Rethinking the post-pandemic workplace – CBS News

From Manhattan skyscrapers to elegant Silicon Valley campuses, offices across the country have been virtually empty for months.

“In some ways, this virus is a virus in the workplace, it is an office virus,” said Amol Sarva, co-founder and CEO of Knotel, a company that designs and leases office space to large corporations internationally. “This is one of the few things that happened that closed all the offices in the world.”

“Are you going to make many changes now?” Correspondent John Blackstone asked.

“That’s an understatement, John!” Sarva laughed. “The world is different. And we will not go back to the old way.”

For some, that may mean not going back to the office, period. Tech giants Twitter and Square have told their employees that they can work from home indefinitely. Other major companies plan to keep their offices closed at least until the end of the summer … some until the end of the year.

That’s not good for those in the real estate business, like Sarva: “That’s certainly a thought that occurred to me in the past few months: ‘What if everyone can work from home forever?’

“Before all of this, on an average day in an average company, only about 80% of people were in the office. Well, in the future it may be 50%, it may be 60%. Certainly, these next months will be 20% or 30% will be in the office. “

Returning individuals may find a workplace that is not only healthier, but actually more attractive.

Sarva said: “Social distancing and professional distancing mean that their desks can no longer stand shoulder to shoulder. And I think many people will whisper, ‘Thank goodness!’ because they didn’t love it. “

A prototype for the post-pandemic office is up and running in Amsterdam, where real estate company Cushman & Wakefield turned their office into a test site for the “6 Feet Office” project. Managing partner Jeroen Lokerse said they started the project “with the ambition to make the world safer and before going back to work.”

Loker took Blackstone on a tour through Zoom. “We follow the arrows. Everything in our office right now is one way,” he said.

The colors of the mat show where employees can and cannot walk. Desks are no longer crowded.

“In this corner of the building, there were 28 desks; right now there are 16 desks,” said Lokerse. “We have implemented simple things like these glass things behind the screens so that people can sit in front of you.”

A worker was asked about the new workplace: “Yes, it is very nice. Better than at home,” he said.

“‘Better than at home’, that’s always a good thing to hear!” Lokerse laughed. Then he showed that Blackstone was the office it used to be, with crowded desks. “There are a lot of people in a very small space with little privacy, and it is difficult to make phone calls and be distracted by their colleagues around them.”

Blackstone asked, “Are you going to keep that old office as a museum piece the way things used to be in the early 21st century?”

“I think it will be a museum piece,” replied Lokerse.

The open office is not really a new idea. As early as the 1930s, companies grouped as many workers as they could into offices that closely resembled factories. And then, in 1968, furniture maker Herman Miller introduced the “Office of Action.” We know it better today, of course, as the cubicle – fodder for humor, from the Dilbert cartoons to the 1999 movie “Office Space”.

The cure for the cubicle was an open but updated return to the office. It became the design of choice for large tech companies. The open offices were described as cool and modern, designed to encourage collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

But a 2018 study found that forcing workers to sit next to each other without privacy actually resulted in 72% decrease in face-to-face communication.

Blackstone asked Amol Sarva: “Is it time to say, ‘Rest in the open office plan’? “

“Yes, the open office has ended,” said Sarva. “It was over for many reasons. It was too loud and you couldn’t focus. And I was already walking out the door.”

But getting workers back to the office will require more than just separating the desks. “Getting people to make that change in their daily behavior after spending a few months at home requires confidence that going to work is not a life-threatening situation,” said David Levine, professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

“What we need right now is a lot of studies on what kinds of workplaces are safe and in what conditions. It is clear that having a door that closes is a real advantage in stopping the movement of pathogens, but not We know at this point how dangerous the different types of open offices are, “he said.

To reduce the dangers of returning to the office, routines that would have seemed invasive a few months ago are likely to become common.

The new procedures at CBS require that before employees enter the office, they use their cell phone to connect with a nurse. Then they take their temperature and show the nurse that they don’t have a fever.

Other companies are doing the same, and more.

“The privacy considerations are so vivid,” said Sarva. “We’ve had the ability for a long time to track where the staff are; are they in the office? Are they at home? Are they traveling somewhere, on private vacations? That was all possible before. But it was never enough. It makes sense. For individuals and companies it would be worth making a deal.

“I think many companies will propose that deal, and the staff will have to decide, ‘Is it worth it?'”

The value of returning to the office is a calculation that both workers and employers are beginning to make.

Levine said, “Managers have learned two things. Much of what they have learned is how much work can be done remotely. At the same time, this distancing has emphasized that there is real value in interaction. The water cooler is more than just a cartoon symbol. It really is a place of social interaction, a place of communication and social bonding. And workplaces work best when they have more of that interaction. “

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Story produced by John Goodwin. Publisher: Ben McCormick.

See also:

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