Is what you see all there is? The post Covid workplace
Is anyone else’s mind frazzled at all the future of work articles out there? ‘Work from home is the new norm’, ‘socially distant workplaces from now on’, ‘the office is dead’, ‘leased space in CBDs to plummet’…
The conversation takes me back to Daniel Kaneham’s discussion on bias, WYSIATI – What you see, is all there is.
We all have our own collection of experiences and expertise. If you aren’t aware of these it can bias your lens of the situation. If you’ve worked in a terrible open plan office with a two hour commute to work, you are probably loving working from home. If you’re a mum of young kids, you probably can’t wait to get back to the office. Everyone is different.
Really, what is the future of the workplace? I, nor anyone, can tell you.
But I can say with certainty is that it will not be the same for every organisation.
Temporarily, Covid will undoubtedly shift how we work.
For those returning to the office, it will be a strange, uneasy and somewhat sterile experience. With the fumes of cleaning chemicals wafting by you will suddenly realise how many door knobs you have to touch to get to the bathroom, and wonder whether it is safe to be in the meeting room. Did your colleague actually just sneeze in the elevator?
The social benefit of the office has certainly been highlighted in the past few months. Policing yourself and colleagues to maintain distance during social interactions is going to change the whole experience of work. Although it won’t stay like this forever, it will never be quite the same.
One thing I’m happy the experience is highlighting, is the health impact of the office. Covid can be transmitted through air particles. The ventilation of indoor spaces (be that an office, a shop, café, restaurant, aged care centre or school) needs to be prioritised. I certainly would not be working, eating or visiting any spaces that have poor air quality now. This should be a top priority for anyone returning to an office.
Long term, it certainly should make us think about whether the office works
I study the physical environments where people work and study. I’ve looked at many workplaces over the years. I can usually tell within ten minutes of walking through somewhere if it is working or not. There are a few symptoms of poor space, like 80% of people wearing headphones, signs up around the place on etiquette and behaviour, poor connection to nature or daylight, and how sedentary people are in the space.
Some of the biggest issues leading to poor workplace design have been trends and space reduction (or as many refer to it ‘optimisation’).
No more Keeping up with Joneses
Open plan, activity based working, destination workplaces are all trends that have been copied and adapted by different organisations. I have so often heard of a new workplace being inspired by what has been seen elsewhere or in a magazine. Inspiration is fine, as long as it is coupled with an understanding of what your people need in order to complete their work, and what best supports your culture and brand. I feel we have gone too far into creating Instagram pretty offices that don’t serve the needs of users.
Covid has highlighted some interesting (or perhaps ludicrous?) ways about how we work that need to be challenged, such as:
Commuting is awful and a waste of precious time, especially in rush hour
People miss colleagues and interactions, but not continual interruption. Productivity requires quiet space, and deep thinking. Many offices don’t do this well
Working and parenting to align to traditional office hours adds a huge mental and logistical load
Women mostly still take up the caring balance and have been adversely impacted by Covid’s disruption. Flexible, casual or part-time work is often directed at women, or female dominated industries
Working from home is not easy for everyone – do people have good internet access? Are they sharing a house with others? Do they have domestic pressures or even violence? Are they lonely?
The shrinking office
As private offices were replaced with open plan, office spaces have shrunk. For a while people will need more personal space to both meet return-to-work criteria, and to make people feel safe at work. Over time, leased areas will shrink, but this won’t happen overnight. Every organisation needs to consider why people need to be in the office, and what space they need to support them. Is it predominantly for meetings? Is it for work? Could people shift to regional or suburban co-working areas instead of commuting to the CBD? It is an interesting time to peel back the layers and see what are the core needs for your organisation.
Even if there is a vaccine, we need to learn to adapt to Covid to get us through the next 12-24 months. This is the time to walk in the shoes of staff, learn and empathise. We need to wear as many lenses as possible to understand how the post-Covid future of work can be truly inclusive.