06. The Metaverse, Disney + the new work week
Welcome to my newsletter?#WRKPLC ?which will be published every 2 weeks. This is where I will share my thoughts on interesting headlines and emerging topics in the news, plus cool office designs and opinion pieces. If you don't get a lot of time to keep up with the news,?#WRKPLC ?will do the heavy lifting for you.
FUTURE WORKPLACE/ Will your office be in the Metaverse?
The Metaverse may be one of the most overused words in the tech and business world right now and, despite its apparent popularity, still doesn’t actually exist. But as our dependency on the virtual world increases, there could be some exciting developments which affect our daily lives.
The idea of creating a virtual universe to be used by employees is frequently raised as the next big thing in workplace. One point raised, which I found particularly poignant, by chief exec of Improbable was around why we would recreate our offices in the Metaverse. “The whole point of creative spaces in new realities is to expand our experiences, not to simply replicate what we've already had in the real world.” Either way, it’s a fascinating prospect and you can read the full article on BBC here.
REMOTE WORKING / Tuesday-Thursday is new ‘work week’
According to a new anonymous study tracking mobile phone usage on the high street from 2019-2022, the increased activity in the suburbs and coastal towns is being linked to increased working from home.
There is no denying that we aren’t going back to how things were pre COVID and there is plenty of data support reduced occupancy in the office on a Friday. Flexibility stills reigns supreme and this has elevated the opportunity to work from locations outside of the office. I think we could see polarising approaches to time in the office this year with some companies embracing more flexibility and others rejecting it completely.
RETURN TO WORK / Disney CEO recalls hybrid workers
It turns out that Disney CEO Bob Iger is not seeing the magic of remote working as he recently announced that all hybrid employees were to return to the office four days a week from March 1st.
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In a communication to employees, Iger wrote “As I’ve been meeting with teams throughout the company over the past few months, I’ve been reminded of the tremendous value in being together with the people you work with.”?And it seems like this is starting to become more commonplace among companies of this scale. In the past year we have seen 苹果 , Tesla , Twitter and most recently grocery delivery giant Getir all mandate a return to the office, ranging from 2-3 days per week in the office.
It's a bit of slippery slope when you get into forced returns to the office as it comes with a long list of kickbacks and disgruntlement which are totally understandable. If companies can get the balance right between getting staff back in the office and doing it without forcing them in on specific days then they could be big winners in establishing the future workplace.
?FUTURE OF WORK / 2023 – The year of ROI in the workplace
Inflation, rising interest rates and slowing global growth have all combined to set a turbulent atmosphere in the business world. As companies look to pair back their spending and track the value of their investment more closely, ROI will be a big focus in 2023.
Budgets, data in the workplace and culture are all highlighted by Forbes in this piece and it raises a lot of interesting questions. Naturally, office space will need to provide ROI and the trend of downsizing and refurbishing is likely to continue but there are other factors which will need to be scrutinised to get the most out of workplaces.
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