Involuntary remote work during the pandemic has forced many people to rearrange their homes for work purposes – and those arrangements endure. But part of the problem is that most offices don’t allow for the same flexibility yet.
BLURRING THE BORDERS OF OFFICE WORK
There are exceptions. Lego laid out plans for its new “campus” at its headquarters in Denmark before COVID-19, but it seems perfectly suited to a new world where the boundaries of office work are blurred.
It is supposed to “provide a space for all colleagues to network and play during and after working hours” (my italics). It has a fitness studio, communal kitchens, a cinema and accommodations for visiting employees.
Campus is an apt description of the complex, which opened in April. Business school students will recognize the blend of work, leisure, cultural and culinary stimulation from universities around the world.
These are not new ideas. Analyzing office design patterns in 2006, veteran observers of the future of work, Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross, identified the emergence of four “domains” for white-collar work: The academy, a domain of ‘company ; the agora, for public engagement, say with customers; the guild, where colleagues connect; and the lodge, where work overlaps home.
In Unworking, a timely new book on how to reinvent the office, they expand on some of the ways these areas have become increasingly porous, accelerated by the pandemic.