For many of us, the old reality of trekking to work at an office every day has begun to feel like a distant memory. Months of working from home—necessary to stem the spread of the coronavirus—have forced us into new routines. And the idea of going back to our desks feels a little scary—literally. In a recent poll by consulting firm Korn Ferry, 50% of respondents said they were afraid to return to their offices. As more companies experiment with reopening, there is mounting pressure to convey a sense of safety to employees. That is spurring a reimagining of the workplace in the pandemic era. “Right now, to start to bring people back to the office, it’s all about reorienting circulation and reorganizing space,” CEO Andrew Cogan of office and home design firm Knoll recently told Fortune.
The adjustment to this redesigned reality won't be easy or automatic for employees, says Bill Knightly, the chief executive of global occupier services at commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. Coming back after months away is strange enough, and now workers will need to learn a whole new set of procedures. "We're asking them to comply with brand new protocols that are unfamiliar in a scenario or setting where they've been restricted in terms of their movement," says Knightly, who runs Cushman's business managing real estate for big corporate clients. "So that's extremely challenging to try to encourage and nudge and get compliance with those behaviors."