The year 2020 marked a significant tipping point in the world of work, as employees across the globe proved to their employers that they could effectively do their jobs from home. This shift has fundamentally changed expectations about the future of the office.
Data shows that people want the best of both worlds: 80% of those who worked from home during lockdowns say they would like to continue working at least one day a week from home, while two out of three workers express a longing to return to the office in some capacity. As workplace property expert Anthony Slumbers noted, no firm ever wanted an office; they only wanted productive employees, and the office was simply one way to create that.
What Offices Are Good For
The pandemic highlighted what traditional offices are uniquely good at, and what is difficult to replace remotely. The most valuable element is the network effect—those chance encounters and casual interactions that happen when people physically bump into colleagues.
Aha Moments: There is strong evidence that our best "aha moments"—spontaneous creative breakthroughs—happen in these chance encounters.
Unsupervised Discussions: Professor Sandy Pentland from MIT suggests these conversations are so effective because they occur when employees do not feel supervised by their bosses, allowing them to have honest, free-flowing discussions.
The realization is that offices are not necessarily great for focused, uninterrupted work (especially with the rise of the distracting open-plan office), but they are essential for casual social connection and the generation of new ideas.
Models for the Future
As companies seek to combine the flexibility of remote work with the creative benefits of the office, two new models are gaining traction:
The TWT Revolution (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays): Many firms are planning a predictable hybrid schedule where workers come into the office only on the core central days of the week, reserving Mondays and Fridays for working from home.
Asynchronous Working: This more adventurous model seeks to free up workers to do their jobs whenever they feel most productive, coordinating tasks by output rather than by time (unlike synchronous work, where everyone is coordinated simultaneously). Companies that adopt asynchronous working believe the flexibility to manage life events and leisure activities around work will attract the best talent.
At the most extreme end of the hybrid spectrum, some firms are talking about getting their employees together only for one week per quarter, which would eliminate the need for a permanent, dedicated office space.
For many office workers, one thing is certain: the era of getting up every day and commuting to the same place is largely a thing of the past.
Posting Komentar