The office is dead! Long live the office!

Did lockdown predictions for the office come true?

In 2020, businesses worldwide were forced to adapt to new ways of working overnight. This shift accelerated digital collaboration, moved meetings online, and fundamentally transformed the way we communicate with teams, suppliers, and clients.

For many employees, working from home offered novel advantages, such as escaping long commutes, achieving a better work-life balance, and experiencing fewer office distractions. In June 2020, McKinsey research revealed that 80% of people enjoyed working from home, and 41% reported increased productivity as a result.

In January 2021, The Wall Street Journal even asserted that ‘The death of the desk is upon us,’ suggesting that the office had lost its relevance as a place for concentration and focus. At the time, companies were widely assessing the future of their offices, and large organisations including Shopify, Dropbox and Slack declared that they would be moving to a ‘remote first’ model, using their offices for collaboration rather than day-to-day work. Was the office as we knew it being phased out?

But working remotely is not a one-size-fits-all solution. For younger workers, those living in shared accommodations with limited privacy, or individuals without an inspiring or professional home setup, working from home full-time can be challenging and unrewarding.

As the pandemic wore on, priorities began to shift towards environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and employee well-being when considering the office environment. Progressive employers were already making changes, creating people-centric, sustainable, and dynamic workplaces to ensure teams would get the most out of time spent in the office.

The post-pandemic office landscape

So, was The Wall Street Journal correct? Partially.

Fast forward to 2024, and despite a steady increase in remote and hybrid working, many businesses are keen to have staff in the office more frequently: a survey from Resume Builder found that 90% of companies - including Goldman Sachs, Google, and Amazon - planned to have more of their teams back in the office this year.

But expectations about workplace environments have risen, and with the majority of the workforce still working in offices, it has an important role to play. Office aesthetics, including interior design, colour schemes, lighting, furniture, and overall layout, significantly impact employee well-being, productivity, and retention.

The role of lighting in the new office environment

What role does lighting play in this new office landscape? Should it be helping to entice people back to the office, or just make them happier when they’re there?

A report from Ernst & Young placed lighting conditions joint first in a list of the most important factors influencing office satisfaction, with about 90% of respondents saying that lighting was either very or more relevant than other factors.

Research has shown that bringing office lighting to life by replicating and dynamically delivering daylight-like components can have powerful effects. These lighting conditions create variations in office environments, mirroring natural daylight, which in turn leads to improved work engagement, motivation, and concentration.

Double Dynamic Lighting , a concept where lighting adapts in intensity, colour temperature and directional quality, is an ideal solution for modern office design. This type of lighting not only enhances visual comfort but also aligns with our natural preference for daylight-like conditions, promoting overall well-being. By integrating such advanced lighting systems, for example the Notor 65 Dynamic , businesses can create environments that are more inviting and conducive to work, whether the office is at full capacity or operating under a hybrid model.

The evolution of office life and lighting

The evolving nature of office occupancy offers an opportunity to rethink and redesign lighting solutions to be more flexible and adaptive, compared with traditional office lighting solutions designed for fully occupied spaces.

The office is not dead, but it is undoubtedly evolving, and lighting plays a crucial role in this evolution, influencing everything from employee satisfaction to productivity. By embracing advanced lighting solutions that replicate natural light and adapt to changing needs, businesses can create office environments that are not only functional but also enriching and engaging.

Looking to the future of office lighting, Steve Shackleton, Lightings Applications Manager at Fagerhult, comments: “Trends at the moment are away from full, multi-floor Cat A fitouts with acres and acres of suspended ceilings. We are seeing the growing use of track systems with linear or sometimes circular products attached. These systems have inherent flexibility, so that localised task-oriented solutions can be realised when the space usage becomes clear.

“Many, if not all of these products are having intelligence built-in, with sensors gathering information and providing connectivity to wider building systems, a potential indicator of the future direction of workplaces and workplace lighting in the UK.”

Find out more about our office solutions , or get in touch to discuss your office project with us.