Physical Space Matters

One of the biggest changes the Coronavirus has made to the way we interact is that we are now interacting with each other not in the office, but in each other's homes. Their living rooms, kitchens, verandahs and home offices. The thing that strikes me about this is how personal those spaces are compared to our offices, and how comfortable people appear in their own spaces. Seeing this really brings home how much physical space matters in our work lives, and how much the design of our offices really lets us down.

Offices these days pretty much come in two flavours - the sterile cubicle farm and the modern funky. Your cube farm is the classic office layout, all beige or pastel panelling. An off white plywood desk in a tiny individual cubicle or (horror of horrors) a communal "pod". The modern funky office on the other hand is all bright colours, faux industrial chic furniture, exposed plywood, lots of communal spaces and plenty of green. This sort of office space is designed to scream out "Look at us…look how modern and funky we are!" Both of these office layouts are bad and, despite their very different appearances, for essentially the same reason.

Why are they both so bad? In traditional cube farms, the badness is pretty obvious. Walking into a cube farm you can feel the life being sucked out of you by the soulless bland of the office design. They are, by design, blank, impersonal spaces. We find such spaces deeply alienating. They force us to subvert our own personality and wear a corporate "mask" while we are in the office.

In the past, the dreadful architecture went had in hand with things like restrictive dress codes (or even uniforms) and guides to expected behaviour that really forced us to be someone completely different at work than we were at home. If you love bright clothing and chunky jewellery, or really anything other than standard corporate wear, tough. That part of your personality had to stay at home. 

These days, the dress codes are more relaxed (though not completely gone) and the soulless, bland monotony of the cube farm has been replaced by the modern funky style of office design, but the problem remains. The physical space we are in for work does not reflect our personality. It forces us to be someone other than who we really are when we are at work. Someone with a deep love of fake industrial chic furniture. I am convinced that people like this exist only in home renovation TV shows or interior design consultancies... I have never met anyone outside of these places who likes the stuff.

Also, this sort of office tends to go hand in hand with hot-desking where your only actual personal space is a tiny locker. At least in a cube farm you used to have a desk you went to each day and could (policy permitting) put some personal touches to - a photo of your kids, maybe a photo or two of your partner. Something to reflect your personality. In the modern office, your only personal space is a shoebox sized locker and not having your own desk means that you can't even personalise your workspace unless you want to pack it all up every night and unpack it all in the morning. Often the modern funky office is an even less personal and welcoming space than the old cube farm. 

Over the last few weeks, watching people interact from their own spaces, spaces that reflect their own personalities, it struck me just how much more natural the interactions are. Add in the further relaxation of dress codes and finally, people are able to bring their whole personalty to work. We are finally interacting with our co-workers as whole people, not as that tiny piece of them that was allowed to come to work before. We see their homes, their pets, their families, their non-work wardrobe. All the things that make them, them.

Studies have shown that people who are able to bring their whole selves to work are much happier, more engaged and productive than people who can't. So how can we keep this going post Coronavirus?

I'm not suggesting that we all stay locked in our houses. That is far from ideal. Social isolation is not a good thing to experience long term. We are social animals and need to interact physically with others to be really happy. So universal working from home post-Corona is probably not the way to go.

What we need to do though is learn some lessons from this working from home experience and apply them to the office once we are able to go out again. For a start, not everyone needs to be in the office. Working from home works. There are challenges, but it works. We need to stop being afraid of people working remotely. Let people work flexibly. It's good for them. It allows them to better balance work, family and other commitments.

Next, let's drop the dress codes completely. Unless required for safety (or a uniform if your job requires one), there is no need for a corporate dress code. Ditch the suits (unless you like wearing them). Ditch the ties. Wear whatever. We have all been attending meetings in T-shirts, trackpants and slippers and the world has not ended. Some of us have been attending meetings in shirts and underpants (camera doesn’t show below the waist...just don't stand up). I'm not suggesting we go that far. But whatever we would wear out in the street, we could wear to the office. 

And the office itself needs a makeover. By the teams and people who work in it. Let's drop the policies that prevent people putting up their own decorations. Let the teams customise their own spaces to reflect their own personalities. If you have that funky furniture on wheels that many offices have these days, but locked into place, go the whole hog, take the locks off the wheels and let the teams rearrange the furniture to work better for them.

Let teams and individuals express themselves at work. Let them bring their whole selves. Watch them become happier, more engaged and more productive.