After years of remote work, post-pandemic employees are struggling with office distractions. The solutions run from in-office phone booths to libraries to, surprisingly, adding more sound.



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Chad West doesn’t go into his London office more than once a week. As a vice president of marketing at crypto smart wallet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.argent.xyz/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Argent</a>, West shows up for strategy or creative meetings. But when he’s just trying to get work done, the distractions and noise at Argent’s open plan office make him 40% less productive than at home, he estimates. Music escaping from coworkers’ headphones and coworkers’ voices pull at his attention while the sound of software engineers banging away at their keyboards grates on his nerves.



“I don’t know if it’s just because we’ve all become a bit more psychopathic, or maybe it’s always been in us, but I pick up on everything now,” says West, 33. “If someone has the audacity to take a phone call in a smallish office where people are trying to work, it grinds my ears.”



More than four years after the pandemic prompted most office workers to log on from home, many have returned to the office, whether because of employer mandates, a desire to spend time with colleagues or a need to escape from roommates or family. About&nbsp;<a href="https://wfhresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/WFHResearch_updates_June2024.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">27% of paid workdays</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. were done from home in May, down dramatically from some 60% at the pandemic’s peak, but up from less than 10% before Covid-19.



As people have returned to the office either full- or part-time, complaints about a long-standing frustration—the noise and distractions of open-plan designs—have escalated. Workers are taking more Zoom meetings from the office, often speaking louder in those video calls. Bosses encourage office days to be spent “collaborating” and developing social bonds, but that boosts the chatter echoing in the space.



Compounding the problem: At companies that have downsized their real estate to take advantage of fewer people being onsite, conference rooms and private spaces fill up fast–with the first to claim them each day staying put. “It&#8217;s human behavior,” says Melissa Strickland, a principal and managing director at design firm&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hlw.design/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">HLW</a>. If meetings run back-to-back, “why would I [switch rooms] when I could just take all my calls with some convenience [in this room by myself]?”



In a Sept. 2023 survey by workplace research firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.leesmanindex.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Leesman</a>, noise levels were rated among the 10 most important features of the office—ranking between functioning toilets and an IT help desk. Yet only about 32% of employees are satisfied with noise levels in an average office, another Leesman survey (released this past April) found, and only two issues had lower satisfaction numbers in those offices: Access to nearby “leisure facilities,” and the rate of people walking past workstations.



The response to all these complaints presents a business opportunity, with vendors successfully selling everything from phone booth-style pods to “soundscaping” services that use a “biophilic” approach to help muffle voices with sounds found in nature. Furniture makers and interior designers are adding more acoustic-friendly materials and designing “libraries” for quiet places to work. Some employers are doling out noise-canceling headphones and even building tools to help workers alert colleagues when they need to focus.



“This is the nail that every organization is trying to hit the head of,” says Leesman founder Tim Oldman. He sees designers moving toward “re-cellularization” of interior space—more huddle rooms, private offices or quiet rooms many workers crave. “If we want employees to willingly return to offices, we have to provide space that supports those moments where they need distinct acoustic and visual privacy.”



Office distractions are more than a minor annoyance. A 2021&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-management-and-organization/article/abs/openplan-office-noise-is-stressful-multimodal-stress-detection-in-a-simulated-work-environment/F3EF8D2DF47767F18CBF5C081D6AB3A0#access-block" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;Journal of Management &amp; Organization&nbsp;found that in experiments with controlled environments, typical noise levels of open plan offices caused increases in physiological stress indicators such as higher heart rates, as well as more facial expressions of disgust and reports by workers of negative moods.



“We don&#8217;t habituate to noise,” observes Libby Sander, an assistant professor at Bond University in Australia who worked on the study. “We have this idea that oh, you’ll just get used to it.…But physiologically and psychologically, your body doesn&#8217;t.”



