source of inspiration for artists. It certainly doesn’t film well, although there is a small place for it in literature. The likes of Arnold Bennett, Orwell, Sartre and J B Priestley have all drawn from the game some metaphor, philosophical point, social observation or other. There are even some major literary figures who played the game to a decent level.

And the curious thing about them is that they were all goalkeepers.

July 8, 2024

Book review – Working Assumptions by Julia Hobsbawm

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design

This is almost certainly the most important book about work and workplaces to appear in the first half of this year. Working Assumptions by Julia Hobsbawm will be one of the two most important published this year, as we shall soon discover. It is also one packed with wisdom, knowledge and a central premise that is undoubtedly true. Namely that the events of the past four years have given us the opportunity to rethink how we work and so how we spend our days and our lives more generally. More →

July 4, 2024

CIBSE announces new future focussed building performance project

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

CIBSE has launched what it claims is a ground-breaking initiative titled Building Performance Reimagined [registration], a project aimed at transforming the landscape of building engineering and sustainability. Commissioned by CIBSE and researched by Arup, the Building Performance Reimagined project diverges from conventional engineering paradigms. Rather than focusing solely on system sizing, maintenance or controls, the initiative takes a holistic, future-oriented perspective on building performance. More →