The global financial crisis two years ago had revealed a new trend in society: people no longer wanted the traditional 9-5 job with an exhausting and expensive commute. The genie is well out of bottle when it comes to work, as employees now look for more freedom than ever before; not just time off during their lunch break or after dinner hours but also flexibility on how they spend those free moments.<\/p>\n
Having documented the changes to organisational life through the Covid-19 pandemic, what is significant about these findings is that this mindset shift appears to be permanent. Figures show nearly 40% of working adults in Great Britain are now working across multiple locations in a hybrid working model. However, as the energy crisis threatens to bite, there are warnings that this winter\u2019s looming energy crisis could kill off our new working \u201cculture\u201d. So, which one is it?<\/p>\n
Amid the detailed calculations being made, one aspect is already clear: socio-economic circumstances will be a main driver in whether working from home remains firmly rooted in our way of life, and people\u2019s decisions about work are still the product of their circumstances.<\/p>\n
A guardian news article reports that one public sector graduate trainee told me that, by her calculations, the cost of train fares, coffees and snacks left her better off working from home. But if energy costs rise sharply, she will probably switch to travelling into the office over shouldering a punitively high heating bill. It is precisely this fluctuating picture that makes this winter so difficult to plan for. Another senior manager working for a London local authority told me that while some of her staff had indicated that they might want to be coming into the office more often in the coming months, there was a lack of concrete information or certainty.<\/p>\n
When we consider how working trends might be affected by the rising cost of living, the geographies of labour markets cannot be ignored. With the UK having some of the longest commutes in Europe, financial savings from reduced commuting were some of the most notable markers of lockdown delivering some measurable benefit to working people. And as train fares continue to outstrip inflation, organisations staffed by suburban commuters are likely to find employees continue to be more attached to working from home to save money, while those who live closer to offices may find the lure of a heated space outweighs the benefits of home working.<\/p>\n
Of course, these financial decisions are rarely made in isolation. In our research, we saw people adapt the quality of their workspace over the lockdowns, working in separate rooms where possible to prioritise privacy and maximise concentration. But as heating becomes more expensive, this looks less feasible, while merging home workspaces could provoke personal tensions, damage productivity and even have a disruptive effect upon family relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The global financial crisis two years ago had revealed a new trend in society: people no longer wanted the traditional 9-5 job with an exhausting and expensive commute. The genie is well out of bottle when it comes to work, as employees now look for more freedom than ever before; not just time off during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,146,239,171,168,33,68,114,69,185,255],"tags":[56,3,95,115,35,14,17,13,15,16,12],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-city-offices","category-custom-office-design","category-mezzanine-floor","category-mezzanine-floors","category-mezzanine-safety-tips","category-millennium-storage-and-interiors","category-modern-office","category-modern-office-design","category-modern-office-fads","category-office-design-ideas","category-work-from-home-set-up","tag-millenium-si","tag-millennium-si","tag-modern-office","tag-modern-office-design","tag-office-design","tag-office-design-solutions","tag-office-interiors","tag-office-partitioning","tag-office-planning-solutions","tag-office-refurbishment","tag-office-space-planning","post-preview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t