February 23, 2024

Rejection of flexible working request shouldn’t blind employers to their legal duties

by Amy Leech • Comment, Flexible working

Flexible working has continued in many workforces since the pandemic. The most common pattern is a hybrid one where employees split their time between the office and home. However some employees are now looking to work remotely on a permanent basis. This is what happened in Wilson v Financial Conduct Authority 2302739/2023. The Claimant submitted a flexible working application requesting to work entirely remotely using her computer and other electronic equipment and to complete all her work without attending a physical office location. The Respondent’s policy was that post-pandemic, the Claimant was expected to work in the office 40 percent of the time and could work the other 60 percent remotely. (more…)

February 21, 2024

Leaders who vanish in times of crisis increase stress and likelihood of burnout

by Neil Franklin • Business, News

Leaders who are not present during a time of organisational crisis increase workers’ stress levels and the likelihood of them burning out, according to new research from a number of UK business schools, including Durham University Business School. The researchers show that when leaders are absent it creates a more toxic workplace, turning workers against management, as well as increasing workers’ stress, levels of absence and even turnover. (more…)

February 15, 2024

MuteBox brings Scandinavian modular office furniture to the UK

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Furniture

MuteBox, a Danish design company providing affordable but high-quality, modular furniture including meeting rooms and phone booths for open office spaces, today announces its expansion into the UK and Ireland. MuteBox designs, manufactures, and sells sustainable, flexible and modular solutions, with a focus on affordability, high-end design and employee satisfaction. MuteBox One, the company’s flagship offering, starts at £4,495. (more…)

February 14, 2024

Changing shape of workplace is creating new opportunities for property market

by Jayne Smith • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

After a challenging environment for commercial real estate in 2023, its fallout provides investors, developers and corporate occupiers with significant opportunities for value creation and transformational organisational change in 2024, says leading property management and investment firm, Colliers (EMEA) in its new market commentary: ‘Engage, activate and accelerate performance: next generation real estate strategies’ [registration]. The report claims that new approaches to the workplace will create new opportunities for the quickest and smartest to adapt. (more…)

February 9, 2024

Sustainable offices attract higher service charges

by Neil Franklin • Environment, Facilities management, News

Office buildings with the highest efficiency and sustainability ratings tend to have higher than average service charges, a report from accountancy and business advisory firm BDO claims. The firm’s latest benchmarking report suggests that offices with an ‘outstanding’ or ‘excellent’ Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) certification had total service charge costs that were 26 percent higher than the other offices it surveyed. Meanwhile, total service charge costs were 6 percent higher for sustainable offices with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A or B compared to all other offices. (more…)

February 7, 2024

Whenever I hear the future of work, I reach for my pistol

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

For years it has been evident that there is no ‘future of work’. There is only a journey with no destination and no single way of not getting to it. That hasn’t stopped people talking about it all endlessly. And each time they have, I’ve reached for my pistol. (more…)

February 7, 2024

60 percent of managers believe luck has played a part in career. Up to 40 percent don’t realise it

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Workplace

Around 60 percent of managers believe that an element of luck has played a significant part in shaping their careers, according to new research by emlyon business school. Respondents stated that this luck typically came through a chance event, which could be positive or negative, but either way had a huge impact on their career. (more…)

February 6, 2024

Revised plans submitted for joint tallest building in Western Europe

by Neil Franklin • Architecture, News, Property

Eric Parry Architects have put forward revised plans for the One Undershaft tower in central London. A planning application for the project was first submitted to the City of London authority in 2016. The revised plans would make it the joint tallest building in the UK. (more…)

February 1, 2024

Underutilised office space? I just can’t be bothered with it

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design

A while ago, Antony Slumbers asked me why I thought firms had never done anything much about the underutilisation of their offices. This was in the first throes of lockdown-driven remote work hysteria, prompted by one of those headlines about how offices being half empty was some signifier of hatred for them.

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January 31, 2024

The three biggest disruptors of our time

by Jennifer Bryan • AI, Business, Comment, Environment, JB, Technology

When we look at the context for change, we many times just look internally at what we think needs to change for whatever reason and then set about making that happen. Rarely do we think about what is going on for the people within the organisation and just how ready they and the organisation itself are for the actual change and the disruptors that underly it. Are there the right people, systems, processes, etc in place to support the change or are there a number of elements that will hinder it? Not to mention the fact there will be a number of external elements that could and will also either help or hinder the change one way or another. (more…)

January 30, 2024

Workplace design and the corrective force of rediscovery

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design

It has become something of a preoccupation of mine to consider why so many of the conversations we hold about workplace design are largely about the rediscovery of old ideas. It may be because there are constants about how people interact with their surroundings and each other and the truisms underlying those interactions. Although these are often reframed by the amount of data we now have to support them, some things never change. (more…)

January 29, 2024

Lab rats – how the UK life sciences sector is struggling to find space to work

by Chris Barlow • Features, Premium Content, Property

In November 2023, plans to turn part of a golf course next to a motorway into a £340 million science park were refused by South Oxfordshire District Council. Although now classified as greenbelt, the location was the site of a landfill as recently as the 1990s and is just a stone’s throw from both the A40 trunk road and M40 motorway. The developers are expected to appeal. Whatever the details of this story, it is an example of how challenging it can be to meet demand for lab and life sciences space in the so-called Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge in the South of England. This lack of supply is acting as a brake on the UK Government’s dream of making the country a “science superpower”. (more…)