March 15, 2024
The Insight Weekly newsletter gives you an overview of the best workplace stories and commentary from the past week. You can see the current issue here. It’s designed to be read in under five minutes. You can subscribe here (and also to both our magazines). You’ll only be asked for your email address and you won’t hear from anybody but us.
March 14, 2024
Credit ratings agency Moody’s is relocating its London headquarters from offices in Canary Wharf to a new location in the City of London. This move adds to the trend of financial firms opting to leave the Docklands district. The company will shift to offices at 10 Gresham Street in 2026, coinciding with the expiration of its lease at One Canada Square, the iconic pyramid-topped skyscraper in the heart of the east London estate. A spokesperson for Moody’s confirmed the selection of the new location, emphasizing that the move is subject to closing. More →
March 14, 2024
New data from Remit Consulting suggests that UK office occupancy rates have risen to their highest level since the start of the pandemic. Although still below pre-pandemic levels, the data indicates a gradual return to more office-based work patterns. The ReTurn Report is compiled by Remit Consulting each week. It uses data provided by building managers in ten cities based on their property’s access control systems. More →
March 13, 2024
Two in five companies are returning to a five-days-in-the-office work week, according to new data from Virgin Media O2. The Telecoms giant’s Movers Index suggest that around 40 percent of firms now require five-day-a-week office work. Meanwhile, 92 percent of companies had some kind of mandatory in-office policy. Wednesday remains the top day for office work, with about three quarters of office workers coming in for the midweek. More →
March 12, 2024
UK based furniture maker Modus has announce a partnership with Canadian office furniture giant Teknion. Modus is the first British manufacturer to become a Teknion partner and this new venture enables both parties to expand their global presence and localise their manufacturing capabilities. The firms say this strategic approach will help significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its products for the UK, European, and North American markets, while at the same time driving sales. More →
March 9, 2024
Boots has ordered staff to return to the office full-time, five days a week, starting from the first of September this year. Employees at the company’s headquarters in London, Nottingham, and Weybridge were reportedly informed via email this week about the stricter policy on remote work. This is a shift from Boots’ current policy, implemented after the COVID-19 outbreak, which encouraged a three-day-a-week office presence. More →
March 5, 2024
The last few years have seen a major shift in how businesses approach their office spaces. With more emphasis on aesthetics, functionality, and employee wellbeing, 2024 will showcase some of the most exciting trends for future-ready workplaces centred on connection, wellbeing and change. As a leader in workplace design, MillerKnoll talks about the top six emerging trends shaping office spaces this year. Based on decades of expertise, MillerKnoll identifies shifting priorities that empower companies embracing conscious design attuned to modern needs. More →
February 28, 2024
Life after COVID has led to a significant change in the way that people view a workplace. Working from home on a regular basis has become typical, not ad hoc or as required. Commuting five days a week to attend an office is no longer the norm and on the whole is no longer demanded – rather, we have seen organisations adopt hybrid working. This has meant the rationale for a physical office workspace has come under considerable scrutiny. Some organisations have gone as far as being completely remote and have released all office real estate. More →
February 27, 2024
Late last year, this image went viral on social media. It is of a group of Bauhaus design students from around 1927. They are called Martha Erps, Katt Both and Ruth Hellos. The full image (reproduced below) shows them with legendary office furniture designer Marcel Breuer, who Erps would later marry. The story of the photograph can be found here. On social media, though, the standard response from people of a certain vintage – my vintage admittedly – is to suggest that they were last seen supporting Echo and the Bunnymen at the Barrowland Glasgow in 1984. More →
February 27, 2024
Despite a huge increase in the number of businesses adopting a hybrid working model, a new poll from Crown Workspace claims that almost half (46 percent) of hybrid workers believe their office or workspace does not suit a hybrid working model and is in need of modernisation. More →
February 25, 2024
No author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to fail. The 2,000 people within, detached from external realities in the 40-storey building, confronted with their true selves and those of their neighbours, descend into selfishness and – ultimately – savagery. More →
February 28, 2024
What do we need offices for anyway? The Greeks had a word for it
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design