April 20, 2020
Two-thirds of US based employees are currently working remotely at least part of the work week as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey from Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews platform. The report claims that 44 percent of all workers are currently working from home 5 or more days per week, up from 17 percent before the pandemic. More →
March 19, 2020
Betteridge’s law of headlines declares that “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no”. And so I simultaneously ask and answer the question of whether the coronavirus pandemic will really lead to the death of the office. So it goes. Of course, I’m not the first person to raise the question over the last few weeks as the world adapts to the threat of the pandemic. But it’s worth reminding ourselves that the demise of the office has been predicted for at least a quarter of a century, although never in such circumstances. More →
March 10, 2020
Employees enjoy working in a coworking space, claims a recent Clutch report — 77 percent of coworking employees are satisfied with their shared office space. Just because people are happy in a coworking environment does not mean they don’t experience challenges working in one though. Clutch surveyed 500 coworking employees across the U.S. to learn exactly what challenges they face in their coworking space. More →
January 9, 2020
BT Group has announced Birmingham’s Three Snowhill development will be its primary new home in the city and provide “a future-fit workplace for thousands of colleagues”. The building, in the city’s business district, will become the regional headquarters for BT with between 3,000 – 4,000 people set to be based there eventually – more than five times the number of people currently based in Birmingham. BT will occupy the majority of floors in the 17-storey development, marking a major investment by the company in the city. More →
November 21, 2019
Despite its recent challenges, WeWork remains the most popular coworking space in the US, but smaller, local coworking spaces are catching up, according to a new survey from Clutch. According to the study, 39 percent of coworking employees work in a WeWork space, but local coworking spaces are almost as popular, at 36 percent. More →
November 13, 2019
It’s a shame that Rhymer Rigby’s piece in The Times on creativity at work is behind a paywall because it says something perfectly obvious and demonstrable about workplace creativity that more people should read. The gist is that a cult has grown up around creativity that should be subject to more scrutiny and we should stop thinking about all work as the potential outlet for the creative instincts of people who may not have any, may not work in a job that involves them or who may not want to express them during their shifts in the Amazon warehouse. More →
October 11, 2019
Sites in Birmingham and Peterborough are to be regenerated as part of a government programme designed to boost regional growth and save taxpayers’ money. The Government Hubs programme has so far seen the development of 14 office hubs around the country, which the government claims provide civil servants with state-of-the-art working environments designed to boost efficiency and drive savings by bringing together different departments under one roof – moving civil servants to inner-city sites located close to public transport connections, local amenities and shops. More →
October 8, 2019
So, WeWork then. As the dust settles on whatever has happened, some lessons may be emerging. Many of them are presented in this comment in The Economist and this piece in The Intelligencer in which Scott Galloway of NYU Business School claims that the problems have been evident for a long time. He doesn’t hold back. More →
September 16, 2019
A new report from CBRE claims that the US market for flexible office space will generate significant growth over the next decade, even in the event of a recession, as flex operators consolidate and forge financial partnerships with building owners. More →
August 30, 2019
Let’s get the inevitable WeWork story out of the way first. A supposed news item in Crain’s New York Business has claimed that WeWork is ‘squeezing’ people into half the space recommended in the BCO’s Specification Guide; “roughly the size of two standard doors laying side by side”. You can see the editorial cogs at work here, combining a story about WeWork with one about how people are crammed into the workplace like cattle these days.
July 23, 2019
BT has agreed a deal to move into a headquarters in the Aldgate area of London after the £210 million sale of its current base. BT will move to the new 320,000 square foot, 18-storey building near Aldgate East station currently called One Braham. The move comes as part of the group’s sweeping shake-up announced last month that will see 270 offices closed. Its consolidation plan – the biggest of its type in the UK – will see 300 offices reduced to 30 by 2023, although BT stressed that no jobs will be lost as a result of the move. More →
May 5, 2020
From the archive: We shouldn’t rely on narrow ideas to define flexible working
by Luke Munro • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing