The Dynamic Office Comeback Post-Covid

A redesign of workspace to accommodate the management of workers’ well-being after the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

During the Coronavirus pandemic, working at the office was held in abeyance while the government continues to find ways to tackle the continuous accretion of Covid cases. Every medical advance against the Coronavirus changes the way the offices are going to operate in the near future. Rumor has it that companies are seeing the end of an open-plan workspace and reverting back to small, private offices that resemble closed-off cubicles. However, is that the only way forward? Or rather backwards? In the coming year, prioritising the minimisation of health risks are at the utmost importance for all companies that plan on reopening physical offices. How can we create an office space that does not sacrifice the open communication benefits of an open-plan workspace, and still be able to regulate the limitation of interaction to keep everyone healthy?

Working from Home Pros & Cons

In order to understand what a better workspace for future offices looks like, we must consider the pros and cons of working from home to smoothly transition remote workers to resume working in offices. Working from home has been a necessary protocol for the sake of minimising health risks during this pandemic. To some people, this is the best thing that could happen during this difficult time because it brought them some conveniences, especially for families with young children. However, for others who are used to more rigid work schedules, it felt like they couldn’t work from home with constant distractions from family members.

Most would agree that one of the biggest upsides of working from home is that they no longer have to commute to work, they simply wake up, make a coffee and get to work on the kitchen counter. No commute means saving time and money!

"No more crowded buses or trains. No more annoying traffic jams. Back in my office job I always hated this part of my day the most. I found it very stressful and depressing."

However, working from home meant that collaboration within teams would have to be done over online video calls through platforms like Zoom or Google Meet. This limits the flexibility of communication between workers, which might create potential blockers in getting projects done smoothly.

Lastly, flexible working hours is either one's favorite aspect or one's most disliked element that comes with working from home. It allows one to manage their time however they want around work and their personal life. Depending on the kind of person you are, you may like the freedom of merging your work with your personal life, or you may completely hate it due to the lack of personal space during your working hours at home.

Work-Life Balance Evolving to Work-life Integration

Another aspect to consider along with the #workingfromhome trend is work-life balance versus work-life integration. Work-life balance is an approach that has been used over the last several decades for people to manage their way of living, whereas work-life integration has been recently incorporated into our lives, when working from home became the only way to work. These approaches of lifestyles, although sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably, are distinctly different in their essence.

Work-Life Balance

Work-life Balance refers to the approach that separates the work and life aspect. This means that it is crucial to create clear boundaries that allow for exclusive spaces around the two aspects individually, whether it be physical or emotional boundaries. With #workingfromhome being the trend at the moment, many have lost these boundaries to their work-life balance, which forces them to change their lifestyle approach into work-life integration.

Work-Life Integration

Work-life integration, on the other hand, refers to the merge between the two aspects. Working is seen to be a part of life and therefore should be intertwined within our lifestyle and merged with one's day-to-day activities. We have seen an increase of people being forced to get used to this lifestyle approach during the pandemic. Many have had to turn their kitchen table into their work desk, and others have had to isolate themselves in their bedroom in order to create a physical work space away from the rest of the family.

There isn't any one solution that is "one size fits all", some may be more efficient living the work-life integration lifestyle, while others may find themselves more productive living a work-life balance lifestyle. It is up to you to understand which lifestyle works best for you through practical experiences, and analyze the upsides and downsides between these two approaches.