Search Results for: Working from home

March 8, 2017

In a crowd of truths, we can discern and reclaim what it means to be human ⁰

by Neil Usher • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

This is the second of two responses to an excellent article by Antony Slumbers, the first being this perspective from my mirrored room, in this instance offering that his views offer a far too presumptive picture of how technology will shape our work future. The paragraph headlines are from Antony’s original article. One person’s optimism is another’s pessimism. A decade ago the dream of liberated commute-free teleworking was, to many, the nightmare of enforced seclusion to the soundtrack of the dishwasher. The deployment of robots for the performance of menial tasks creating time and wealth for leisure is another’s horror at the loss of employment and resultant anomic fragmentation and decay. The fatally pointless optimism of Candide’s Dr Pangloss was agnostic in regard to every such outcome. It was positive only because there could be no alternative, and therefore no better alternative.

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February 20, 2017

Always on culture of work is literally killing people ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing

Workers in the City of London are often more stressed about work when at home than in the office, claims a new peer reviewed study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The study of workers at some of London’s major banks suggests that more than half find they are more stressed when trying to balance their home and professional lives with the result that they are more at risk of cardiovascular disease. The stress levels of participants were measured using wrist monitors and found that there are significant spikes in heart rates when people interrupt their domestic lives with work. The authors conclude that the culture of always on working is literally killing people.

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February 14, 2017

Level of wellbeing higher for those who ‘wind-down’ into retirement ⁰

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

New research into the effect of retirement on wellbeing commissioned by The What Works Centre for Wellbeing claims that those who gradually reduce their working time with more flexible hours improve their levels of wellbeing. The study looked at all existing research and found that part-time working towards the end of our careers improves life satisfaction. It advises that employers should support older workers to ‘wind-down’ into retirement with bridging jobs or reduce their working hours to avoid poor wellbeing, a new international study reveals. However, the research highlights that this depends on whether employees had control over when they retired, rather than being forced out through ill health or restructuring. If people take up bridging jobs because of financial strain, their wellbeing drops. Even after accounting for income and health, wellbeing is higher for those who have control over the timing or plan for their retirement, and voluntary retirees derive greater pleasure from free time in retirement. On the contrary, wellbeing is lower for those who are involuntarily retired, especially due to health reasons.

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February 14, 2017

More people will have smartphones than running water or bank accounts by 2021, claims report ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Technology

By 2021, more members of the global population will be using mobile phones (5.5 billion) than bank accounts (5.4 billion), running water (5.3 billion), or landlines (2.9 billion), according to the 11th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2016 to 2021. Strong growth in mobile users, smartphones and Internet of Things connections as well as network speed improvements and mobile video consumption are projected to increase mobile data traffic seven-fold over the next five years.

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February 14, 2017

Cautious London job market post-Brexit, as EU nationals consider options ⁰

by Sara Bean • Cities, News, Workplace

The more recent employment figures for London suggest that until the terms of Brexit are known and put in motion, the jobs market will remain cautious. This is according to the latest Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor which found that despite an 81 percent increase in jobs available and an 83 percent increase in professionals seeking jobs; compared to a 115 percent increase in jobs this time last year, the 2017 spike was muted in comparison. The 83 percent increase in job seekers month-on-month is coupled with a 29 percent decrease, year-on-year. Contributing to the decrease is the trickling off of non-British EU nationals working in the City, who comprise up to 10 percent of its workforce. In a post-Brexit survey of professionals conducted by Morgan McKinley, these individuals reported either moving abroad, or considering leaving London because of Brexit.

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February 10, 2017

Reflections on the future of work from a mirrored room ⁰

by Neil Usher • Comment, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

This is the first of two responses to an excellent article by Antony Slumbers, in this instance offering that his views offer too conservative a view of how technology will shape the future of work. Dr Pangloss, the teacher of metaphysics in Candide, Voltaire’s hilariously sarcastic attack on Leibnizian optimism, offered a timeless and universal explanation of the most cruel and tragic events as “the best of all possible worlds”. I would argue however that far from creating a landscape of optimism, it facilitates a dismissal of all significant change as an irrelevance given that effectively we have no option other than to happily accept it. For example, whether property transitions to a service or remains locked in its existing institutional quagmire, it doesn’t matter. Either way its fine as it’s the best we can hope for. Accept it, happily. A Panglossian future only looks appealing if you’re –well, Dr Pangloss.

