An extra 20 minutes of sleep. Daily meetings in shorts conducted via Zoom. Celebrating birthdays and long work weeks with a virtual team happy hour. These are some of our new realities during a global quarantine.
Around the world, companies and their employees have had to quickly adapt to the challenges of completely remote working. Despite the challenges and technical glitches (double-booking the office conference line, forgetting you’re on camera, etc.), organizations are staying connected and, in many cases, finding new ways to maximize their productivity.
That is not to say that any of this feels normal at this point. While we are all making do as best we can, there is a growing sense that things will not be the same after this. The big question is: will we all return to the workplace? What will corporate America learn from the “great distancing of 2020?” And how will this pandemic influence the office design of tomorrow?
In addition to the basic human need for social interaction, most professionals’ work makes contact with their teams a necessity. Regardless of size or function, we still have peers and direct reports to meet with. Professional services still need to be completed. Training still needs to occur. The culture of an organization, how people collaborate and develop soft skills that will allow them to advance in their careers – all of these still largely depend on face-to-face interactions. And not all of that can be done via video conference.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t in for significant changes. Great office design has always been largely based on people – how they work, what they do, and reflecting what inspires them to be at their best. That will not change in a post-COVID-19 world. But the things people need to feel safe and supported in their new reality will. Drawing on observations and experiences gleaned from decades of designing office environments, I predict some substantive shifts in what people will expect from their office.
Coming Back Together
As the economy has boomed over the last decade, space has become more expensive and square footage allotted per employee has generally reduced. At the same time, the large private offices and sea of endless workstations that used to be the norm have given way to more attentively crafted open office concepts (some more effective than others). Even before the guidelines about social distancing came out, complaints about employees feeling too close to their coworkers, about noise and a lack of focus areas had given rise to concerns, albeit somewhat hyperbolic, headlines about the death of the open office.
So, are we all headed for a return to the workplace with single-occupancy offices or high-walled cubicles? Probably not, but here are a few changes that may impact the workplace in the not-too-distant future:
A Renewed Premium on Personal Space
Now that our proximity to other people is top of mind, it may be difficult for many to return to close quarters. While blended workplace strategies with varied types of layouts can be powerful tools when tailored to an organization, fewer private offices and smaller workstations may present a challenge going forward. I certainly don’t think that a complete over-correction is in store, but I believe we’ll see a strong desire to spread people back out. The perception of what is safe and a reasonable expectation of personal space has changed, and we will have to address it. This may cost some leasing dollars – on slightly larger suites, for example, that provide bigger workstations – or tenant improvement dollars to trade some workstations for micro, 7’x9’ private offices. We may offset those increased costs by adding fewer huddle rooms and reducing other smaller gathering spaces. It’s all a worthy sacrifice to make in order to respect and preserve each organization’s cultural balance, which may start to come with a premium on social distancing.