The need for flexible workspaces

The need for flexible workspaces

A newsletter sounds very formal and planned. This is neither. It's intended to be a collection of thoughts and resources for people who are interested in making work and careers better. If that's you, subscribe and let us know if it's a helpful input for your thinking in the comments.

What's on our mind this week

No alt text provided for this image

I was called last week by a journalist about my perspective on the 'death of the office'. At the time, I was in a hotel in Wales about to deliver a virtual Squiggly Career session for a client. The wifi was dicey and I'd had to pair my laptop to the hotspot on my phone, with my fingers crossed that everything worked ok. I'll be honest, a quiet office with reliable wifi felt quite appealing.

Afterwards, I reflected on the headlines I was seeing and the risk of a divided workforce and increasingly divisive narrative about flexible working.

No alt text provided for this image

Personally, I love being in an office. I just don't want to be there all the time. I also love working from home, but I don't want to be there all the time either. What I really want is flexible working in flexible workspaces. I want to be in an office for connection and creativity (as good as virtual tools like Mural and Miro are, innovation feels easier when teams are together). As a small business owner, I want flexible workspace contracts without punitive clauses when my circumstances change (thankfully Adapt has been a great find for our business ... and a safe working environment of course!).

No alt text provided for this image

I want to be able to have informal discussions over coffee and build the 'loose ties' that are so important to our careers and fuel for innovation. In this World Economic Forum article, Carlo Ratti, a director at MIT, talks about the negative implications they are seeing on interactions and ideas as a result of working remotely for an extended period of time.

World Economic Forum Article

In an attempt to build a bridge to a 'new normal', I've heard of some companies introducing a 2:2:1 rule. 2 days in the office, 2 days at home and 1 day where the location is your choice. I understand the need to create certainty for people, but any attempt to 'fix' flexibility seems incongruous to me.

It's not easy and flex is certainly in flux, but I think before organisations bring back people to offices, they need to really think about why the work that happens there is better and how to design the workspaces so it enables the best bits of coming physically together to happen. Deloitte put it well in their recent report "Reimagining the office and work life after COVID-19" which is well worth a read if you're interested in this area.

No alt text provided for this image

Our weekly recommendations to 'read, watch, listen'

No alt text provided for this image
No alt text provided for this image
No alt text provided for this image

Hope this has been a useful read. The aim is to post every Friday. Feedback always welcomed in comments or DM'd.

Helen


Zo? Craik

Engineer (MEng) | Director | New Product Development | Product Management | Launch Campaigns | Connector

4 年

Definite keep from me and I loved the TED Talk too. Thanks!

回复
Zo? Craik

Engineer (MEng) | Director | New Product Development | Product Management | Launch Campaigns | Connector

4 年

Charlotte Nuttall this echos the conversation we have had on this topic. The need for flexibility to be in and out of an office area for collaboration and relationship building. Its going to be interesting to see how this pans out in the long-term.

Chloe Woolger

Senior Commercial Director | Brand & CX | Listed as Top 10 CX Professional by CXM

4 年

Really interesting Helen, and also agree the office is not dead but hopefully all organisations will realise this has just accelerated the need for even more flexibility in where we work, and that what works for some will not work for all. Look forward to more of these.

回复

Great read Helen ??

回复
Arslan Ashraf

Global Marketing Access @ Merck KGaA | Marketing & Communications Expert | Brand Strategist | Digital Media | SEO | Content Marketing | Product Marketing | Masters in Expanded Media @ Hochschule Darmstadt.

4 年

Great article!

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Helen Tupper的更多文章

  • Creating the Squiggly Career Advocate Community

    Creating the Squiggly Career Advocate Community

    A year ago, Sarah and I decided to create a community of 100 squiggly career advocates - a group of people who were…

    17 条评论
  • The making of a mentor

    The making of a mentor

    “Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life. I don’t…

    9 条评论
  • How to get practical about pivots

    How to get practical about pivots

    Arianna Huffington has reframed the ‘great resignation’ that has hit so many headlines as the ‘great re-evaluation’ and…

    3 条评论
  • Summer School Series

    Summer School Series

    In July, Sarah Ellis and I held an Instagram live session every Friday deep-diving into a skill we know helps people…

    7 条评论
  • How do we fix our leaky bucket?

    How do we fix our leaky bucket?

    A few weeks ago, Sarah Ellis and I recorded a podcast on energy and it’s been one of those topics that's been on my…

    25 条评论
  • Performance Conversations vs Career Conversations

    Performance Conversations vs Career Conversations

    I’ve been having a few conversations lately about the difference between performance conversations and career…

    19 条评论
  • Growing your network virtually

    Growing your network virtually

    The longer many of us continue on with our home working lives, the narrower our networks become. We are spending so…

    20 条评论
  • How to scale your impact

    How to scale your impact

    Last week I asked people what topic they would most like to cover in the next Squiggly Career Curiosity newsletter and…

    18 条评论
  • Culture: Rhythms, rituals & routines

    Culture: Rhythms, rituals & routines

    Last week I was asked to share some thoughts on how we can sustain a company culture when people have been working…

    9 条评论
  • Leading in 2020

    Leading in 2020

    The intent of writing a weekly newsletter has been challenged a bit by the juggle of workload and childcare (half-term…

    24 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了