Office workers will look back at 2020
as something of a tipping point
in the world of work.
Largely, workers proved
to their employers
that they could get their
jobs done from home.
So what does the future hold
for the office?
80% of people who worked from home
during the lockdown
say they'd like to continue
working at least one day from home
in the future.
Meanwhile two out of three of us
say that we're longing to return
to the office in some form.
In other words, we want to
have our cake and eat it.
We want the best parts of the office
and the best parts
of working from home.
The workplace property expert
Antony Slumbers
said no firm ever wanted an office,
they wanted productive employees
and the office was just one way
to create that.
Over the last few years,
many companies had moved
to open-plan offices.
Well the promise was that
we would be let loose
in vast workplace savannahs,
free to meet
and bounce ideas off each other.
In fact, open-plan offices
tended to make us feel
like we were constantly interrupted
and unable to get anything done.
We've realised offices
are good for some things.
The office had something called
'a network effect'.
So it's chance encounters,
bumping into colleagues
and sharing thoughts just casually,
that we're finding
so difficult to replace.
And there seems to be some
pretty good evidence
that our best 'aha' moments happen
in these chance encounters.
Professor Sandy Pentland from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
says the reason why these
conversations are so effective
is that these are the moments
that we don't find ourselves
supervised by our bosses,
we feel free to have
honest discussions.
So if the office was good
for a few things
and the top one -
chatting to colleagues -
is the one we're
struggling to replace,
what's the answer?
Maybe your firm will join something
that's starting to be called
the TW and T Revolution,
where workers work from the office on
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
but from home on Mondays and Fridays.
And no doubt, in time, someone will
come with a catchy name
for people who work like this.
Other firms are being
still more adventurous,
saying they want to free up workers
to do their work
whenever they feel most productive.
They're adopting what's being known
as asynchronous working.
When we do something synchronously
it means we're coordinated in time,
like the swimmers at the Olympics.
Asynchronous work says,
'how about we allow people
to give their feedback or their ideas
whenever they're feeling
most inspired?'
Companies who do this
say it allows workers the flexibility
to take their kids to school
or even do leisure activities
and this is what the asynchronous
working firms believe
will attract the best workers
to come to work for them.
Expect to hear a lot more
of the word 'hybrid'.
At the more adventurous end
of hybrid,
some firms are even talking about
only getting their employees together
one week a quarter.
Meaning that, almost certainly,
they don't need an office.
...for many office workers,
the era of getting up every day
and going to the same place
seems to be a thing of the past.
And the question is...
... will you miss it?
