Thom Brown Pop-Up. Le Bon Marche, Paris.
By Luis F Rueda and John Michael O’Sullivan
Lockdown has proved that remote working doesn’t decrease productivity. As a result, companies across the world are re-thinking the need for conventional workspaces. So what will the office of the future look like?
In early March, when the pandemic forced us into lockdown, workers across the world transitioned to working from home — and for managers and business owners, maintaining productivity became a burning concern. Prior to that, most employers tended to oppose the idea or remote working, fearful that distractions at home would impact on productivity.
That was in March. Three months on, however, studies are proving the opposite. Forbes recently reported on the results of a survey carried out by Prodoscore, which showed a 47% increase in worker productivity.
One reason, without doubt, is the fact that time typically spent commuting to and from work — on average, anywhere between 2 to 4 hours a day — is being used to tackle work tasks instead. But the key factor is that workers are now equipped with the tools, technology, connections, and infrastructure needed in order to continue producing while away from the familiar office set-up.
From workplace to work platforms
This shift has clearly been triggered by lockdown. But according to Daniel Pink, author of several books on business and human behaviour, it’s accelerated a trend that’s been in existence for some time. And it’s highlighted how conventional our workspaces are, for the most part, based on principles largely unchanged for decades.
We ride or drive from home to office, sit at ‘our’ desks, have regularised breaks and follow Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 schedules just as our parents and grandparents did. But we can do things they could never have imagined, thanks to the Internet; bounce ideas off each other via Teams, have water cooler conversations in WhatsApp groups, host seminars on Webex, share mood boards over Pinterest, and socialise on Zoom. Technology liberated us years ago, it turns out; we just hadn’t noticed. And perhaps it was the straitjacket of office space, and office routines, that were holding us back all this time.
Now, we’re facing a future where employees have proved that remote working can drive increased productivity, and where the COVID 19 virus — which ignited this conversation — is still spreading. Add to this the costs of rent on office space currently going unused, and you have a paradigm that is begging for reassessment.
From headquarters to work hubs.
In this changed landscape, it’s likely that we’ll continue working from home. Instead of centralised, congested corporate offices, it may well be that companies start to operate from smaller, office hubs, anchored by meeting spaces fitted out with state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment, capable of hosting both physical and online conferences with clients and other team members. These meeting spaces would be complemented by accessible, well-ventilated communal spaces, designed to support work for the shortened periods of time when workers need to be on site. Using digital tools, employees would be able to remotely book access to a desk or a conference room in the office hub.
The pre-pandemic rise of hot-desking and co-working spaces had already begun the task of shaking up the world of work. The emphasis now, though, at least in the short term, will be more on hygiene, including air purification, and on essential services rather than on headline-grabbing amenities.
But in this vision of a new work order, we can’t neglect the importance of aesthetics. Design will remain a vital force, deployed to enhance camaraderie, morale, and productivity with environments that deliver a sensorial, soothing, and reassuring experience, which allow us the chance to get back to real-world connections with our colleagues and with the company’s mission. And just as we look to bring audiences back to all other aspects of public life - retail, hospitality, wellbeing, travel - we should look towards the positive; celebrating the new opportunities, new strategies and new formats that this shift in how we work, and live will provide.