Happy “lockdown-iversary”, what’s next for workspace to rent?
Can you believe that it is a year since the UK was first placed under lockdown? How strange a world.
Our streets deserted, shops closed, the vibrant sound of birds chirping in the trees. Zoom became the platform for many of our interactions, we exercised at home, exhausted Netflix, and all the while lived in uncertainty and despair at the thought of the wellbeing of our friends, family, and jobs.
Our daily routines changed. The commute to work, making a brew for our colleagues, and grabbing a sandwich at lunch turned into an extra hour in bed, joining an online meeting in our pyjamas, and warming up last night’s leftovers to enjoy whilst watching mid-afternoon television.
Soon, we longed to return to normality: to walk around uninhibited, to see our loved ones, and to share workspace with our colleagues.
Building and sustaining relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and clients requires a physical environment. The emotional benefits of bonding, learning from one another, and collaborating is much easier harnessed in a shared workspace.
Remote working, or indeed in many cases, not being able to work, has had many adverse effects. Though we can replicate many of the office or other workspace rituals from our homes, we do suffer from a lack of face-to-face interactions. Motivation drops and so too the great sense of community that we feel in a workspace shared with others.
We may never return to ‘normality’. Our work practices may become split between home and the office, or the way in which we share workspace may be more measured than we remember. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has recently said that, “… for many people there will be more of a hybrid model of working from home and working in a place of work.”
Our workspaces will be designed to support flexibility and choice. Companies will arrange a broader ecosystem of work sites that may include regional offices, co-working spaces, and home to support increasing and ongoing mobility. The workspace will have new purpose: to be the site for community, culture and collaboration. Less time will be spent on focused tasks while on-site and more time dedicated to the three ‘Cs’ above. The physical appearance of workspaces will adjust to reflect this change.
Though much has changed in the last year, and many more changes are to be implemented as we work out the best way to work, the workspace will continue to be an important hub for many of us. We hope that with restrictions slowly being lifted, and as we reintegrate society, that we can continue to Make Space Work.
Want to chat to us about your experiences of work and home-life during lockdown?
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