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February 10, 2017

Connectivity, innovation and uncertainty are driving workplace change, claims report ⁰

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Technology, Wellbeing

Sodexo has published its 2017 Global Workplace Trends report, which claims to define the most critical factors affecting the world’s workers and employers. According to the report, the trends portray a workplace that blends work life with outside life, catering to employee needs through improvements in wellness, space design and learning programs. “With this piece, we’ve distilled key findings from different sectors, generations and countries to produce a report that provides a holistic view of the global workplace,” said Sylvia Metayer, CEO, Worldwide Corporate Services segment, Sodexo. “It’s critical for business leaders to recognise the underlying trends driving change, to evaluate their significance and stay ahead of—rather than follow—them.”

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February 9, 2017

Birmingham creates city development blueprint with global dimension ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a way of investigating or diagnosing the challenges facing their home city that could be used to help improve the lives of city dwellers around the world. And the blueprint they are working with could help city policy makers and other countries to take more effective actions to boost the quality of life for residents by providing better outcomes. Project leaders are already looking at how the work might be applied in countries like India, Brazil and South Africa. The first part of the Urban Living Birmingham pilot project used a wide range of data and evidence used by city leaders to inform policy combined with an analysis of 248 datasets – identifying the challenges facing Birmingham.

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February 1, 2017

Excessive unpaid overtime contributing to worker’s stress levels, claims survey ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing

Almost three quarters (71 percent) of office staff are so overwhelmed with work they have to put in an 180 extra unpaid hours every year, according to a survey from Printerland. British workers spend on average, an extra 44 minutes every week – that’s 36 hours annually – checking emails, answering phone calls and completing other tasks outside their contracted hours. Over 51 hours a year are spent working late, with two thirds (63 percent) of staff still in the office after hours at least once a week, while 6 percent never go home on time. Many employees are also dining ‘al desko’, with average through lunchtime 2 days a week totalling 93 hours a year, while over half (53 percent) don’t escape the office for the entire day and 16 percent don’t get any screen breaks all day.

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January 30, 2017

One Public Sector Estate programme now includes around three quarters of UK local authorities ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Public Sector, Workplace design

The UK Government’s groundbreaking One Public Sector Estate (OPE) project now includes around three quarters of the country’s local authorities following the announcement that a further 79 councils will join the programme. One Public Estate is a national programme jointly run by the Cabinet Office Government Property Unit and the Local Government Association (LGA). It supports joint working across central and local government to release land and property and boost economic growth, regeneration and integrated public services. It encourages public sector partners to share buildings, transform services, reduce running costs, and release surplus and under-used land for development. Partnerships joining the programme will receive funding and practical and technical support to unblock barriers and deliver ambitious ‘transformational projects’.

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January 24, 2017

The impact of technology on corporate real estate: A Panglossian future? ⁰

by Antony Slumbers • Features, Property, Technology, Workplace design

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the concept of Loss Aversion in 1984, highlighting people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. Lose £100 and we will feel a remorse that easily outweighs winning £100. In a similar fashion we find it very hard to see future positives when confronted with short term loses. We understand easily what we have lost but cannot imagine what there is to be gained. Furthermore, as Frederic Bastiat wrote in an 1850 paper, “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen”, man has a tendency to “pursue a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, rather than a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil”. Put these together and it is no wonder that, by and large, the future of work, corporate real estate and the workplace is so widely misunderstood.

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January 23, 2017

Barcelona’s iconic tower deserted by tenants who see it as impractical and ‘bad luck’ ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Facilities management, News, Property

Visitors to Barcelona may still see Jean Nouvel’s iconic, phallic Agbar Tower as a welcome sight on the city’s skyline, but the building is less loved by its owners and tenants according to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais. Inaugurated in 2005, the 34-storey skyscraper has been sold twice in three years as tenants have vacated and plans drawn up to either refurbish it or turn it into a hotel. The latest plan from new owners Merlin Properties is to spend €13 million on a refurbishment that will include a multi-occupier space for companies working in Barcelona’s thriving tech sector, centred on the Innovation District that is home to the Torre Agbar. The refurb aims to deal with the most common complaints from previous tenants which, according to the report, include a dysfunctional doughnut shaped layout, poor sightlines, inappropriate location, small windows with no view, inadequate shutters and an unwillingness to work in a building with such an overwhelming brand identity. Image: Ralf Roletschek