Will You Return To The Office?
When it comes to predicting what the Future of Work will look like, one of the biggest debates has been how important a physical office is to a business’s success. The pandemic forced all of us to adapt quickly; offices shut down overnight, and employees were forced to set up makeshift desks wherever they could squeeze them into their homes.
At We Are Adam, we had already trialled a flexible-working policy, with most employees working from home at least one day a week before the pandemic. Because we already had the tech and equipment, combined with a solid contingency plan, we found ourselves relatively undisrupted. We implemented some additional health and safety checks and a system for remotely managing performance. We were well prepared, but in the minority, especially compared with our clients.
We already knew that giving employees the option to work flexibly would be best for them – their health and well-being, their families, and balancing work and life commitments evenly. The last 12 months have just confirmed that we were moving in the right direction, but it posed a bigger question: What do we do with the office we’ve just purchased?
Sick of the enormous rental overheads, our board decided to purchase an office space in 2019. We moved into our new HQ in Manchester’s artsy Northern Quarter, excited to make the office a ‘home from home’. But before we’d finished the renovations, COVID struck. After a year of home working, our employees want to retain some remote working, and we want to make sure the office we invested in is utilised. That’s where hybrid working comes in - the buzzword du jour.
We’re not the only ones either. Peter Bell, CEO of Expedite Group Europe, predicts his business would see a ‘churn’ as companies scramble to downsize or refurbish their office space. He also forecasts a 25-35% drop in requirements over the next five years as many businesses embrace a 100% distributed workforce.
Of course, there’s one big and very valid argument for physical space – collaboration and socialisation. Most complaints about WFH are feelings of isolation, lack of communication with colleagues and a loss of spontaneous cooperation. Humans are social creatures, and being left to work alone for months on end is proving detrimental to our mental health. While we’ve been doing our best to recreate that connection with virtual office hours, endless quizzes and even a wine tasting event, Zoom fatigue is still very much an area of concern.
In September 2020, Netflix boss Reed Hastings famously declared that they would not become a remote workforce. Whilst his comments were met with derision from other tech leaders, I think Hastings makes a very valid point:
“No. I don’t see any positives. Not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, is purely negative. I’ve been super impressed at people’s sacrifices.”
We’ve had a similar experience. Many of our employees are extroverts, people who thrive on human connection. Whilst introverts find social interactions tiring, extroverts quite literally need it to get them through the day. After the first few months of lockdown, our extroverts were desperate to get back to the office to see their colleagues. We re-opened in a COVID-safe way to allow for co-working on-site in minimal numbers as a matter of welfare. Some live alone, others in a small flat with no spare room to work in. Taking care of your employees goes beyond Friday beers and a scattering of bean bags.
As the pandemic matures, people are voicing their desire to maintain some of the new working arrangements they have adopted. An Eskenzi PR survey found that a staggering 91% of workers would prefer to work from home at least some of the time, with just 9% saying that they wished to go back into the office full-time. I’m expecting most leaders to adopt the idea of a hybrid solution where possible. Even anti-WFH Hastings said he believes Netflix employees will work remotely one day a week.
But no conversation about returning to the office is complete without talking about the commute. I know well that it has been getting steadily longer over the past few years. Between 2007 and 2017, the amount of time the UK worker spent commuting on average rose from 53.6 minutes a day to 58.4 minutes a day. It might not sound like much, but this equates to 18 extra hours travelling to and from work in a year. Eighteen hours is a lot of time that could instead be spent doing things we love.
The cost of commuting has always been a sore point too. Every year rail fares rise higher than the rate of inflation, and it’s had me and many others asking what on earth we are paying for. Over-crowded and outdated trains, cancellations and delays are commonplace. Before the pandemic, I spent a whopping £2500 a year for the privilege. It’s certainly no surprise that people would lean towards eliminating travel as much as possible, and the current shift to remote work could be the death-knell for the daily commute.
One of the most significant impacts of fewer people travelling every day is that of the effects on the environment. Whilst it seems evident that fewer cars on the road would mean fewer emissions, it’s also important to remember that it’s not the only effect the commute can have. The rise of convenience caused a massive increase in waste – disposable coffee cups, sandwich cartons, plastic cutlery, straws, the list goes on. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I grabbed a Tesco meal deal on my lunch break.
Working from home isn’t going to cure all our environmental problems, but it can certainly make a significant step towards improvement. Of course, we will no doubt be using more energy working from home than previous arrangements, but it’s still a substantial overall reduction in emissions. Even working from home just two days a week could have a considerable impact. One study found that 98% of carbon emissions incurred at work are down to our commutes.
Ultimately, business leaders are waking up to the fact that something needs to change. We’ve had our eyes opened to the benefits of remote work; more personal time and often more money due to not paying skyrocketing commuting costs. Even those itching to get back into an office environment will concede that there are benefits to remote work. Now that we have proven that it can be done and done well, it will be much harder to go back to ‘the way things were’.
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