Another week, another ‘Wave’ ???

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

This week:

1. Bosses regret mandated return to office
2. London’s biggest office owner uses HQ as AI guinea pig
3. 89% of U.S. workers support four-day workweek, remote or hybrid work

RTO Regret: Most bosses regret their approach to return to the office mandates, blaming? lack of data for their approach, reports Yahoo Finance . 80% of bosses told workplace software firm Envoy had they had a better grasp on actual employee preferences, they would have taken a starkly different approach to their return-to-office plans. Over half of managers said they had to forgo making a critical decision about the workplace because they lacked the requisite data to support it. Nearly a quarter of them admit to making decisions based on “gut instinct,” which naturally lead to resentment and disappointment. 57% said if they had better access to data, they could better measure the success of their in-office policies. One recent example is 亚马逊 , whose RTO plan was admittedly prompted by the feelings of senior leadership, not hard data. “It’s time to disagree and commit. We’re here, we’re back—it’s working,”? senior vice president, Mike Hopkins , reportedly said of in-person work. “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.” Read Full Article.

AI Guinea Pig: London’s biggest office owner Landsec uses its HQ as an AI guinea pig, reports Bisnow . The objective is to see if it can be used to help the building use less energy while saving carbon and money. If the experiment at its 50,000 sq headquarters proves successful, Landsec is considering rolling it out across its portfolio, which totals ￡10.2B. “The beauty of AI is that everything is automated [and] based on internal and external factors, and that means we can take decisions and undertake actions far more efficiently,” said Landsec Senior Energy Manager Andy Mazzucchelli . “A person would have to analyze the data, spot an opportunity, discuss that internally, and then someone has to actually go and implement that decision. With AI, that is all autonomous.” Landsec has committed to spending ￡135M over the next seven years to reduce the operational carbon emissions of its portfolio. Read Full Article.

The Majority Vote: An overwhelming majority (89%) of the U.S. adult workforce support a four-day workweek, remote work, or hybrid work, according to a new Bankrate study. What’s more, full-time workers are willing to make big changes for that flexibility: 51% of those looking for a four-day week, remote work, or hybrid work would switch jobs or even industries to have at least one of those options. Though the U.S. job market is cooling, it’s remained stable, as of a July 2023 Bankrate Economic Indicator poll. With the workforce’s preferences changing, it’s up to employers to decide the next move. “Given the continued high number of job openings in the U.S., employers who have the flexibility to accommodate evolving preferences for working conditions may gain competitive advances in attracting and retaining talent, particularly among younger and female workers,” said Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst, Mark Hamrick .?Read Full Article.

Digital Workspace: Hype around the metaverse heats up again as flexible workspace operator, Clockwise Offices plans to open a digital campus. With 15 physical flexible workspaces across the UK and Europe, Clockwise COO Alexandra Livesey stated the company’s metaverse office will operate much like its physical spaces but on a larger scale — free from the restrictions of square footage and physical building limitations. The ‘Clockwise Campus’, set to launch in Autumn 2023, will include dedicated meeting rooms, desk spaces, breakout spaces, and call zones.?Read Full Article.

Executive Nostalgia: Many big bosses want their employees back in the office ASAP, arguing that sharing a physical workplace makes them more creative and productive. But is that impulse based on good evidence? CEOs love data but when it comes to remote work, the chatter in the C-Suite often sounds more like opinion than fact. Brian Elliott , who previously led Slack ’s Future Forum research consortium said many CEOs still have “executive nostalgia” about a model that worked for them years ago. “There’s still this big CEO echo chamber aspect of it,” he says. Jonathan Levav , a Stanford University Graduate School of Business professor was surprised by the angry responses he got from remote-work adherents. “It’s become a religious belief rather than a thoughtful discussion,” he says. With that in mind, Forbes spoke with academic researchers, corporate advisers and business executives to identify what existing data says regarding how remote work really works. Says Head of Team Anywhere, Annie Dean at Atlassian said, “For whatever reason, we keep making where we work the lightning rod, when how we work is the thing that is in crisis.” Read Full Article.