September 16, 2021
Office occupancy rates hit their highest levels since March 2020
Office occupancy rates have hit their highest levels since March 2020, according to Freespace. The data from sensors already highlights an eight percent increase in the number of offices returning to work in the first fortnight of September compared to the entire month of August. Furthermore, the use of all space types within the office have also increased giving a sense that some normality is returning to the workplace. More →
I recently stumbled upon the phrase epistemic trespass, which describes the phenomenon of people making judgements in fields in which they have no expertise. I came across it as it was used to explain the sudden explosion of opinions about Afghanistan from a hitherto unknown horde of experts. Which may or may not be the same horde that has been so very certain about immunology and public health during the pandemic. It’s an old idea and one that needs to be treated with care, for reasons set out by Noah Smith 
While lower occupancy has reduced the carbon footprint of many commercial office buildings amid the pandemic, higher CO2 emissions from hybrid working significantly outstrips these declines, according to data analysed by 
New research from 
Disruption, cost, building style, individual goals, responsibility and shared space are cited as the key sustainability challenges for the flexible office sector, according to the 
As businesses in the UK prepare to open their office doors en masse in the first week of September, new research reveals that office workers have got that back-to-school excitement and are feeling largely positive about the transition. Recruitment firm Michael Page questioned over 2,000 UK office workers on their attitudes to returning to the office and found that after eighteen months at home, around half claim to be ‘excited’ or ‘happy’ to spend more time in the office with their colleagues. Reminiscent of the first day back at school, almost three in ten (28 percent) said that they had picked out their outfit and packed their bag ahead of their first day back in the office. 
With a large number of firms now prepared to embrace a ‘hybrid working’ model, business leaders remain uncertain about how this may play out in practice according to a new report from Entrust called 
We’ve all learnt a great deal about working from home over the past eighteen months. We’ve seen how for some, it can be incredibly beneficial to employees, enabling them to better balance their work and personal lives and can also benefit the company, enabling business as usual during the Covid-19 pandemic, even improving efficiency. It’s also prompted some important conversations about mental health that simply hadn’t been had, normalising the challenges that we all face, especially during lockdowns. 
Older workers might choose to delay their retirement if offered the option of continuing to do their jobs working from home after the pandemic, according to 
September 20, 2021
The four day week won’t necessarily help us cope with workplace stress
by Abigail Marks • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing