Visualising measures in your workplace, post COVID-19
So, millions of people have returned to work in China and most European countries are now thought to have surpassed ‘the peak’ and are considering how to go about easing their lockdown, ensuring a smooth and safe exit strategy. Ultimately, we will all have to go back to working in the office. But, when we do, will things never be the same again, or, will we all eventually go back to our same old ways of commuting and working in enclosed office buildings.
Not so long ago, typical office buildings were split into a collection of individual cellular office rooms, with each worker having his/her own private office. The size of your office was a mark of your status of importance with the Chief Exec often having an office so large they could use it as a putting green to practice their golfing skills. Cellular offices have now given way to open plan, and pods of desks with 6 or 8 work stations each are now the norm. As office rents have risen, specialist office fit-out companies have devised clever ways to cram more and more workers in to less space. Office desks have shrunk from 1.8m to 1.6m and now 1.4m and where it was common to see approximately 75 to 100 sq ft of office space allocated per person, in recent times we have seen some operators allocating as little as 30 to 40 sq ft per person. Hot-desking and shared-desking have meant that even more people can work within even less space with carefully managed desk booking arrangements.
And, us office workers have been happy to go along with all this, because we enjoy the social interaction with our colleagues (or at least we do a good job of pretending to). That overheard thought or idea, that shared comment or trend, that conversation that just bounced off a colleague that turned out to be a rather good idea after all. Team working and team bonding have provided some excellent new businesses and driven a wave of growth throughout our whole economy.
However, now we’ve all been told to self-isolate and to take on board ‘social distancing’. The advice given from the government is to stay 2m away from the person in front of you. As a result, we are seeing different distancing concepts incorporated, like at the supermarket where we can walk only in the direction of the arrows painted on the floor. The world has turned into one huge nightmare version of IKEA that we will never recover from. Or will we?
Since the lockdown, many different ideas have recently been devised on what a post-covid office environment might look like. One major property firm has written a detailed guide called the “6 feet office”. If followed to the letter it will incorporate an array of design features to keep colleagues six feet apart through the use of visual guides, barriers between desks and a one-way pedestrian walkway, similar to what we are experiencing in the supermarkets.
This is a very interesting concept and an innovative solution, but how realistically feasible is it when incorporated into a real-life scenario?
Whether your office is for 100 workers or for 10 workers, how many different people use the handle of the kettle in the office kitchen to make a cup of coffee, or even push the button to call for the lift? I think it is important to do the best we can in terms of mitigating the spread, however a completely risk-free world is just not possible. The legacy that will be left behind is the fact that we are much more aware of the risk of contamination and as of such we have all been washing and sanitizing our hands a lot more frequently, sometimes singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to ourselves whilst doing so.
Even if we modify some of these extremes but still refocus our working ways so that our desks are kept 6 feet apart, what about everything else we do in our normal day-to-day life? Let’s take our commute for example. It might be fine for the small, two-man office who cycle to work in their self-contained office, but what about the majority of the bigger city commuters. The vast majority of us sit, or more likely stand, on a crowded bus, train or tube for up to an hour or more every morning and night. The idea or possibility to remain a two metre distance is just absurd and practically impossible. We might therefore, anticipate an increase in the number of commuters who will now decide to cycle or drive to work purely on the basis of minimising social interaction even if this will be much less practical for us.
Even our trip to the coffee shop, or sandwich shop at lunchtime — are we all going to form neat lines out onto the street with each person two metres away from the one in front? Don’t even mention celebrating drinks with all your colleagues in the pub after work on Friday (even if the rumors of Wetherspoons soon re-opening are true). The retail and hospitality sector face possibly the most challenging problem where their business is based upon encouraging social interaction at a time when the government is advising us to do the exact opposite. It has been fascinating to read what Sweden has done to ensure their bars and restaurants stay open during this period, however implicating a table-service only rule in British pubs, will simply not work.
As our populations and economies grow, we have become much more densely urbanised. Mega cities have grown throughout the world, from Jakarta to Mexico and from Sao Paulo to Tokyo. As our cities grow, employers are attracted to the skill sets available from the young workforce and set up new businesses there. In essence, we are social creatures and we thrive on the interaction with other people. Whilst Covid-19 will undoubtedly leave a mark on the way we operate, it is unlikely to stop our long-term desire to socially interact in large groups.
So, what changes might we expect?
In times of crisis, great energy is given to innovation. I have no doubt that there will be huge increases in the usage of tech. A topical example of this is what we are seeing with Matterport virtual tours and the use of Virtual Reality, already a growing trend before Coronavirus. This has changed the way we view properties whilst in lockdown and even though we do not get the same experience as actually physically stepping foot and viewing a property, for some this has been enough for them to convince that the space is right for them. We have seen the use of tech to assess mass opportunities.
Home network computing will also mean that group meetings can be arranged anytime, anywhere, whether you can physically join, or log on remotely.
But ultimately, just like the most important times at University were not the lectures you attended, but the ideas and philosophies you discussed with your contemporaries in your break time, so too the next wave of innovation and growth will undoubtedly come from that brainstorming chat, discussion or debate you have over coffee in the kitchen.
By Tomaz Phillips- Graduate Surveyor.
Check out our previous blog on Covid-19 by Simon Blair & Andy Guntrip.
Visit our website www.shbre.co.uk.
