The physical office has become a meeting place for in-person group collaboration and certain kinds of work where presence is required, and for social connection and interaction with colleagues.
Firms are rethinking how they see their office space, why employees will need it, and how they use it. But a lot of this is NOT technology led, but more about purpose and efficiencies.
According to Cisco’s 2022 Global Hybrid Work Study, only around one in four employees say their company is ‘very prepared’ for a hybrid work future. It is clear that there is much work still to be done to embed hybrid work arrangements and bring employers to the same readiness levels as employees.
I advocate for the technology led design, making the space flow well for the person using it. Baking- in the tech and the data security for the tech allows the employee creating the knowledge to be able to flow and not worry about the tools or the connectivity.
All of the grand schemes for office redesign around metaverse, mixed realities and own VR tools are medium term implementations. What is short term is functional use of space towards engagement, with the necessary tech infrastructure for enhanced presence. Too often, I go to work in a space that lacks the basic environment I require to engage. This is beyond the network and the physical conditions and is more about ability to do heads-down work and create without having to multitask to make it happen.
I am writing this at an early hour in a resort hotel on the coast of Portugal during a personal off-site. But that location does not matter – all of the environmental tools are here for me to create. This is not about being a digital nomad but being in a space that allows thoughtful work with comfort and ease. It is a pity that most office environments offer constraint rather than spaces that engage.
Why I have come out here? I find post-pandemic that I require space, light and air to create. I know this sounds a bit new-age, but I like to get out of my everyday location to get a bit creative. But my preference is for nature, green space (thus my love of biophilic design) and places with the ability to reflect. This does not imply luxury, rather space that allows me to move at my own rhythm.
But this Cisco report I mentioned above also talked about the ability for us to disengage from work has become difficult in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras. And I fully understand that, which is why I took myself away to disconnect and reconnect with my ability for deep thought and heads-down creation.
The current office layout rarely offers these kinds of facilities, as the focus is exactly that, creating a facility rather than an environment.
How can firms make a location feels like an enabler rather than a facility? As an economist, I appreciate the efficiency metrics needed to run a facility. But isn’t that the problem that we view the office as a facility?
Not only has the nature of work and the environment changed, but how we view work as a location also has to change. Which is why I moved myself a few hours by air to a location that is making work more enjoyable for a bit.
Bom dia! (Good morning!)