Strange things have been
happening in English workplaces, schools and colleges this
month. Televisions have been installed in offices and canteens;
workers are being given unexpected leave to come in late; many
are even coming in early - to watch TV, that is.
The installation of TVs in
workplaces is not entirely new. Go-ahead companies have been
doing it for years - often with the aim of bringing all
employees together to listen to pearls of exhortatory and
unifying wisdom from the Chief Executive. It has proved so far
to be much more fun and unifying to watch the World Cup (despite
the dour glowering of Scottish co-workers in the corner).
But will TVs become a
permanent feature of our workplaces? This is not quite the
frivolous question it appears to be. Many employers are
introducing features into their workplaces that soften the
divide between work and home. This can be for a number of
reasons, for example
How did the hamster get in
here?
The recruitment firm Office Angels recently
surveyed 1500 workers and employers to find out what would make
offices better to work in. Some of the answers they came up with
were:
The therapeutic value of pets has been shown in
other contexts - for example old people's homes - but their
transfer to the office raises many issues, and challenges
traditional preconceptions about work.
Some companies have seen the introduction of
recreational facilities as one way of addressing the long hours
culture - if you're going to be at the office for long
stretches, you might as well have some fun too. It stops you
missing out on the fun you would be having if you weren't at
work. A growing minority of companies (e.g.
this one) now have bars on the
premises, to allow workers to phase into the evening or weekend:
works winds down, fun winds up. Many others "outsource" this
function by migrating to their favourite pub or
wine bar. Kind of like in Ally MacBeal, only with less
singing and guest star appearances.
There are important and divergent trends here,
relating to work-life balance. With home-working/teleworking
options, home and work become more integrated by moving work
into the home environment. But we're also seeing the closer
integration of home and work by making work life more like home
life.
Open plan or not open plan
One finding of the Office Angels survey is that
84% of workers would prefer to work in closed rather than
open-plan offices. The trend for the past 35 years in office
design is to move towards open plan. It uses space more
efficiently, encourages a mentality of shared facilities, and
prevents a "bunker" mentality developing amongst staff resistant
to change. Open plan also tends to be associated with flatter
management structures, more flexible working practices, and
(though it is implemented less often than most people think)
hotdesking.
But employees don't like it. They want their own
space, private and personalised.
The open plan issue relates to the wider issue
of "what is the office for?". Unremitting ranks of workstations
covering the whole floor of a building, under harsh overhead
lighting, do not make for an attractive and inviting place to
work. Space does need to be broken up - but not into personal
bunkers.
The different kinds of work function - regular
desk work, client meetings, training, brainstorming,
researching, etc - require different kinds of space. And then
there are the de-stressing and re-energising areas - for the
café, the bar, table football, TV, gym - and the supportive
spaces such as the crèche, counselling rooms etc: space for
these kinds of workplace-enhancing activities become the
justification for the erosion of inefficiently-used private
offices.
Having fun, are we more
productive?
The current England World Cup campaign will cost
the UK about £1.3 billion in lost output. That's according to
the Centre for
Economics and Business Research. Some of this will be
recouped through extra consumption (beer, St George flags, etc).
There is a productivity paradox here: how can we produce so much
extra beer when all the workers are taking time off to watch the
matches?
The probability is that most people will make up
for the lost production, and it won't take them long to do so.
The effects of special occasions are not like the
productivity-sapping effects of daily congestion on the road, or
of perpetually inefficient working practices.
There is a fair bit of evidence to suggest that
happier workers make better workers. 150 years ago the benefits
of having a healthier workforce were not accepted by employers:
doing anything to improve their health and working conditions
was seen as "contrary to the natural laws of economics". It may
have taken a long time, but that argument has been (more or
less) won. It's a natural progression to move on from health and
safety issues to concern for the happiness and psychological
well-being of the workforce.
The challenge now is to make office environments
less like factories - to tailor work spaces more to the variety
of work tasks we undertake, and to humanise them.
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