The post-pandemic office

Back in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us speculated the world of work had changed forever. Millions of us were instructed to work from home and Microsoft Teams, hitherto a mysterious and unused icon on our home screens, inserted itself into the centre of our working life. This, we thought, heralded a brave new way of working. The daily grind of the commute was over. We could see more of our children and parcels would actually be delivered.

As the pandemic dragged on, optimism started to wane. What was once mildly amusing ("you're on mute") became frustrating. We started to miss our colleagues and the opportunity to talk to them without first having to schedule a meeting. We missed the discussion about plans for the weekend, the football results, or, in that peculiarly British way, the weather. Perhaps, we thought, the future would need to be redefined. Perhaps we would need to return to the office in some way.

More recently, this issue has become a political football. We have seen league tables of Government Departments showing their post-pandemic occupancy levels. Ministers have placed passive aggressive notes on desks - conveniently ignoring the fact that most Civil Servants no longer have their own desk and that the cleaners would almost certainly clear the desk at the end of the day - including the minister's note. Major tech companies have ordered their staff back into the office - firing anyone who refuses to comply. The press, confusing location with activity, routinely claims working from home is, in fact, skiving. The brave new world we imagined in those early days of the pandemic now seems like a mirage - shimmering and then vanishing as we approach it.

But the world has changed. The genie cannot be shoved back into lamp. Civil Servants know it's ridiculous to be ordered back into an office only to spend the entire day logged into Teams meetings sat at a desk next to other people doing likewise. Our colleagues did what we asked them to do - they worked from home. They adjusted just about every aspect of their lifestyle to accommodate those instructions and they know, as we know, much of their work can be performed perfectly well from home.

The key word, though, is "much". A small word carries a very significant load. It is easier for me to write an article at home. I can clear my emails sitting in my study. I can even dial into meetings and contribute effectively - reducing the need for travel and improving my productivity. I can do almost everything - almost. What I can't do is walk around my house and meet any of the 600 people I work with. I can't catch someone for 30 seconds and clear that issue I have been wrestling with. I can't see the body language of the people I am meeting. I can't celebrate, in the moment, with the colleague who announces they are pregnant, or the team who have delivered a great piece of work.

It turns out the office is important. It is a place where we can collaborate, challenge each other and, frankly, engage each other as human beings. It is no longer the place where all work must be done - if we can't trust people to work from home we have a much bigger problem than their location. But it is a place when some work must be done - because that work cannot easily be done on Teams, or Zoom.

But if the office is the place where we collaborate, surely we need to think about how our offices are designed. We can't collaborate in individual offices. We can't collaborate in open plan offices where desks are arrayed like a Victorian counting house - squeezing in every single person we can on ever smaller desks. Our spaces need to be more organic. They need to promote collaboration. They need to be inspirational. In short, they need to change.

At Lincoln, our success in recruiting students has meant we needed to create additional office space for our professional services (those non-academic services that keep a university running). Starting from scratch has given us the opportunity to apply these principles to our new office and, now we have moved in, I am delighted to see the space working as we intended.

At the heart of our offices are coffee bars. Each has a high quality coffee machine, limitless boiling water and a continuous supply of coffee beans, tea bags, milk and fruit. People from different teams meet at the coffee bar, they sit on the very comfortable sofas next to each coffee bar and talk - often about work, sometimes about the weather. Around the office we have meeting tables, not behind walls but in the office itself, where teams can meet for a quick problem solving session. We have pods of all different sizes - accommodating individuals and small groups for private meetings. Our meeting rooms are designed for hybrid meetings - microphones and speakers are placed in the ceilings, screens are large and the webcams properly placed. Our ICT works with every type of laptop we use - all screens have a webcam built in and we have different types of desks across the floors.

There is a reason for people to come to the office - to meet with colleagues, to collaborate. Not only that, the quality of the finishings, the furniture and the ICT fit out means that the office is a fantastic place to work. We have been clear with our colleagues - we aren't going to tell them when they must be in the office - how many days they have to be present, or what time they must arrive and leave. We trust people to make those judgements for themselves. Of course, there were sceptics and I can understand that. Some colleagues thought we would have a very expensive white elephant. I would be lying if I said I didn't worry about that too.

The reality couldn't be more different. I have lost count of the people who have told me they are now coming into the office more than they had planned to. Some colleagues who were adamant they didn't want to work in the new office (which is not in the City centre) now don't want to work in their old offices. Colleagues from elsewhere in the University, who were not in scope for the new offices, have asked if they, too, could work there, at least some of the week. Teams are coming back together, reforging their identities but also reporting they are coming together with colleagues from other teams in a way they haven't before, even pre-pandemic.

The world of work has changed. Of course, some jobs can only be done from an office, or fixed place of work, but many roles are more flexible. Some employers have concluded that everyone needs to be in the office all of the time. I am not going to judge them - they know their business and they know their people. I just think there is a better way - a way that builds trust with our colleagues, that inspires and engages them. It is early days here at Lincoln but, from what I have seen so far, that trust has been well-placed. A brave new world? Maybe not but, perhaps, a better one.