Columnists
November 10, 2022
Summing up where the office now stands in the scheme of things
November 4, 2022
The human mind and body are not really machines for living in
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace
It is ironic that while we live in a world in which we are witnessing the automation of more and more human skills and capabilities, we are often best able to understand the way people function with symbols of mechanisation. That is the underlying conceit of what turned out to be one of the animated film […]
November 3, 2022
Are digital skills the key to a happier, more productive workforce?
by Katy Liddell • Comment, Technology, Workplace
The rising cost-of-living is impacting life and work in all four corners of the UK. Research from BCC has found that businesses feel compelled to increase their own prices. With costs rising, businesses are facing growing pressures. Not least the need to attract and retain the talent they can depend on to deliver. Research has […]
November 2, 2022
Who’s driving this bus, anyway? A critical review of Leading People in Change by Jennifer Bryan
by Neil Usher • Comment, Workplace
Writing about change isn’t easy, but too many people try it. I tried it with Elemental Change (LID, 2020). Jennifer Bryan succeeded where I didn’t, and managed a short book about change. Her book Leading People in Change also succeeds where I didn’t by focussing on one aspect of change, leadership. So far so good, […]
October 24, 2022
Orgatec 2022 preview – a chance to create new friends and new memories
by Mick Jordan • Comment, Workplace design, Works Magazine
For as long as we’ve been in this industry, we’ve sat and chatted with leading lights from the London furniture market, first listening to fantastic tales and raucous anecdotes, and later telling our own recollections of Cologne. We originally wondered whether these stories were simply that – mere myths and Chinese whispers. Then, of course, […]
October 20, 2022
The rotting one hit wonders of the workplace
October 19, 2022
Remote workers can find it hard to switch off. There’s now an app for that
by Anthony Thompson • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
The last few years have seen our approach to work change dramatically. Technology has helped to unlock whole new ways of communicating and interacting, providing the flexibility for employees to work in a way that suits them best and creating a large number of remote workers for the first time. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic […]
October 13, 2022
The success of hybrid working hinges on creating a great workplace experience
by Lee Rubin • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace
Recent statistics underline the extent to which hybrid working is now a permanent fixture of US business life. A recent report suggests that 74 percent of US companies are using or plan to implement a permanent hybrid working model, whilst 44 percent of US employees prefer a hybrid work model, compared to 51 percent of […]
October 5, 2022
Why should anyone care about your change?
by Jennifer Bryan • Business, Comment, JB, Workplace
Whenever I first meet a potential client or am brought onto a new change project, there are three questions I ask: why, why now and why should anyone care about your change? Now the first two have typically been thought through and there are answers for them – not necessarily crystal clear and concise answers, […]
October 5, 2022
Will employees return to the office to save on energy bills this winter?
by Nick Gold • Comment, Flexible working
This winter will be tough for many UK households. Rising energy bills are driving a huge upswing in inflation, causing real incomes to fall as the cost of living goes up. And despite the UK Government’s announcement that energy prices will be ‘capped’ at an average of £2,500 per year, the Bank of England believes […]
September 30, 2022
There is no F in work
by James Woudhuysen • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design
Neil Usher is an energetic, wiry critic of workplaces and offices. Long ago – in 2018, actually – his proposal that the good office is composed of 12 simple elements, beginning with daylight, was also energetic and wiry. Here he widens out from the delicious nitty-gritties of temperature control and lighting in The Elemental Workplace to […]
November 11, 2022
Problems at Twitter, grease proof chairs, and the trouble with AI
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design
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.