Let’s start with one of the biggest topics of 2021 so far, the return to the office. The impact of Covid-19 throughout 2020 and 2021 changed our lives irrevocably in countless ways, it threw everything we knew up in the air and arguably fast forwarded many aspects of our lives and our work by years. We have had great advancement in technology, experienced true flexibility and we proved that we can adapt to survive wherever we are; without question these advancements need to be taken forward. But do we really want to lose what is arguably one of the last remaining institutions? Writing this in mid-2021 it feels like a lot has been lost and squeezed down into a glass fronted screen in front of me – socialising has been squeezed down to an Instagram story; dating has been confined to 5 pictures on an app to be swiped on, collaboration happens on a small box on my screen, and presenting to clients and consultants now happens through a small circular eye on my laptop screen.
But do we really want to lose what is arguably one of our big last institutions?
2019
Before there was even a hint of what devastation the Covid-19 pandemic would cause, the majority of office workers were commuting to their company office to work at their assigned desk. Many companies had flexible working or working from home policies in place, however it could safely be said (and demonstrated by the Northern Line at 8.30am on a Tuesday) that the majority of people were working in offices with similar working patterns.
Commercial office space trends were certainly revolving around wellbeing and already providing great working space to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff. Long gone were the days of slides and pool tables in the offices (so 2010), and by 2019 many high profile companies had offices with great natural daylighting, high quality air systems, planting, breakout spaces for collaboration and more (1). Technology had evolved so that meetings could become virtual with much more ease, improving flexibility and the ability to work from multiple locations and settings.
So in 2019 we knew that a token pool table and bean bag wasn’t going to change much, but what we did have were office football teams, running clubs, BBQ’s, friday drinks, sweepstakes, office wide charity events, bake offs, colleagues who could see that you were having a bad day and might need a coffee and a chat, or someone to go for a celebratory lunchtime pint with – we had community. The type of community that is only found in institutions where people can gather together with a common purpose. Many of us don’t live in villages with a strong community at the core, many don’t attend places of worship as much as we did hundreds of years ago and many don’t even know their neighbours – as an institution, offices provide that community for us.
We had community – the type of community that is only found in institutions where people can gather together with a common purpose.
Early 2020
And then what felt like overnight this was lost. Every office (other than key worker services) were forced to close and ‘adapt or die’. We set up shop on kitchen islands, dining room tables, dressing tables and laughed at the novelty of being able to work whilst wearing pyjamas on the bottom half and a shirt on the top. Articles in the architectural and mainstream press declared ‘this is the death of the office‘ (2) and with the obvious benefits in saving us the daily commute, able to spend much more time with the friends and family you lived with, more time to cook and do laundry and all those things you just never had time to do, it seemed like this really was the future. Technology evolved even faster and soon we were all experts in virtual meetings for both work and play. So the question was raised, why do we need the office if we could all be as productive, and as able to do our jobs without?
Late 2020
The optimism started to wear off, the majority of us realised that actually we missed being with people. We missed the interaction, the collaboration, the socialising with our colleagues even if that’s one day a week or one day a month; it turned out that isolation and socialising through a laptop screen wasn’t very good for our wellbeing after all. The chance encounters and collaboration that happen when we are with other people and in stimulating environments is proven to generate better productivity (3) and companies started to recognise that working in isolation was not sustainable from a health and wellbeing or a productivity viewpoint. To add to that, many of us were never set up to work from home, using laptops at the wrong height, uncomfortable wooden chairs and bad lighting which can all contribute to bad health and wellbeing, and the potential for long term back pain, strain and stress.
Now
Decades before Covid-19 happened, the great Jane Jacobs talks about the importance of community and how to design for that in Death and Life of Great American Cities. How do we design neighbourhoods, streets, parks and housing to ensure that people feel safe, like they belong and that they have a sense of community and ownership?
And that isn’t just applicable to masterplanning, that same concept can be applied to our own business and our own community within that. Bumping into someone at the tea point, small talk whilst you wait for a lift, grabbing a coffee with a colleague you haven’t seen in a while may all feel like trivial things, however they all add up to more than the sum of their parts to make us feel like we belong, and feel human. So let’s embrace flexibility in our offices, bring your baby in, bring your dog in, leave early to pick up your child or meet a long-lost friend for an early dinner, let’s welcome people back into their community and allow them to be human. This is backed up by the research carried out in the human psychology field, that a lack of connection is one of the biggest causes of addiction and poor mental health (4), feeling like you have a purpose and belong to something is one of the biggest things you can do to improve people’s mental and emotional health and wellbeing, and subsequently your business health and prosperity.
To conclude, this change will undoubtedly come from the businesses and leaders in our society, the leaders who recognise that data, numbers and little glass screens have stolen our creativity, innovation and culture, and they will be the ones who lead the charge in this new world of connection, culture, flexibility and ultimately success. And sadly those who don’t will lose their staff to the companies that do.
Let’s embrace flexibility in our offices; bring your baby in, bring your dog in, leave early to pick up your child or meet your long-lost friend for dinner, let’s welcome people back into their community and allow them to be human.
Please drop a comment below if you found this interesting, useful or just wanted to say hi. Look out for the future blog posts which will discuss the latest and most impactful ideas that can help stimulate and encourage the sense of community, wellbeing and culture that we all need in our last great institution – the office.
(1) https://www.re-publicspace.com/workplace-wellbeing-special/
(2) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/07/time-face-facts-office-dead/ (3) https://www.ukgbc.org/ukgbc-work/health-wellbeing-productivity-offices-next-chapter-green-building/ (4) Lost Connections by Johann Hari
Project Wellbeing 