Chris Kane and Eugenia Anastassiou on Where is My Office: The Post-Pandemic Edition

We spoke to Chris Kane and Eugenia A. , co-authors of Where Is My Office?: The Post-Pandemic Edition an examination of the future of our workspaces and how the pandemic will continue to shape how and where we work.

You finished writing the first edition of Where is My Office? in January 2020. Almost three years later, we’re publishing The Post-Pandemic Edition. What’s changed for workplaces since then?

Sadly, it took a global pandemic to accelerate the slowly evolving movement away from the traditional office-based, paper-pushing ways of working, which was prevalent pre-lockdown, to universally accepting that technology can enable knowledge work to be done productively and effectively, anytime, anyplace, anywhere – which was the premise of the original book. Undoubtedly, the pandemic lockdowns up-ended and completely re-shaped the workplace in an unprecedented manner. Furthermore the transformation was global with everyone experiencing the seismic shifts in the working landscape at the same time. This total disruption impacts every working person, whether they are business leaders, middle management or at the most junior level; and by extension has unleashed a Pandora’s box of challenges for organisations occupying office buildings, landlords and the commercial property industry alike. Most office workers experienced Working From Home (WFH) during lockdown and most found incorporating a measure of flexibility into their working lives was beneficial. It’s inevitable that most people are now questioning the need to commute to a downtown central HQ just to send emails and appraise reports. This has led to a huge focus in the need for new models of working. Whilst the office is not quite dead yet, its role in the emerging post-pandemic world of work needs to be reconsidered and reimagined.

These changes will undoubtedly affect everyone differently. How will the needs and expectations of a Gen-Z worker new to the workforce differ from somebody who’s happily spent the last 40 years commuting to an office?

The needs and expectations of work now go beyond the constraints of how each generation is affected by changes in the way we work - we could see that during lockdown. The older working, ‘commuter’ generation were generally more content with WFH. They had already built up their business networks and relationships over the years; for most of them, it was a question of brushing up their digital skills. Conversely, younger cohorts of workers felt more negatively impacted by enforced remote working. Once Covid restrictions eased, younger people could not wait to get back to their workplaces/offices – they missed face-to-face networking, their mentoring opportunities, real-time training and socialising with colleagues. As blended and hybrid working will become more widespread, individual choices and needs will become drivers in how we work. Equally, it must be accepted that various stages of our lives have different demands. Many people are realising that their working life will not be linear like the traditional ‘jobs for life ‘career path and there will be a greater demand for portfolio careers to fit in with the different phases of their lives. This encompasses the whole generational gamut from employees of all ages dealing with caring for children and/or elderly relatives, or taking time out to travel and study. Additionally, as new technologies are entering the workplace which require different types of skill sets, the work lifecycle will also have to include more training/upskilling as roles change to accommodate newer technological advances.

There’s a lot of talk just now about incentivising the office for workers. In your view, is this the correct strategy – or should companies be rethinking the traditional office experience altogether?

Many organisations are going down the route of offering incentives, such as free breakfast, gym memberships and swish socialization areas to attract their workforces back to the office. However, these perks are not always the key to fostering a supportive organisational culture. Giving employees an opportunity to shape what an organisation’s return-to-the-office and WFH policies should look like conveys trust and values their capabilities. More useful perks like increased sick leave or paid time-off, childcare benefits, wellbeing incentives and employee assistance programs would go a long way rather than free pizza and and state-of-the-art break out areas. This also includes setting up staff to access more distributed options such as ‘third space’ work hubs or co-working spaces nearer their homes. In this way that they can easily manage when they need to meet up with colleagues and team members for all-important collaboration and networking, whilst also avoiding having to do a time-wasting, environmentally unfriendly, long commute to a central office on a regular basis.

Many people see increased flexibility in where and how we work as a bonus. Is this always the case – for organisations, and individuals?

Flexibility was already a feature in the workplace before the global lockdowns: even 20 years ago, people were putting flexibility and personal development as a preference, above salary. Since the onset of efficient, high-speed internet and mobile-data connectivity, effective cloud-based services and improved cyber-security we have all been working flexibly and productively in tandem with going about our daily lives – taking calls, writing emails, viewing reports, etc. on our lunch breaks, walking in the park, on the school run, on a beach - so even pre-pandemic we were working flexibly and not necessarily in a fixed location. The difference now post-pandemic is that many companies are dealing with the so-called ‘new normal’ of hybrid or flexible working for the first time at an institutional level. One major challenge for organisations is managing different cohorts of workers distributed around offices, work hubs or WFH with wide-ranging work style demands. Another issue is engaging with the organisation and fostering company culture as people work in multiple locations. Experiences may be lost due to people working remotely and not easily accessing learning, mentorship and the creative/networking aspects of coming together for work. There is also the great ‘office/remote’ divide of whether employees who show up to the office are favoured for promotion and pay rises versus those who prefer remote working options being disadvantaged by their more flexible choices. This indicates that a more tailored, nuanced approach is required to make hybrid/flexible work in a better way.

Finally, who will Where is My Office?: The Post-Pandemic Edition appeal to? Will readers who enjoyed the original edition benefit from this one too?

The revised edition of Where Is My Office? is all about helping readers to navigate the prevailing post-pandemic uncertainty by getting them to think differently about how we work today and our relationship with our places of work beyond the fixed confines of the office. The book is also a clarion call for the commercial real estate industry to break down conventional silos and join the dots between property, people, the planet and technology; to rethink its operating model and reframe its offer to its core customer – the tenant organisations and their employees in their buildings. Hopefully, this will enable them to create multi-dimensional workplaces, that inspire employee engagement, foster creativity, increase productivity and create both enterprise and social value.? In a nutshell, the industry will have to get into the customer service business and provide space as a service, not just boxes! Whether you are a developer, designer, builder or occupier, a business leader, manager or an employee, or even anyone wishing to influence our future work environments, it is mission critical that together we need to find a way to address workplace challenges. None of us have experienced this level of ambiguity in the work domain, and we all need to seek fresh perspectives in order to navigate our present-day working dilemmas.

Where is My Office: The Post-Pandemic Edition is out now .