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The desire for more control of office noise is one reason for the growth of companies like Finland-based&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frameryacoustics.com/en/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Framery</a>, one of the biggest makers of office “pods”—essentially, fully enclosed, modern looking glass-walled phone booths that start at about $8,700 for a compact single. (Some booths seat up to six people, making them more like enclosed conference rooms.) In 2022, Framery’s global revenue hit $164 million, up from $86 million in 2020 and $101 million in 2021. While sales fell slightly in 2023, dinged by market uncertainty, inflation and higher interest rates, cofounder and CEO Samu Hällfors said he expects rapid growth again this year, though he declined to share forecasts.



In March, the company added a new line of pods that not only insulate sound for users seated within the booths, but have a “sound masking” system that emits&nbsp;<a href="https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/pink-noise-sleep" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">pink noise</a>-like sound into surrounding areas. In doing so, the booths raise the ambient noise in nearby spaces, with an aim to make office chatter less intelligible. “The noise level itself? Yes, that’s kind of a problem, but the real problematic thing about noise is when your brain catches a familiar word,” says Hällfors.



Finland-based Framery added a new line of office &#8220;pods&#8221; in March that not only insulate sound for users seated within the booths, but have a “sound masking” system that emits pink noise-like sound into surrounding areas.PHOTO VIA FRAMERY



That’s why designers and entrepreneurs are adding sound&nbsp;into&nbsp;spaces, which can be a way to address concerns about either too much noise or too much silence. After working for others in the sound space for more than a decade, Evan Benway launched London-based&nbsp;<a href="https://www.moodsonic.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Moodsonic</a>&nbsp;in 2022. He now works with companies like SAP, GSK and Steelcase to create “responsive soundscapes” that use sensors to generate background sound that adapts in real time to how distracting or stimulating the environment is.



In effect, Moodsonic helps companies address one of the ironies of the post-pandemic workplace: People are distracted by sound in the office, but it’s often because it’s too quiet, rather than too loud. Instead of having 60 people in an open office where a hum of many conversations happens in the background, “now maybe you have 15 people, and when one person speaks, everyone hears everything that they’re saying,” Benway says. “It’s perfect speech intelligibility”—and the issue that bothers people most.



Moodsonic’s sensors pick up sound levels and adjust the “soundscapes,” which include nature-inspired subtle birdsongs or babbling brooks, depending on the ratio of loud sales calls to focused work or whether it’s a quiet Friday or bustling Tuesday. Benway won’t disclose revenues, but says the company is working with 30 of the 500 largest U.S. companies and is already profitable; in its second year it tripled the square footage where it provides soundscapes and grew subscriptions by 150%.



Others are finding success tapping into not just office workers’ need for privacy, but remote-based workers’ similar desires. Prominent venture capitalist Fred Wilson, the cofounder of New York-based&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usv.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Union Square Ventures</a>, and his wife Joanne, an angel investor, are launching the second location of&nbsp;<a href="https://framework.nyc/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Framework</a>, a coworking space in New York, this fall. The two got the idea after recognizing that in cities like New York, entrepreneurs, creatives and other remote workers have little space of their own and don’t necessarily want to be in “one of these places where there’s all of this shared nonsense,” Joanne says, referring to coworking spaces with group seating and little privacy.



At the Wilsons’ first location in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood, members pay anywhere from $755 to $860 per month, depending on lease term, for their own sound-insulated pod in the airy Framework space, complete with its own mini-fridge, kettle and French-press. Initially designed as a way to socially distance people during the pandemic, the booths now draw members for different reasons. “It’s quiet, and they don’t have to listen to their neighbor talking to their friend or wife or whatever,” Fred Wilson told&nbsp;Forbes. The original location has a waiting list of about two dozen people.



Furniture and interior designers, too, are building more acoustic-driven protection into their spaces.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.zintraacoustic.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Zintra Acoustics</a>, a line of wall panels, space dividers and ceiling fixtures that help absorb sound, has seen “surging” demand for acoustic solutions, said Kirsten Grosman, product marketing lead for the brand, which is owned by Australia-based Baresque Group, in an emailed statement. “Noise has become the top grievance among employees,” she said.



