02-19-2021, 04:18 PM
A couple of years ago Manulife collapsed its local offices into the Waterloo location and introduced a significant reduction in static workplaces. Employees no longer had a desk, their team or groups had clusters of desks and in general (there were accommodations made for certain roles that eg, required physical security, and for cases of disability and other exceptionalities). I was at Manulife when the process began, but moved to a different employer before my team was affected, so I don't know how it has gone since.
A few years prior to that experience, I was working at Communitech when they started the process to sublet Google's space. At that time, it was decided that Communitech staff would not have permanent desks (again, as a general rule and with some exceptions) and instead hotel. I also left while this process was underway (I swear neither time was that decision a factor, and in fact while at Communitech I advocated for the hoteling), but at the times I returned for events or visits, it very much seemed like most people were using the same spaces fairly consistently, though again it was pretty role dependant. The back office sorts stabilized and those who interacted more with customers tended to float more.
Manulife is by far the most remote-friendly company I've worked for, probably because they were a multi-national company where teams regularly were located in geographically and chronologically disparate locations, which forces the issue I think. When you start genuinely caring more about the work that is done then where and when it gets done, there's a lot of flexibility.
I don't have any predictions now, and am greatly interested in what new office conventions develop in the next 5-10 years. Pre-pandemic I'd have put money on more and more large organizations moving to flexible, hoteling-based work spaces and clearly now there's even more motivation to do so but once the pandemic eases (whatever that means, hand wave hand wave hand wave) I'm certain that there's going to be a lot of people who are flocking back to office spaces. I think the pandemic and the variances in safety of free movement are really going to emphasize the advantages of very flexible physical environments.
A few years prior to that experience, I was working at Communitech when they started the process to sublet Google's space. At that time, it was decided that Communitech staff would not have permanent desks (again, as a general rule and with some exceptions) and instead hotel. I also left while this process was underway (I swear neither time was that decision a factor, and in fact while at Communitech I advocated for the hoteling), but at the times I returned for events or visits, it very much seemed like most people were using the same spaces fairly consistently, though again it was pretty role dependant. The back office sorts stabilized and those who interacted more with customers tended to float more.
Manulife is by far the most remote-friendly company I've worked for, probably because they were a multi-national company where teams regularly were located in geographically and chronologically disparate locations, which forces the issue I think. When you start genuinely caring more about the work that is done then where and when it gets done, there's a lot of flexibility.
I don't have any predictions now, and am greatly interested in what new office conventions develop in the next 5-10 years. Pre-pandemic I'd have put money on more and more large organizations moving to flexible, hoteling-based work spaces and clearly now there's even more motivation to do so but once the pandemic eases (whatever that means, hand wave hand wave hand wave) I'm certain that there's going to be a lot of people who are flocking back to office spaces. I think the pandemic and the variances in safety of free movement are really going to emphasize the advantages of very flexible physical environments.