Columnists
March 22, 2022
The sustainable product lifecycle starts with a single step
by Joanna Knight • Comment, Environment, JK
Environmental responsibility is challenging and often conflicts with short term goals. In the July 2021 issue of IN magazine, I asked environmental campaigner, sustainability and wellbeing consultant, Georgia Elliot-Smith about the issue of the proliferation of Perspex screens designed to reduce transmission of the Covid-19 virus in the workplace – all made from virgin materials. […]
March 21, 2022
The lumpy, bumpy uncertainty of the future of work
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
It’s now two years since we experienced the first true, sharp jolt of the pandemic. And even if we had now fully escaped its grip, the intervening 24 months would have proved transformational. The clichés, groupthink and glib takes may still shape much of the discourse about the ‘future of work’ but many of the […]
March 16, 2022
Employees don’t have survey fatigue – they are tired of being ignored
by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Workplace
An employee survey can offer fantastic insight into the highs and lows of working for your company, and how employees perceive and understand your business culture. These survey responses can allow mangers and leaders to make proactive and positive changes to the business, improve employee engagement and ultimately increase business success. However, research tells us […]
March 11, 2022
The much talked about new normal doesn’t exist, but the world has changed in profound ways
by Dr Simon Williams • Cities, Comment, Flexible working, Property, Technology
The World Health Organization officially declared COVID a pandemic on March 11 2020. Now, two years later, there’s light for some at the end of the tunnel. In many wealthier countries, which have benefited from several rounds of vaccination, the worst of the pandemic is over. We’ve got here by learning a lot of new […]
March 3, 2022
What really happens when we start using offices again?
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 […]
March 23, 2022
A burst of technological innovation is reshaping the future of work
by Toby Benzecry • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design
Even as we begin to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic, evidence suggests that many workers want to carry over the working flexibility that the pandemic afforded into the post-pandemic world and a new future of work. Namely, employees are wanting to adopt a ‘mixed’ working style – spending […]