Meanwhile, the Swedish company IKEA, which has been in the office furniture business for 40 years, is rolling out a new line (known as MITTZON) that’s designed in part to address sound and noise annoyances. For example, it has added a wood fiber material, normally used in the construction industry for insulation, to acoustic screens that are wrapped in fabric. IKEA also worked with suppliers to quiet the mechanism that controls an electric standing desk’s height with a button press. “The role of the office has changed,” says Ikea product design developer Philip Dilé. “A majority of people told us they wanted to come back [to the office] to find focus and less distraction.”



Ikea’s new line, with its acoustic screens, is one example of a broader move to offer more solutions that don’t require lots of private offices or rooms, which arguably defeat the purpose of having people come into the office to collaborate. “Why would I want to come into a whole bank of pods or Zoom booths, and that’s my experience for the day?” asks Tracy Wymer, vice president of insights &amp; inspiration at Teknion, which makes booths itself. Wymer notes that his firm is working on a new product that provides “visual cues to whether you’re available or whether you’re in focused work,” but said it’s too early to offer details.



Software firm monday.com is piloting a device made by an in-house &#8220;Makers&#8221; team that’s positioned on the corner of workers’ computer monitors; users can set it to show coworkers how much time they need to focus.MONDAY.COM



One employer experimenting with visual cues is monday.com, an Israel-based project management software firm. It has a group of “Makers” on staff who’ve designed an Internet of Things (IoT) device called “FocusTime” that’s positioned on the corner of workers’ computer monitors. It looks like a dial that shows how much remaining uninterrupted time the user needs—and acts as a physical enhancement of the Slack or Teams status icons people are accustomed to seeing onscreen.



The idea originally came from a monday.com employee who struggled with colleagues’ interruptions as she returned to the office; an early version was simply a flag that could manually lift when someone shouldn’t be disturbed before becoming a device users could just tap on and off. It evolved into the current gadget, which users can set to show coworkers how much time they need to focus—the time window is copied to calendar apps—or if time for quiet work is blocked on a digital calendar, it will appear on the device.



Saron Paz, leader of the Makers team, says about 20 employees are taking part in a pilot using the prototype gadget; a company-wide test is in the planning stages and then, potentially, it could become a product it commercializes. (In September, monday.com plans to display the device at a customer conference in London and New York.) At the very least, Paz hopes the devices “start a conversation between people about what they need in terms of noise or other pain points,” he says, noting “we are still hard-wired for things that are physical.”



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Other companies are handing out noise-canceling headphones as back-to-office perks or adding more quiet spaces into designs. When Intuit’s Mailchimp division designed its new offices—a sleek, modern space along Atlanta’s popular walking and biking BeltLine path—acoustics were a priority. The old space had a sea of desks in a converted warehouse with only six phone booths or “drop-in” rooms; the new one has more than 60, says project executive Colin Hughes. Staffers are given the option of ordering noise-canceling headphones free of charge.



In this “innovation hub”—as Intuit calls the new Atlanta office–acoustic-friendly panels were used on walls, ceilings and as dividers to separate office “neighborhoods.” There are five “library” spaces throughout the building, several of which are wood-paneled, lined with books and housing roomy tables with task lighting that evoke the feel of a modern university library. People tend to work there silently, says Hughes: “If you see there’s books on the walls and it looks like a library, you’re going to behave that way.”



One driving factor behind creating more spaces for quiet work has been greater awareness about the needs of neurodiverse workers, such as those with ADHD or sensory processing challenges.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7732033/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">External research</a>&nbsp;shows that 15% to 20% of employees are neurodivergent, says Salesforce executive vice president for real estate and workplace services Relina Bulchandani. That prompted the software giant to design floors in its new Chicago tower with “meditation rooms” for quiet breaks and “library” spaces equipped with double monitor screens requested by software engineers.



While labeled as libraries, there are no signs to keep quiet, says Bulchandani. She notes that as people have spent more time in the office, they’ve grown more comfortable with taking calls at desks in open office areas, and Salesforce has urged people to do more of that—within reason—to keep small huddle rooms from booking up. “We&#8217;re encouraging folks that you can take calls at your desk, but just be mindful—you don’t want to be all day on video calls at your desk.”



