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Last month, I went to the office for the first time in over a year. It was gratifying to see colleagues and novelty not for my own meal. But a little later I wanted to go home again because I had some work to do.
The office buildings were designed for people to work with. Our houses were not hastily built “offices” (mine is a small table in the corner of the bedroom). However, I don’t think the only thing I’ve found that can make certain elements of my work more effective from home is the XXI. It tells us something important about the design of the century office.
I am not an office refusal. I’m actually a fan. There is abundant evidence to show how important it is for colleagues to meet in person. Without an office, we don’t have a tea to meet colleagues we haven’t seen in a while, or listen to conversations that spark new ideas or collaboration plans. I realize that I miss colleagues who never worked directly.
Research suggests it has value in these “weak bonds”: relationships between people who don’t work closely together but know each other over time. During the blockade they try to recreate such moments (a application he posts questions in Slack, “Which movie can you mention the most?” to encourage “wonderful” conversations like) show just how impossible it is to rape.
In recent decades offices have been redesigned taking into account the value of interaction. The walls of the cubicle were constantly lowered. Eventually, they completely disappeared in favor of large open spaces. The idea was to promote more transparency, innovation and communication. It was also a great way to save money by bringing people closer together. Data The British Council of Office shows that the average space per post has decreased since 2008.
But looking for more interactive spaces, we saw how the human brain actually works. Research shows the volumes of noise in open plan offices can cause high levels of adinephrine, a hormone that tells us to fight, run, or freeze instead of focusing on our work. Hearing “half-lives”, When colleagues are on the phone, it can be distracting because our brains are trying to fill the other half.
The lack of private space in many offices makes us uncomfortable also. Lena Nyholm and Mia Ohrn, Swedish interior design strategists for those who want to incorporate neuroscience into office design, decoration is also important. Our brains respond best to blues and greens, says Nyholm, because they represent a fertile landscape with plenty of food. But many offices have white walls, black chairs, hard edges, and few plants. “When we look at them with those eyes in the workplace, it looks like winter. The brain is stressed. There’s no food or warmth here.”
In fact, problems with open plan offices can undermine the benefits they should provide. Ethan Bernstein, An associate professor at Harvard Business School, studied two large U.S. companies that switched to open plan designs. He used useful tracking devices and email data to measure how employee interactions had changed. In both cases, the volume of face-to-face interaction decreased significantly, while email and instant messaging increased.
“Instead of fostering ever-increasing collaboration, open architecture led to a natural response to human backwardness,” he concluded. In another examination, he found that rather than constant social impact, he created the best performance among people trying to solve problems.
The pandemic allows us to give it a fresh start. We need to get to know each other, work together, blow the wind and enjoy the hustle and bustle, but many of us also need access to quiet corners to do some of the elements of our work well. It will probably take a trial and error to find the right balance.
Matthew Davis, an associate professor at the University of Leeds who is studying the design of Covid’s subsequent offices, said some employers are turning the office into a flexible “collaboration” space on the assumption that people will work at a home-oriented desk. Employers ask themselves, “How do we get the opportunity to meet more, to encourage more social activity?”
It is too early to know whether it will work in practice. Would it be weird to put a space for “wonderful office interviews” in one’s diary? Davis warns that these new designs of hypersocial offices could “inadvertently exclude” some employees if they don’t have space to work from home.
However, employers have reason to conduct experiments. The office is not yet dead. If we acknowledge his weaknesses and act on his strengths, he would have a new life.
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