Columnists
March 15, 2019
When exactly did busyness become a sign of status?
by Francesca Langton Kendall • Comment, Wellbeing
When exactly did “busyness” become a status? At work, in our personal lives and online, the competition to “live our best lives” and “hustle harder” is being taken to the extreme. Neuroscientists refer to busyness as a state of “cognitive overload.” This state can hinder our productivity, as well as our abilities to think clearly, […]
March 14, 2019
The negative entropy of workplace design and management
March 14, 2019
Mobile working is a recipe for business success
by Sally Elliott • Comment, Technology, Workplace design
Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the face of work as we know it: introducing AI and automation to the workplace and creating a drastic shift in the skills required by organisations today. As automation increasingly frees employees up from the repetitive, process work that can so often dominate their day-to-day, organisations are instead […]
March 8, 2019
On International Woman’s Day – why advancing women is still not a business priority
by Sara Bean • Comment, Legal news, News, Workplace
It has probably not escaped your notice that today is International Woman’s Day, which for Workplace Insight means a plethora of studies on the topic of women/jobs/salaries and ways women might work differently to men. We’ve decided not to waste anyone’s time and ignored most of them (particularly the patronizing ones on how ladies are […]
March 6, 2019
Beware the great apex fallacy of workplace design 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Furniture, Technology, Workplace design
Of all the memes and narratives that corrupt public discourse about workplace design, the most pernicious is the one that suggests there is a linear evolution to some grand end point called the Office of the Future. There is a natural human inclination to buy this sort of idea, fed by an assumption that what […]
March 6, 2019
It’s not a skills gap, it’s a diversity gap
by Agata Nowakowska • Comment, Workplace
As digital transformation impacts organisations in every industry, the workplace as we know it is evolving fast. For IT leaders, the accelerated rate of technological change means the pressure is on to deliver, manage and secure new platforms. But the wider ramifications of digitalisation projects are proving profound, leaving business executives facing a dilemma.
March 5, 2019
Designing a better workforce: how workplace design can impact wellbeing
by Mary Lawrence • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design
In a recent survey, 95 percent of office workers said their physical work environment is important for their wellbeing and mental health. However, half believe their current working environment does not have a positive effect on their mental health, wellbeing, mood and productivity. The issue of employee wellbeing has risen up business’ agendas in recent […]
March 4, 2019
Filtering out the noise, the pathology of work, busy doin muffin and some other stuff
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Features
We might think that an inability to absorb the vast amount of information generated by our fellow humans and their machines is something of a modern phenomenon, but we’ve always known we can have too much of this particular good thing. Distringit librorum multitude, wrote Seneca in the First Century. An abundance of books is […]
March 1, 2019
National Employee Appreciation Day? What a joke!
by Helen Jamieson • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Today is (apparently) a hot new date for all employers’ calendars as we ‘celebrate’ National Employee Appreciation Day. This US import seems to be finding feet in UK workplaces as employers plan to hand out freebies, gifts and perks to their hard-working staff. We all like to receive a thank-you, and likely won’t turn down […]
February 27, 2019
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Workplace 0
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace, Workplace design
March 17, 2019
Time to unlearn the time management system you learned at school
by Steve Hartert • Comment, Technology
Picture a workplace where everyone follows rigorous to-do lists. Employees are told what to do, how long to spend on it, and in what order to tackle their projects. Then, picture a workplace where there are no to-do lists, no project deadlines, and no estimations of how long projects will take. Employees tackle work in […]