Still, the paradox of many such solutions for office distractions isn’t lost on Argent’s West. If everyone simply had the choice of where they want to work—rather than having to report to an office—some of those solutions wouldn’t be needed. “All a company should really care about is efficiency,” he says. “If you’re delivering what’s expected of you, knock yourself out.”

Shot of a young man experiencing a headache at work while being overwhelmed

A Noisy Office Is A Nuisance–And A Business Opportunity

Biotech giant Genentech has long been hailed as a great place to work. In the mid-2000s, magazine&nbsp;<a href="https://money.cnn.com/2006/01/06/news/companies/bestcos_genentech/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">profiles</a>&nbsp;highlighted its informal, freewheeling culture and mission-driven science but emphasized its campus’ many perks: made-to-order sushi, onsite day care and regular Friday evening parties known as “ho-hos.” Its C-suite leaders dressed up for Halloween each year, once piling into SUVs and running into rival drug-maker Amgen’s lobby for a photo before security showed up.



But in a pandemic, such perks—or such antics—aren’t as accessible. Currently, about 5,500 of the 13,000 employees at Genentech, No. 14 on&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;list of America’s Best Large Employers, work onsite in an average week. While there have been some on-campus events, such as outdoor viewings of March Madness games, it now has virtual “office hours” with executives, injecting fun with opening credits that spoof TV shows. Executives still dress up for Halloween, but the costume reveal is virtual: CEO Alexander Hardy showed up as Ted Lasso with a “<a href="https://fb.watch/b1d9bSjjom/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">believe</a>” Zoom background.&nbsp;



But in some ways, says chief people and culture officer Cynthia Burks, the pandemic has helped Genentech reinforce its culture. It prompted them to institute “protected time,” or blocked calendars between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., giving employees time for breaks or to focus on heads-down work. The company hasn’t mandated a number of in-office days for workers whose jobs don’t require them to be onsite, letting teams develop their own agreements.



And the monthly “office hours” that replaced twice-a-year in-person town halls let workers not based at its South San Francisco headquarters ask executives more questions and see more stories about patients and researchers.&nbsp;The pandemic “has really allowed us to think about the experiences of people who are not tied to the main campus,” Burks says. “Culture doesn’t live in a place. It lives in our values.”



As we reach the second anniversary of the pandemic and many office workers remain remote, many companies are wrestling with what the squishy topic of corporate culture really means when the office is no longer center stage. The definition of culture that consultants like to repeat—“how things get done around here”—gets even harder to grok when the “here” is no longer a place most people go every day.



For many employers, says Gartner vice president&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/analyst/67144/Brian-Kropp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Kropp</a>, one of the big concerns about hybrid work has been how they will manage different cultures that arise as the team—rather than the office—becomes even more central. “Are they in conflict with each other? Do you act one way online and another in the office? That’s a huge fear for them.”



He and others say that while a company’s overarching culture is still important, how it’s viewed is changing. “The task of CEOs and CHROs is quickly shifting from managing the company’s culture to harnessing and managing micro-cultures,” says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michaelburchell.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Burchell</a>, an independent human resources strategy consultant who formerly worked for the Great Place to Work Institute. As individual teams increasingly decide where they work—and when—“we’re not going to have this one monolithic culture. If it ever did exist, it definitely doesn’t now.”&nbsp;



Also more important, says Burchell, is finding ways to prevent burnout and maintain flexibility rather than add fancy onsite perks. “What people are looking for is actually not the ping pong tables and meals,” he says. “What has shifted is the attention to ‘are employees exhausted, do they feel overworked, do they feel valued.’”&nbsp;



Indeed, one frequent theme&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;heard when speaking with companies on the list was giving teams the ability to decide which days they want to work onsite. At No. 22 General Mills, about 80% of corporate employees are working a hybrid schedule where certain days or hours aren’t mandated but decided by individual teams and reviewed every three months. While it varies dramatically, an average is about two times a week, says CHRO Jacqueline Williams-Roll, noting that doesn’t necessarily mean two full days: “I think flexibility is table stakes.”&nbsp;



At No. 2 Southern Company, where nearly half of its 28,000 employees work in the field or in plants, working from home for the rest of its corporate employees “used to be seen as a benefit for folks who were strong performers,” or who had situations that merited it, says human resources senior vice president Sloane Drake. “Now, it’s a legitimate work practice.”&nbsp;



Drake says they also don’t have a corporate edict on the number of days in office; rather, it’s decided by teams, with most corporate employees working two to three days a week “hybrid”—at home, partially at home or hosting the team at an offsite location—and the other days in the office. “We are 1000% more flexible than we were pre-Covid.”



