Another week, another ‘Wave’ ???

5 news items from the world of work and workplace you can digest in 5 minutes.

This week:

1. Coworking thrives as employers cut real estate footprints & create hybrid models
2. The return-to-office movement lost its momentum this year
3. 'Fake flexibility' is forcing working people out of work

Resimmercial Offices: Three design firms offer a glimpse into the future of office design, exploring how technology plays a critical role in the modern workplace. “We’re in the office for a reason. We’re here to do something we cannot do on our own,” Dani Arps, co-CEO and head of design at Artisan said, speaking of the office’s role in the age of hybrid work. “One of the very few benefits of COVID was that we realized there’s a better way to work where we’re more balanced.” Arps’s articulation of forward-looking workplace design leans into the trend towards “resimmercial” spaces, where one can “feel at home, but at work.” Designed to feel like “a dining room that functions as a conference room,” a warm and inviting color story, wall treatments that offer a texturally tasteful approach to acoustic dampening, and comfortable seating all contribute to an environment that’s more convivial than soul-crushing. “Technology is really at the forefront… and modularity in a space is also top of mind,” she observed. “This idea of flexibility aligned with technology is one of the biggest ways that I see office design evolving.” Read Full Article.

Survive & Thrive: In the wake of WeWork’s downfall, the office-sharing concept looks poised to survive and even thrive as employers cut their real estate footprints and cope with workforces that have settled into remote and hybrid models. Workers who appreciate the flexibility of working where they want use coworking as a way to avoid commutes, assemble smaller teams in one place, enjoy office-style amenities, and be away from home while staying close to their neighborhood. New spaces are moving in to fill the post-pandemic void and other established companies — albeit much smaller than WeWork — and are growing. Ryan Masiello, a chief strategy officer at commercial real estate technology platform VTS, said what’s happened with WeWork has probably clouded the reality of what’s happening with coworking. “What’s happening with WeWork is pretty disconnected from what’s happening with the rest of the industry. Coworking is a segment of the real estate market that has become more important than ever, because remote work is here to stay and a lot of companies need an answer for how to get people together with a more flexible arrangement. For that reason alone, I think that there’s a lot of operators, both big and small, that are actually doing quite well and are growing and have high occupancy which is great news for the industry.” Read Full Article.?

Discover Peru: Peru has joined the growing list of countries offering a digital nomad visa, becoming the sixth South American state to do so, alongside Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador. The visa will enable remote workers to live in Peru for up to a year, with the potential to extend their stay. Currently, visitors can stay there for up to 183 days on a tourist visa, but the hope is that the potential to stay longer and work will attract professionals who also visit tourist areas and support the economy. What’s more, the capital of Lima has a growing digital nomad scene, and you can see why. It’s a coastal city, surrounded by stunning countryside and full of archeological sites, but also a whole host of brilliant museums and exceptional food and drink. Pisco sour please! Read Full Article.

Irrevocably Ingrained: The return-to-office movement lost its momentum this year, reports The Messenger. The recurring survey run by Stanford and MIT suggests hybrid and remote work will just be a fact of life — forever. A fairly steady month-by-month decline in remote work since the spike at the start of the pandemic has stopped, with people spending roughly 28% of their work time at home throughout the first 10 months of this year, the survey shows. The flatlining suggests that working from home — or remotely — has become irrevocably ingrained in workplace culture. About 30% of full-time employees have a hybrid arrangement where they split their time between home and office and another 12% are fully remote, the survey shows. In fact, this year’s trendline — corroborated by the same researchers’ analysis of the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse survey and the general trajectory in office occupancies — has one of the Stanford professors involved making a fairly bold declaration. “Return to the Office is dead,” Stanford’s Nick Bloom wrote on X, calling work-from-home levels “flat as a pancake.” Read Full Article.?

Fake Flexibility: 'Fake flexibility' is forcing working mums out of work, reports Yahoo Finance. Research shows more companies are overstating just how flexible they really are. But why? Flexibility is a top priority among jobseekers, so more companies are trying to appeal to this growing preference. And women - namely, mothers - are paying the price. According to recent research by the Fawcett Society, a quarter of a million mothers with young children have left their jobs because of a lack of flexible working arrangements, soaring childcare costs and outdated attitudes towards motherhood. “Fake flexibility is a real thing - companies talk flex, and then when you get to the company meetings start at 9am on the dot and people stay until 5.30pm,” says Sarah Taylor Phillips, career coach at Career Voyage. As well as trying to draw in talent with false promises of flexibility, businesses are able to take advantage of the vagueness of the term ‘flexible work’. It’s easy to be non-committal about what kind of arrangement is on offer - and to then turn down requests on this basis. Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO & Founder of the flexible job-seekers site Flexa, says: “Companies may claim to offer flexible working on job adverts, but are under no obligation to offer it in practice. This makes it nearly impossible for job seekers to determine which employers will genuinely accommodate their requests for flexible work.” Read Full Article.