Always connected in the age of disconnection

Always connected in the age of disconnection

All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” He may have been right, but then again, sitting in a room alone isn’t necessarily a great state of permanent being either. There was a time we used to talk with dismay about the Japanese phenomenon of intense social distancing known as hikikomori. We would consider with horror the isolation, lack of engagement with society, poor mental health and loneliness of the people who had almost completely withdrawn to their rooms. Those poor bastards locked up in enclosed spaces linked to the outside world only by screens. More →

Borderless working will erode company culture, bosses fear

Borderless working will erode company culture, bosses fear

A lighthouse to illustrate the challenges of working in isolation as a metaphor for borderless workingA poll from Perkbox claims that almost half of businesses moving towards more borderless working (47 percent) are concerned how the shift will impact their company culture. These concerns stem from perceptions around managing a globally distributed workforce and the challenges this can bring. For example, a third of business leaders (33 percent) say different time zones make collaboration less effective. Meanwhile ,31 percent state inconsistency in different employee expectations around benefits or working styles causes friction between borderless managers and their teams. More →

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

Inconsistent flexible working strategies drive people away from businesses

A group of people in a shared flexible working / coworking spaceA new poll of 3,450 people in a dozen countries from Unit4 claims that around two in five organisations have lost employees over the last year because they believed they would enjoy better flexible working options elsewhere. While most firms now have a formalised approach to flexible working, the report claims that policies vary enormously, exacerbating the challenge of recruiting and retaining people for those firms with an inconsistent approach.  More →

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

The workplace circus continues to entertain, but back in the real world…

A painting of a clown sitting alone, waiting to enter the workplace circusThe Great Workplace Circus headlines its 322nd show of the year with everybody’s favourite distraction, Elon Musk, being driven into the ring by his own shoddily built clown car, declaring he needs everybody at Twitter to be ‘extremely hardcore’ before sacking a few people from his space programme, then setting fire to the tent himself. The swarm of stories spawned by this extraordinary behaviour include this tired and predictable rant in the Telegraph about ‘lazy Brits’. Ironically, there’s nothing lazier than a columnist on this rag with some space to fill. More →

The four day week and a case of less is more

The four day week and a case of less is more

four day weekWhen a pilot programme for a four day week was announced in the UK early in the New Year, #4dayweek trended for days on twitter, with jokey comments on how employees taking part in the trial should do everything not to ‘f*** it up for the rest of us.’ But behind the humour there’s a real issue with productivity in the UK. Recent Office for National Statistics reveals that while productivity grew across all G7 countries during the pandemic, the UK experienced the largest falls in GDP growth and an increase in the number of hours worked. More →

Major new report offers snapshot of hybrid and remote work debate in the US

Major new report offers snapshot of hybrid and remote work debate in the US

Two colleagues in a coworking space to illustrate how hybrid and remote work is changingOwl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics have just released their sixth annual State of Remote Work report. Based on a survey of over 2,300 full-time workers across the United States, the report reveals the latest trends and perspectives on a range of issues from remote work and hybrid work, trust, intent to move, training offered, workplace redesign, intent and reasons for quitting, technology needs, employee surveillance, the 4-day workweek, and more.

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Problems at Twitter, grease proof chairs, and the trouble with AI

Problems at Twitter, grease proof chairs, and the trouble with AI

The level of layoffs at several Big Tech firms has been the main source of news and comment over the past week or two. Around 11,000 people at Facebook and another 7,500 at Twitter are to be made redundant. Elon Musk then ensured the conversation moved on by forbidding remote work completely. More →

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things

A painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a lone man waiting to board a commuter train to get to the office The argument about what it takes to encourage people to come into the office more often seems to have boiled down to an equation. It’s now common to hear somebody argue that the office has to be worth the commute it takes to get to it. So, if you want people to spend more time in the building, you need to do the maths. O must be greater than or equal to C More →

Hybrid working driving demand for areas with easier commutes

Hybrid working driving demand for areas with easier commutes

An office cafe to illustrate the new wave of hybrid workingA report from Unispace claims that employees’ new preference for hybrid working has created an immediate need for firms to re-think their real estate footprint. Today, with over 60 percent of office-based employees preferring to work remotely or in a more flexible way, rather than commute to city centres five days a week, employers are considering the greater use or addition of satellite offices to their portfolio. According to the study of 3,000 office workers across Europe, 79 percent of the workforce would be happier to return to the office if it was just five to 10 minutes away from their home, suggesting that satellite offices could be a solution to boost collaboration, socialisation, engagement and staff retention. More →

Flexible working takes a step back in face of economic certainty

Flexible working takes a step back in face of economic certainty

A woman working at home to illustrate flexible workingAs economic storm clouds gather, the flexibility and freedoms introduced during the pandemic that employees benefited from are now at risk according to a new study conducted by LinkedIn. It claims that in the UK, the current economic and business climate is causing concern among business leader that companies will be forced to wind back progress on important areas of working life such as flexible working (75 percent), skills development (76 percent), and employee wellbeing (83 percent). More →

Quiet quitting is not a thing, but employers do need to offer more fulfilling work

Quiet quitting is not a thing, but employers do need to offer more fulfilling work

A drawing of a male worker looking like he is overworked and unfulfilled to illustrate the idea of quiet quittingA new survey from Ricoh Europe claims that the majority of workers seek more stimulation and creativity in their job, suggesting that employers need to do more to provide fulfilling work. The research, conducted by Opinium for Ricoh Europe, polled 6,000 workers and 1,500 decision makers across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. It claims to contradict the idea of quiet quitting with 82 percent of workers describing themselves as ‘engaged’ at work, while 65 percent say they are enthusiastic about what they do. Yet while workers feel content to a degree, there remain frictions and roadblocks to them becoming more productive and creative. More →

Hybrid isn’t working for many people because nobody can agree what it is

Hybrid isn’t working for many people because nobody can agree what it is

A new poll published by Landsec  claims there is a distinct lack of clarity around what hybrid working means, with less than one in five UK workers agreeing on a definition. The report suggests that this hybrid ‘hotchpotch’ is having a negative impact on bosses’ relationships with their teams. More →