July 19, 2021
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of employees in the UK have admitted they get so many distractions and message notifications during work that it’s affecting their productivity. This is according to new research from Advanced which also claims 22 percent have so many distractions that their working day is never spent fully on actual work. (more…)
July 8, 2021
The new UK Cities Climate Investment Commission begins work to identify Green Investment opportunities across UK Cities. Cities, investment and innovation experts have launched a Commission which begins the process of identifying a transformational programme of Green Growth for the UK’s cities. (more…)
July 2, 2021
The new issue of IN Magazine is now available to read online. The print edition will be sent out next week. In this issue, amongst other things: Joanna Knight in conversation with Georgia Elliott-Smith on the harsh realities of workplace sustainability; Chris Kane and Eugenia Anastassiou on cutting through the workplace chatter; commentary from Guenaelle Watson, Will Easton and José Alberto Rodriguez Ruiz; Rob Harris on the new age of networks; the history and future of biophilic design; a look at the new workplace utopias; Louis Wustemann on the need to focus on people, not places; Sara Bean on the experiential workplace; Helen Parton visits the new office of Paymentsense; and much more. (more…)
June 18, 2021
Paradoxically, more in-person work environments and the concentration of jobs in cities could be a medium- to long-term impact of the pandemic’s shift to remote working, suggests Citi GPS Technology at Work: The Coming of the Post-Production Society, a report produced by Citi and the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. The report cites the automation of manufacturing and clerical tasks alongside the potential for professional services jobs that can be done remotely to be done cheaper overseas as the start of a foundational shift in developed economies. The future of work in these countries, it suggests, could be based largely on innovation, exploration and creative thinking which require face-to-face interaction and geographic proximity. (more…)
June 15, 2021
Women’s average working hours have taken a far smaller hit during the pandemic than men’s, with women who do not have children now working longer hours than ever before – in marked contrast to predictions of a ‘shecession’ at the start of the pandemic, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation. (more…)
June 6, 2021
Occupiers and landlords of commercial property should partner on a path towards full economic reopening by taking decisive action to address commercial rent challenges, says the CBI. The CBI believes commercial property tenants should resume paying rents as normal when emergency coronavirus legislation protecting businesses from evictions and statutory demands ends on June 30, except in cases of extreme financial difficulty caused by this year’s lockdown measures. (more…)
May 20, 2021
Organisations and businesses have a lot to contend with as they begin to reopen their offices. From social distancing, working from home policies, office layouts, hand gel stations and more. But there also remains one key issue when it comes to welcoming employees back to the office. And that’s how they will get to work in the first place. That’s because the daily commute is going to look a lot different than it did pre-COVID. Firstly, while many employers and workers see the benefit of meeting in person, the hybrid world we now live in will see workers commuting to the office far less frequently. And, if they do travel to the office, there is an element of hesitancy about how they will get there; a recent study revealed 60 percent that ‘post pandemic’ commuting say hybrid working has reduced stress from not having to commute daily. (more…)
May 17, 2021
Long working hours led to 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016, a 29 per cent increase since 2000, according to the latest estimates by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization published in Environment International today. In what the authors claim is the first global analysis of the loss of life and health associated with working long hours, WHO and ILO estimate that, in 2016, 398 000 people died from stroke and 347,000 from heart disease as a result of having worked at least 55 hours a week. Between 2000 and 2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to long hours increased by 42 percent, and from stroke by 19 percent. (more…)
May 13, 2021
At 6.31 a.m. on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, the UK became the first country in the world to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. Just over five months earlier, I had been deployed to the NHS England and NHS Improvement COVID-19 vaccination programme to help drive the highly complex design and planning needed to bring the nation to this point. My role involved leading the set up and embedding of the Estates, Equipment, Consumables and Logistics workstream. The purpose of this was to establish and combine the new and existing infrastructure required in England to manage the distribution, regulation and administration of multiple vaccines so that all systems would be ready to vaccinate on the ‘go-live’ date. (more…)
The 
June 25, 2021
Trees can’t solve the climate change problem. That’s our job
by Scott Petersen • Comment, Environment, Facilities management