Columnists
June 27, 2019
We are running out of time to find the meaning of work
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design
Last week’s report from the IFS detailing the ongoing rise in the numbers of working poor in the UK highlights just how dysfunctional work can be in the modern era. While depictions of work in the media tend to consist of diverse Millennials clustering around a single laptop in the sun-dappled offices of tech firms, […]
June 26, 2019
Flexible working is the new measure of success
by Ben Chatfield • Comment, Flexible working
Professional bragging rights were once the preserve of top earners. Those with massive salaries, huge bonuses, and in some cases, even bigger egos. Money equals success – technology has shifted that long held view. Today flexible working, in terms of hours, location and role, has become an embraced reality and chief workplace priority. Technology has […]
June 25, 2019
The difference between office design and FM is the difference between sex and parenthood
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
There is an ongoing feeling within the facilities management discipline that when it comes to office design, facilities managers are not consulted early enough or well enough or consistently enough to ensure that the end result is a workplace that is as functional and as effective as it could be. The reason this feeling persists […]
June 25, 2019
Office furniture firms take their partners
by Colin Watson • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design
The development of products for the workplace follow many trends, generally aiming to provide that ideal setting for maximum effectiveness and fully tuned to the philosophies of the day. The processes involved can occupy a good proportion of time and energy for the workplace specialist and office furniture maker and feature heavily in the media. […]
June 20, 2019
The case for a shorter working week
by Shainaz Firfiray • Comment, Wellbeing
UK employees have the longest working week compared to other workers in the European Union. But, despite the long hours, recent studies have shown this does not make the UK a more productive nation. An analysis by the Trade Union Congress on working hours and productivity found that, while UK full-time staff worked almost two hours more […]
June 19, 2019
Coworking is now the key driver of change in property market
by Daniel Wright • Comment, Property, Workplace design
Having disrupted the property sector over the last decade, coworking continues to impact investors, developers and end users as the concept appears to be the dominant force in the commercial sector. Coworking can trace its roots back as far as the 1980s when Regus (now part of IWG) popularised the idea of a serviced office, […]
June 14, 2019
Help on returning to work after cancer
by Christine Husbands • Comment, Wellbeing
Macmillan estimates that more than 125,000 people of working age are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every year, and the number of people surviving cancer will rise by approximately 1 million per decade and reach 4 million by 2040. With more people choosing to work longer, there are likely to be many cancer survivors […]
June 11, 2019
Moving the wellbeing debate beyond a fixation on stress
by Matt Weston • Comment, Wellbeing
The world of work is evolving. Geopolitical change, digitalisation of the workplace and increased regulation are just some of the changes that businesses and their employees have to navigate. This disruption can feed into employee stress levels, impacting their happiness at work. Maintaining good mental health in the workplace is vital for employee wellbeing – […]
June 11, 2019
What is workplace technology really for, anyway?
by Pete Trainor • Comment, Technology
June 10, 2019
Coworking disrupts office design 0
by Paul Goodchild • Comment, Coworking, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design
In his book How Buildings Learn, the author Stewart Brand outlines the process whereby buildings evolve over time to meet the changing needs of their occupants. He describes each building as consisting of six layers, each of which functions on a different timescale. These range from the site itself which has a life cycle measured […]
June 7, 2019
On target for a toxic workplace culture
by Nick Pye • Comment, Workplace
Setting clear and bold targets has become part of leadership 101. We take it for granted that the first action for anyone taking over the helm of a business or team is to state or re-state targets. The rise of “management by objectives” in the 1970s drove the initial focus on target-setting and, in line […]
June 28, 2019
Office taxonomy and an increasingly diverse workplace ecosystem 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace design
It is perhaps the most common misconception of evolutionary theory that all animals are somehow evolving towards some end point – meaning us. This notion is perhaps best summed up when a sceptic asks: “If we have evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” The lesser of the two problems with this is its solipsistic […]