Columnists
September 8, 2020
Frontline and front of mind; communicating with employees away from HQ
by Julien Lesaicherre • Comment, Flexible working, Technology
It has been a rough year for business. Many organisations have had to evolve their operating models overnight, go to great lengths to keep their people safe and build entirely new ways of working to ensure they can stay afloat. A lot have had to fast forward five years into the future in a few months – […]
September 2, 2020
Remote work and the coming race to the bottom
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives
One of the most significant consequences of the 2008 economic crash was a remarkable shift in the nature of employment. The recession led to a surge in the number of people categorised as self-employed. The numbers have been increasing ever since, albeit at a more stable rate. By the end of 2019, the number of […]
August 28, 2020
A new social contract can improve the everyday experience of work
by Mark Spratt • Comment, Workplace
It’s not happening quickly enough for some and too slowly for others, but most companies are in the midst of managing a return to work and grappling with a very different post COVID-19 world and what it means for employees. HR professionals are paying close attention to how well employees are faring and are looking […]
August 20, 2020
Working from home and the future of work. How quaint
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology
In 1962, a professor of communication studies called Everett Rogers came up with the principle we call diffusion of innovation. It’s a familiar enough notion, widely taught and works by plotting the adoption of new ideas and products over time as a bell curve, before categorising groups of people along its length as innovators, early […]
August 18, 2020
The challenge for the office is to stay relevant
by Ben Capper • Comment, Workplace design
The world is going through some painful changes at breakneck speed. As a result, the word unprecedented has reached number one spot on our ‘words to avoid’ list. What’s the big deal with unprecedented anyway? Our obsession with all things unprecedented taps into our fear of the unknown. But life itself is an unknown: Life […]
August 17, 2020
Is it time to get rid of all workplace policies and procedures?
by Freddie Steele • Comment, Workplace
After twenty-five years of telling employers that their first response to any workplace problem should be ‘draw up a policy’, it pains me to even suggest this; but what if we abolished all workplace policies and procedures? Yes, you heard me correctly – no policies for discipline and grievances, for handling sickness absence, menopause, mental […]
August 12, 2020
Casting a spell on the future of work and workplaces
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design
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 […]
August 12, 2020
The death of the office? Wait a minute
by John Williams • Comment, Property, Workplace design
I have observed with some disbelief the numerous articles that have heralded the “death of the office” and other click-bait driven headlines. It makes for a fun read but fails to really understand exactly what the office is for and how the modern workspace is actually used. The best way to take a view of […]
August 7, 2020
A dog`s life in the future of work
September 11, 2020
The next chapter for office life, remote work and the stories we tell about it all
by Mark Eltringham • Comment
One of the few interesting things about the deluge of tedious work-related stories over the last few months has been watching the narratives about remote work, office life and all the rest of it develop. Of course, you’ll still get the odd piece like this, a rambling, lazy string of unexamined clichés that could have […]