When Two Tribes Go To Work: there is a space for everyone

If I had the slightest Machiavellian tendency, I might have started this week’s blog with the story that suggested drinking alcohol in moderation cuts the risk of needing eye cataract surgery by a quarter. Cataracts are a common eye condition that leads to a deterioration in vision. If only Dominic Cummings had seen this research, he might have saved himself a trip to Barnard Castle to test his vision, thus completely undermining the UK Government’s Covid ‘stay at home’ message and simply nipped to Booze Busters instead (there are other shops). Of course, if I were truly devious, I would then somehow cleverly link this to the Prime Minister’s announcement last Monday that 60 million doses of the Covid vaccine Novavax will be manufactured at Barnard Castle. Johnson somehow managed to make the announcement without actually mentioning Barnard Castle in his speech. However, as regular readers of this blog know, I try and steer clear of politics and hopefully would never be that duplicitous.

So, leaving castles to one side, what I really wanted to talk about was offices. In my working career my office was like my second home. In fact, when I retired and brought home the contents of my office it caused major problems in where to find space for things. I don’t do minimalism. Surprisingly, since I retired from full time work, my office has now become a laptop perched on my knees as I sit on a settee in the lounge. My display screen equipment (DSE) advisor J constantly reports me for infringing health and safety regulations.

Strangely, I’m to gain a ‘proper’ office again on the 1^st May, but the reason why is embargoed until next Wednesday. I say strangely, as like many people, I have become very happy working from home and connecting with people virtually. I even took part in a Board development day last week that was facilitated over Teams, and it was one of the best development days I have been on for a long time. Personally, I think that for many people working from home during the pandemic has shown that productivity does not suffer, albeit that personal/professional relationships might be more difficult to engage with.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees with this. Google, once the epitome of post-modernist office working is calling its staff back to their offices. The company has a division called Real Estate and Workplace Services. These are the folk who will make a return to the office a safe and reassuring experience for Google colleagues. They are charged with making Google offices as comfortable and creative as possible. This includes providing meals and diversionary amenities (there is a Google rule than staff should never be more than 100 metres away from food). The legendary Google office spaces won’t be the same, however. They will need to be Covid-safe environments, so much of the fun and creative cultural facilities will no longer feature.

Closer to home, there is much concern that while we are still rolling out the Covid vaccination programme and new variants continue to be found, returning to an office any time soon feels unsafe and risky. Not everyone agrees with this view, however. There are ‘two tribes’ with differing views on this subject. Chancellor, Rishi Sunak (and his boss Johnson) both caused outrage over their suggestions that people are sick and tired of working from home and want to get back to the office asap post lockdown. They may be right. Perhaps there is a whole group of folk that would like nothing better than travelling through rush hour traffic, in all weathers, to sit in an uninspiring office, where each day’s start and finish time, meal breaks and so on is regulated, but of course they no longer have to wait in for those pesky Amazon parcels to arrive.

I’m not in this tribe. I think Sunak and Johnson have misread the vast majority of folk who have proved time and time again over the last 12 months that they can do their job just as well, even more productively working from home. I’m in this tribe. Yes, I miss the coffee and corridor chats, but I don’t miss the commutes. I've been able to meet more people (albeit virtually) during the last year than I would have been able to do if travelling to and from meetings.

So, will I use my new office come the first of May? Well yes, I will. However, will I be returning to every meeting having to be face to face? No, I won’t. Will I be going into my office every day? Absolutely not. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking like this. Many companies are actively engaging with the fact that where people work, and how productive they might be, is not going to be dependent on a 9-5, working week. Companies like BP, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Microsoft, Unilever and Nationwide are all actively introducing greater flexible working and/or permanent working from home approaches. People have appreciated the new freedoms working from home have brought. Work-home-family-life relationships have been, in many cases, easier to be more positively balanced.

Of course, not every job can be undertaken by working at home. We have all been grateful to all those people who during the last year have helped keep us safe, fed, warm and cared for in some dark and challenging times. Many folk describe them as heroes, and they have certainly been courageous and brave. Our gratitude for what they have done for us all should never be allowed to diminish. 

Finally, I was glad to hear of the creation of a new Office for Health Promotion by the UK Government. This was showcased in last Mondays ‘Transforming the Public Health System: reforming the public health system for the challenges of our times’ publication (well worth a read!). I’m sure they will have already clocked that there are other ways to safeguard our vision than travelling to Barnard Castle.