Columnists
February 28, 2022
Hybrid working means we have to make the most of our time in the office
by Dr Omar Merlo • Comment, Flexible working
The covid-19 pandemic has drastically affected every aspect of our lives, whether it be in a personal, societal, or professional sense. One of the biggest changes to come from the pandemic is the impact it has had on workplaces, and what we now know our working world to be, including the advent for the first […]
February 23, 2022
We need a growth mindset for buildings to make them adaptable
by Matthias Rebellius • Comment, Environment, Property, Technology
The world is in a race. And it’s a race against time – against rising sea levels, overcrowded cities, and a virus that has shown us a thing or two about being adaptable. Although the current developments around infection rates and the omicron variant are cause for hope that the virus will soon become endemic, […]
February 21, 2022
Who watches the workplace watchmen?
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology
One of the world’s best known and most enduring foundational psychological experiments does not appear to be as clear cut as we commonly think. It was back in 1961 that a team led by the American psychologist Stanley Milgram asked a number of ordinary people to administer what they believed to be increasingly high levels of […]
February 14, 2022
The Great Resignation will cast a long spell
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design
The writer Alan Moore believes in magic. Not hocus-pocus magic, double double toil and trouble, but in the power of words and art to change reality and bring things into existence. It’s a compelling idea, one that Moore shares with Picasso amongst others, and the evidence for it in its metaphorical sense is all around.
February 9, 2022
The metaverse will shape the future of work. Here’s how
by Maria Moraes Robinson • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Although the term ‘metaverse’ was coined in 1992 by science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson, it has only just entered the mainstream lexicon after Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its strategic focus on making this sci fi vision a reality. Given that there is no singular definition of what a metaverse is, and […]
February 8, 2022
The office sector needs to develop better arguments for its products
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design
The distillation of every received and laundered idea of the past two years leads us here. A claim from Gallup that in future just over a third of the desks in offices will be empty. Whatever Gallup thinks, this is great news for the office sector. One of the truths the office sector hasn’t always […]
January 31, 2022
The great workplace conversation (still) needs to be held with a great deal more humility
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design
“Nobody knows anything”. William Goldman’s infamous summing up of the essential unknowability of the movie business also has a less quoted second part. “Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” It is […]
January 31, 2022
From the archive: How organic design can reflect the way people move around a building
by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Workplace design
The story goes that, after Rem Koolhaas had been appointed to design the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2003, the legendary architect noticed how students had created their own pathways between the buildings on the site. The site of the new building included a field on which their footprints […]
January 25, 2022
Hybrid working? Let’s put on a show
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working
I’m currently rereading Art Kleiner’s masterful book The Age of Heretics which describes the history of ground-breaking thought in management in the 20th Century and the lessons we forget. It remains a relevant book for the new era of ‘hybrid working’ because the book draws a distinction between two fundamental schools of thought in management […]
January 17, 2022
Is your office worth the journey it takes to get to it?
by Despina Katsikakis • Comment, Flexible working, Property
A couple of years ago, in the wake of a surge in self-care start-ups and viral diet fads, Forbes declared 2019 as the year of the “wellness revolution”. Three years and a global pandemic later, the revolution appears to have swept our offices. Why? Quite simply, we have woken up to the fact that we […]
January 12, 2022
Are we witnessing the demise of the knowledge worker?
by Anthony Brown • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace
While the debate about working from home versus working in the office continues, should the real conversation focus on the implications for a typical knowledge worker? ‘Knowledge work’ is a term that dates back over sixty years. It’s said to be first coined by Peter Drucker in his 1958 book The Landmarks of Tomorrow. The […]
March 3, 2022
What really happens when we start using offices again?
by Henry Stainton • Comment, Flexible working, Property
Should I stay or should I go? – we have all faced that dilemma in recent weeks with our offices opened by hopeful employers versus the enticement of a warm kitchen, fresh coffee and swerving a long commute also on offer. It is a decision we are all having to make and, which seems loaded […]