Meanwhile, Kausik Rajgopal, the CHRO of No. 26 PayPal, says that remote work has challenged the “informal, incidental, unplanned interactions I think of really as the mortar between the bricks” of a corporate community—a popular coffee shop at its headquarters was a particular gathering space for such interactions, but has gone mostly empty for the past two years.&nbsp;



PayPal has used virtual meetings to reinforce company priorities, he says, and brought on more speakers to emphasize diversity issues, invested in development training and counseling support and added six “wellness days” last year when everyone disconnected from email and shut down at the same time to help manage burnout.



“Our CEO is fond of saying ‘ultimately, you are what you do, not what you say,’” Rajgopol says. “I think we&#8217;ve had to—just like everybody else—be more imaginative.”



For the full list of America’s Best Large Employers, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-large-employers/">here</a>. For the full list of America’s Best Midsize Employers, click&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-midsize-employers/">here</a>.&nbsp;



For more coverage of America’s Best Employers:



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthatodd/2022/02/10/americas-best-employers-2022-methodology-trends-and-what-makes-a-top-employer/">America’s Best Employers 2022: Methodology, Trends And What Makes A Top Employer</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2022/02/10/inside-vera-bradley-how-barbara-bradley-baekgaard-built-a-company-as-whimsical-as-its-creations/">Inside Vera Bradley: How Barbara Bradley Baekgaard Built A Company As Whimsical As Its Creations</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiejennings/2022/02/10/two-years-into-the-pandemic-hospitals-earn-high-marks-as-americas-best-employers/">Two Years Into The Pandemic, Hospitals Earn High Marks As America’s Best Employers</a>



By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/"></a>Jena McGregor, Forbes Staff

Office Workers Heading For Lunch

What ‘Corporate Culture’ Means When The Office Isn’t Center Stage

TOPLINE&nbsp;Many employers should adopt a “hybrid” model of office work, with some employees in the office and others working remotely. Clearly communicate phased reopening plans with employees, especially new office protocols, such as testing and wearing masks.



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<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Consider a staggered return. “Offices may consider starting slow by opening with fewer people at first,” says Dr. Mark Kortepeter, an epidemiology professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and author of Inside the Hot Zone. He also suggests shifting work schedules and “having liberal stay at home policies if people are ill.”</li><li>Antibody testing can be a helpful tool but not a panacea, Kortepeter says. The accuracy of the tests can vary, especially because there is a lag time between being infected with the virus and developing antibodies. We also don&#8217;t fully understand whether having antibodies translates to protection from infection and for how long. </li><li>Build areas of protection. The virus mostly spreads via large respiratory droplets, so using plexiglass or other types of barriers can block some of the direct spread of these droplets.</li><li>Minimize face-to-face contact by instituting virtual meetings. For in-person meetings, make sure there is enough room to socially distance. </li><li>Establish employee protocols around personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves.</li></ul>



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<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Adopt a “hybrid” approach to reopening. “Some jobs are better performed remotely and some are better performed in the office,” says Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., President and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. “Employers are going through that process literally by job category.”</li><li>There are varied ways to reopen, says Taylor. The society’s most recent survey of employers found 39 percent were planning to implement a phased reopening strategy, with critical teams returning first, while 19 percent plan to implement an alternating schedule strategy, with most employees returning on alternating days or weeks.&nbsp;</li><li>Establish a policy around personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, because lax or conflicting guidelines will cause confusion. “We are now watching very closely what happens when you get people back into the workplace, particularly where businesses don&#8217;t mandate the wearing of a mask,” says Taylor. “You have a new area of dispute that&#8217;s going to need to be resolved by employers.”</li></ul>



