April 26, 2019

Emerging megacities will outperform developed megacities by 2025

As urban world is moving towards the developing world, GlobalData, a data and analytics company, forecasts that 88 percent of the world megacities will be based in the developing economies of Asia, Europe & Central Asia, Latin America and Middle East & Africa by 2025. Out of 44 megacities in the developing world, GlobalData has identified 26 that will outperform developed cities by 2025. The company forecasts that the share of emerging cities to the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) will increase from 7.2 percent in 2018 to 8.3 percent in 2025 while the share of developed cities to the world GDP will decline from 8.1 percent to 6.8 percent during the period.

April 25, 2019

Lies about work, the limits of wellness programmes, sleepwalking architects and some other shoes

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Features, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

There are lots of reasons to worry about where the World might be taking us, or perhaps where we are taking it. You can take your pick but for me one of the most worrying aspects of contemporary discourse is the obvious dearth of empathy. We might like to think of this as an innate characteristic of human beings, but it really isn’t. It’s something that we also need to learn. This idea is explored in this piece by Hanna Rosin who centres her argument around an analysis by Sara Konrath, an associate professor and researcher at Indiana University who has discovered that our willingness to empathise with people is eroding rapidly, especially for those who we see as ‘other’ or irrelevant. If you want an example of lack of empathy, you can see it in this footage of a banker being taken to task for it in a US committee hearing.

April 25, 2019

MPs to investigate impact of placemaking and built environment on productivity

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property, Workplace design

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Building Communities is calling for evidence and contributions from all organisations with an interest in the built and natural environment to contribute to its new consultation, which aims to explore how placemaking can lead to greater productivity in the UK. As part of its remit, the APPG seeks to conduct research on the concept of ‘placemaking’ and investigate design practices that maximise the social value of infrastructure. In this way the APPG hopes to build an evidence base that can be used by policy makers when engaging with the build and natural environment.

April 25, 2019

Three quarters of workers want contact banned from the workplace

by George Eltringham • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Research by jobs board Totaljobs claims that three quarters of British workers (76 percent) want the amount of physical contact in the workplace reduced, whilst 42 percent go further and call for an outright ban on some interactions, from the workplace kiss (27 percent) to wishing hugs were a thing of the past (15 percent). The research claims that one in three (30 percent) workers experience an awkward greeting at work at least once a month, with those in their twenties experiencing the most.

April 25, 2019

UK workplace happiness score has dropped below global average

by Marie Hillen • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK now ranks tenth globally when it comes to happiness in the workplace. Austria (690), Spain (682), United States (719), France (672) and Germany (675) are all above the UK in rating workplace happiness. To date, over 10,000 people globally have taken the free Workplace Happiness Survey by Engaging Works which aims to provide practical and personalised advice to help improve wellbeing at work and to increase productivity and overall happiness within the workplace. The Workplace Happiness Survey asks 26 questions and then delivers a score out of 1000.

April 24, 2019

The meteor strike of coworking and the beasts that will remain

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

The concept of coworking has only been with us for a short time, but there are already signs that it is evolving into something rather different. The most common misperception about the way evolution works is that it is based on some steady progression, driven by the merciless principle of survival of the fittest, with the best adapted climbing towards the top of an evolutionary tree. This gives rise to one of the most common questions posed by sceptics: if we evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

April 24, 2019

Women are less likely to negotiate terms of a job offer than men

by Neil Franklin • News, Workplace

A survey commissioned by CV-Library claims that one of the most significant differences between men and women in the workplace is that men are generally less afraid to ask for what they want from an employer. The study of over 1,200 people claims that over half (55.1 percent) of men would negotiate on parts of a job offer, compared to just four in 10 (42.1 percent) women. The study also claims that the terms women are willing to negotiate on also varies widely. The survey suggests that they are more likely to debate working hours (56.4 percent) than men (40.9 percent), whilst men are more likely to negotiate salary (83.1 percent) than women (73.1 percent). More →

April 23, 2019

The flexible solution to workplace loneliness

by Guzman de Yarza Blache • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing, Workplace design

For years, the word ‘office’ would doubtless conjure images of the traditional individual cubicle. However, times have changed, and where the cubicle once ruled the roost, a flexible working revolution is already disrupting the office market and reshaping the world of work.

April 23, 2019

Plans approved for “the biggest regeneration scheme in the UK”

by Neil Franklin • News, Property

Outline plans to regenerate the 40-acre former Boots Island site in Nottingham have been approved by Nottingham City Council planning committee. Conygar Investment Company PLC intends to transform the site, which has lain derelict for many years, into grade A office space, “creative market space”, homes a five-star hotel, retail units, a “linear’ park” and community space and student accommodation. More →

April 18, 2019

Ancient Greek wisdom for the leadership crisis of the 21st Century

by Emily Anhalt • Features

What makes a good leader? This question confronts us at every election and with every domestic and international policy decision. As a professor of classical languages and literature for more than 30 years, I marvel at our insistence on addressing this question as if it were brand new. Centuries ago, myths helped the Greeks learn to reject tyrannical authority and identify the qualities of good leadership. As I write in my book Enraged, the same myths that long predate the world’s very first democracy have lessons for us today – just as they did for the ancient Greeks centuries ago. More →

April 18, 2019

Work-life balance and workload are the biggest drivers of stress

by Marie Hillen • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

Half of today’s workers are stressed by their job with one in five (17 percent) finding their work very stressful, according to new global research from LinkedIn. The research showed that millennial workers are more concerned than their seniors about having a sense of purpose and belonging in the workplace, but overall they’re the generation that’s least stressed at work. Both Gen X and the Baby Boomer generation proved to be more stressed at work, with a fifth (19 percent) of Gen X finding work very stressful. The data showed that the top five cause of stress at work are work/life balance and workload; confidence in job future; a sense of purpose and direction; colleagues and work politics; and access to tools to do your job.

April 17, 2019

British workers putting in longest hours in the EU, TUC analysis finds

by George Eltringham • News, Wellbeing

Workers in the UK are putting the longest hours in the EU, according to a new TUC analysis. Full-time employees in Britain worked an average of 42 hours a week in 2018, nearly two hours more than the EU average – equivalent to an extra two and a half weeks a year. Britain’s “long-hours culture” is not having a positive impact on productivity, says the TUC. In similar economies to ours, workers tend to be on average much more productive for each hour that they work. More →