Broadening the Debate – the great to WFH or not dilemma?
As the 2020 lockdown prevented us from having a ‘Where is My Office? ‘book launch first time round, we wanted to make up for the lack of a proper launch, by hosting an event with a difference. Little did we realise what would happen if you put 30 people on a bus and got them talking about remote working and the future of offices. It generated a great discussion, but this was not the end of the affair! On their arrival at their destination, they were joined by another 60+ people for a wider debate as we all searched for an answer to Where is My Office now?
Having participated in plenty of banter across the property/workplace industry we were curious to test the public’s appetite for a serious look at the future of office work, the knock-on effects on real estate and cities. Maybe they were tiring of all the press headlines about the need to return to the office (RTO), the arrival of the four-day week, the explosion of hybrid working, the large swathes of empty offices across the world? Given all the other significant events taking in the world today one might be forgiven for thinking that the future of the office might not be as significant as we assumed, however our little experiment proved otherwise.
Using our family and friends plus a range of wider business contacts from the worlds of banking, healthcare, HR, law, marketing, media, film, technology, sport and shipping, to name but a few; we ended up with a room packed to the rafters for our version of a BBC Question Time debate. What was scheduled for 30 minutes ran for over an hour and chair for the event, veteran BBC news anchor Simon McCoy remarked; that the discussion could have gone on all night!
To cope with all the questions raised Simon chaired a panel which included Eugenia and myself, along with our friend Luis Castro e Canto aka the ‘unstoppable crazy cripple’ and Tim Oldman, the CEO of Leesman Index. Looking back at the nature of the discussion it soon became clear that we would have no shortage of material to discuss, and it was also helpful to hear what the public really think about the world of office work post pandemic and what this might mean for offices. We’re going to delve into these matters in greater detail in future blogposts but here are some headlines.
The public whether young or old are genuinely interested in the future of office work and what this means for offices.
The level of engagement from both young and old in the audience was palpable and at times people were clamouring to air their questions. One of the most telling being: “what is my office?” This was raised by a professor of psychology from Cambridge University. At the other end of the spectrum we had a somewhat anxious parent wondering what sort of job his 13 year old child might aspire to? It was also interesting to get the views of young professionals as they aired their opinions about being in the office or not. Their main concern was how they might access learning, mentoring and networking within their organisations when most of the more established colleagues were WFH for most of the working week. Having an expert in DE&I on the panel reminded us that the ability to work anywhere opens up a lot of new opportunity for those with disabilities. In the old world they would have had to travel to the office and this excluded many from gainful employment and wider working opportunities.
There is no going back to life pre Covid this is a global phenomena with a variety of implications
The audience response to Simon asking if they would go back to office life, as it was pre-Covid was telling, not one hand went up! However, the implications are far ranging and have had different outcomes for cities across the world. As we had people from a wide range of backgrounds we heard about Canary Wharf emptying out as many of the big corporations were leaving, Toronto’s CBD was so empty that females no longer felt safe at 5:30pm and how workers in New Delhi are coping with their ability to work differently. One thing everyone agreed on is that there will not be one common solution that emerges to deal with the outcome of different ways of working – it will be more like a patchwork quilt of options.
Business is trying out a wide range of permutations for a new model of work as more and more people now realise that the one- size- fits- all model is over.
It was interesting to note a common theme from the questions there is a growing interest in how ‘purpose’ fits into the overall work model. Furthermore staff now realise that the ‘commute had to be earned’ whereas in pre-Covid times travelling to a fixed place of work was taken for granted. All of which has huge implications for business and for managers,if they wish to be seen as an employer of choice they will have to offer a new model of work. One which is tailored to maintain sensible levels of staff attraction and retention. The implications are also significant for commercial real estate. As an industry we will have to invest in better understanding what is it is an employee wants as this now directly correlates with demand for space. It is now all about the workplace experience.
All of the above merit far more commentary than what can be squeezed into a blogpost and over the weeks ahead we’re going to try to put some more flesh on the bones of these and other insights uncovered from this exercise. It was a great night to celebrate the launch of the post pandemic edition of ‘Where Is My Office?’ as it also helped us to better understand a range of wider perspectives on how the public at large and business leaders view the situation. It also provided us with a rich banquet of food for thought.