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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/videos/live-from-our-internal-weekly-company-townhall-sharing-an-update-on-our-approach/10111936118050541/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;sweeping changes to its remote work policies, such as allowing employees to request the option of permanently working from home and “aggressively” increasing the hiring of remote employees to diversify its workforce. “For the last 10 or 11 weeks, we&#8217;ve had 95 percent or more of our population working remotely and what we’ve found is that we’re still able to get a lot of work done,” says Lori Goler, Facebook’s Vice President of People. The new emphasis on remote hiring will allow Facebook to expand its talent pool geographically. “It really creates a lot of opportunity across the United States. So now you don&#8217;t have to live in one of the locations [where we have offices] which means that people don&#8217;t have to get up and leave their communities,” Goler says.&nbsp;



When the social media giant starts to reopen offices as permitted by state and local officials, they expect to operate at no more than 25 percent capacity in the near-term while proper safety measures are put in place.&nbsp; “We decided that we would take a more conservative approach, both in terms of leaving the offices and in terms of returning to the offices,” Goler says.&nbsp;



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Be alert for working conditions (or fellow employees) that are not complying with safety guidelines. Offices are full of high-touch surfaces—door handles, light switches, appliances—so check what the new cleaning and disinfection protocols are in your office. Stay away from crowded conference rooms or other commons areas where people are unable to socially distance.&nbsp;



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While working remotely is a big change for many people, it also allows for much greater geographic diversity in hiring and access to a whole new pipeline of talented recruits. Plus, many companies will likely take a hybrid approach of having some people work remotely and others in a physical office. “Every company will have to do what’s right for their company and situation but what we found is that it’s actually worked out really well for us,” says Goler of Facebook. “And we’re pretty excited and optimistic about the future.” 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/">Maneet Ahuja</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs">Entrepreneurs</a>

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How To Return To The Office

The time for an intervention of the workplace has arrived. The traditional office as we know it, bound by a desk with set working hours, being present for meetings, and processing paperwork, is no longer functional. Technological advancements have changed the way people work so that it’s no longer where it gets done but that it gets done. These are some of the key insights shared by Deloitte in a series of reports released towards the end of 2016.
One of the reports revealed that the work place of the future will be mobile and not bound by location; it will be independent (contractors); more people will be working from home; and co-working spaces will be an alternate to working from home; all this ties in with a traditional workplace no longer being functional.
The future is mobile
Technology such as laptops, tablets, smartphones; wireless connectivity; and networking software will be a key driver to this paradigm shift. Mobile manufacturers are catering to this – the new Samsung S8 offers a “Dex” mode that lets you switch to a desktop mode by attaching a few peripherals to its smartphone. According to Deloitte, many workers may still have a designated office space for themselves but they are treating work as something they do rather than where they do it.
Not bound by location
The combination of portable devices, WiFi and modern software solutions, means employees can work from anywhere and don’t necessarily have to come into an office, or sit in traffic to get there – an issue South Africans can identify with. As more companies shift to cloud-based or custom solutions, it means one can work from any location yet still collaborate via shared documents in the form of Google Docs, Office 365 or Dropbox, to name a few.
Co-working spaces
There has been an increase in co-working spaces in South Africa with companies renting out ‘hot-desks’ to freelance individuals. These spaces come with desks, phones, high-speed internet, boardrooms, meeting areas, coffee, and whatever other amenities are required to work from ‘anywhere’. Provided one isn’t bound by specific machinery; one could find themselves sharing office space with individuals from varying industries. Access to a set-up with all amenities is usually tied to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual fee, offering greater flexibility for contract work.
Gig economy
The gig economy is one of the major elements of the workforce of the future. It is where independent contractors and freelancers will be used for short-term projects, and also ties in with not being bound by location. If a job can be done remotely with the right hardware and software, a greater pool of employees are available for the picking. With people changing jobs more frequently, the gig economy is said to be an evolution of this. Additionally, businesses save on other costs such as office space, training, and employee benefits.
No more paperwork
Going digital or moving to the cloud means no more unnecessary paperwork, saving businesses a huge chunk in costs. All it takes is moving to smarter solutions such a digital HR software; electronic contracts; accounting software; online project management tools; collaborating via shared documents, and online video chats instead of face-to-face meetings.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/02/01/inside-house-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inside The House Of The Future</a>
Could this work in a South African context? Forty-year-old Daniel Calbacho, Managing Director of RED Marketing based in Illovo, Johannesburg, took an interesting, non-traditional approach with his company. He “fired” all his staff and re-hired them as independent freelancers.
Calbacho manages a team of young writers and recognizes that people are all different, have a life outside of standard working hours and want to pursue their passions as part of their lifestyle.
“Each person in the business is encouraged to see themselves as an entrepreneur, and focus on their predominant skillset, which is linked to their passion to earn a living.” His team comprises of individuals who are motoring journalists, photographers, writers, bloggers and even a pop singer.
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They are also encouraged to grow at their own pace, and if they’d like to earn more, they don’t have to wait for an annual increase.
“Millennials are about instant gratification – ‘I want this now’. If someone in the team would like to earn a specific amount, we work towards that. Obviously this means taking on more work, much like earn-as-you-go.”
RED Marketing has offices with all the mod-cons, allowing the team to use its facilities at leisure. Cost saving for the company has presented itself in the form of equipment, bonuses, and benefits. As independent contractors, the team supplies their own laptops, cameras and smart devices, which they’ve insured. “Bonuses are no longer a cost consideration albeit we do believe in sharing the company’s profits for outstanding work, and there are no costs for medical aid or pension.”
Skills development has not stopped, says Calbacho. “Every three weeks the team gathers and a person within the group presents knowledge or a skill they’ve been elected to share.”
Leave has also become a secondary HR issue, with each team member allocated 18 days a year to take off completely. “Days are logged, not scrutinized; and most of them don’t take all of it because they are free to manage their time without the construct of a nine-to-five job.”
Calbacho says what they are doing currently works for the business. “The company is successful because the team is happy. Our main focus is delivering the best product to our clients.” &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

