The first is the rise of the pod - panacea or problem?

According to the CBRE, employees on the hunt for a quiet corner to take refuge from the sensory overload of the office and actually get down to some work rank access to focused working space like a pod higher than a private office - The ￡30 billion Opportunity: Why Office Pods Are the Future of Work.

Office providers are keen to oblige, as a pod works out over 33% cheaper than building an on-site meeting room is up to 33.5% rising to 65% saving in New York City.

No wonder the cubicle and partition sector is on the march, worth over $6,308 million in 2023 and set to rise to over $9,619 million in 2031 - Cubicles and Partition Market.

I counted over 12 stands boasting variations on a phone booth with impressive demonstrations of sound insulation inside and out.

But although at first glance they seem to offer a quick, cheap and flexible solution to the problem of finding a quiet corner to focus in a busy office, most of the solo pods I saw looked unappealing to me, let alone for a neurodiverse and ageing workforce, elegantly described in?PAS 6463:2022.

Classified as a?‘room being used for lectures, meetings and similar purposes', the pod is excluded from the?Health and Safety Executive requirements for a minimum of 11sq meters per person?How much space am I entitled to at work?? As an estimated 12.5% of us suffer from?Claustrophobia. at the best of times, these solo boxes that average just 10m2 and just over 2 meters high are likely to increase rather than reduce levels of stress for many.

The sheer physical task of getting into these stylish solo boxes with full-height glazed doors with invisible handles and a threshold step is a challenge for anyone outside the ‘norm’: taller, smaller, wider, heavier or pregnant people, those with vision, upper body, mobility or balance concerns.

These issues are compounded by the ergonomics of the interior space itself: the shelf or ledge provided for your laptop are often narrow and fixed, with such a short distance from the front wall to the back that it is impossible to create a comfortable distance between your eyes and the screen, let alone the keyboard or a mouse leaving even the most able-bodied of us peering down into a screen with shoulders hunched and notebook balanced on our knees.

When it comes to the lighting, pods are not specifically mentioned in the lighting standards EN12464-1 which recommend 500 lux on the task for general office work. The standard goes beyond brightness to specify distribution, contrast, colour rendering and glare. Trilux offers an excellent guide -?PHOTOMETRIC REQUIREMENTS ACCORDING TO EN 12464-1.

All the models I saw with delivered sub-domestic light levels with no personal control beyond a PIR sensor, one notable exception. Most used a single linear, mini-spotlights or circular fitting from above, casting unflattering shadows and flare on a video call and distracting reflections on a screen, compounded by the glazed side walls and potential glare from windows with no options for shading beyond curtains in some models.

These fall well short of BSI PAS 6463:2022 that recommends shades to control daylight and outside views, providing variety of artificial lights and personal control including dimmers and colour tuning.

Worryingly, pods aren’t covered in the emergency lighting standards either s (BSI 5266-1:2016 to be read in conjunction with?BS EN 1838?and BS EN 50172). Even a toilet cubicle over 8m2 should be considered for emergency lighting provision, with standby lighting controlled with a separate power supply. 299Lighting offers an excellent overview of the regulations in their blog here -?Workplace Lighting Rugulations.

This exception leaves other loopholes too as WeWork found to their cost as they urgently withdrew over 2,300 pods due to elevated levels of formaldehyde in 2018 -?WeWork shuts 2,300 office phone booths over health scare.

Pods may look cool - and offer a cheap solution - but they may not be the silver (silent) bullet and may even turn out to be a false economy.