The Workplace Of The Future – Or Now?

My last day in office as Public Protector in South Africa was difficult. That Friday, October 14, it was difficult for me to focus on any feeling because we had not slept the night before. My focus was on finishing the editing of the [State of Capture] report in the morning.
And then rushing home to freshen up and then get back on time to meet the new Public Protector and take her through some of the things with the team. That would be our first meeting and we would schedule more when I am out of the office.
Nonetheless, that Friday was like a fast-forwarded movie, everything was fast, and every minute just disappeared.
Unwisely, we also had arranged a media briefing for that day, which just made it very complicated. Because I often found myself in a fast-paced situation that day, having little time, I had no time to reflect how blessed I had been. I think that is something I did on Saturday after the 14th when I just reflected.
Firstly, to be given this opportunity to be the Public Protector and secondly, to work with people who shared the same vision, and worked with me understanding the purpose of the office while defining our purposes as individuals within that.
That really was the focus of my reflection, the role became very, very distant, but at the end of it really it seemed to me that most of the things that had happened were extraordinary, things that I am really thankful to be a part of.
I really think that it was such a remarkable journey with remarkable people. Members of our team who were working with limited resources but keeping their eyes on the ball, and people in government who, besides all the noise, the majority of them really just focused on doing it right.
Late at night [Friday], when everyone else was gone, there was a team of staff members that volunteered to come and clear the office, fitting things in boxes, which was really kind of them and it wasn’t just those that had been working closely with me in the public office.
It was really a touching moment.
Over time, I have been totally surprised by the reaction of people because you and I know that we all just [were] required to do our job. The attention and accolades sometimes confuse me, though it’s something I am obviously grateful for because when you are doing a job, you [are] worrying that ‘let me not do it wrong, let me not drop the ball’, and of course I noticed that there were balls that we dropped.
Especially when it came to doing work in a timely manner because we had to catch this ball and catch that one and in every multi-tasking, some balls were dropped. But the generosity of the people, in focusing on only the good that we did, has been amazing.
I am just like any other person doing my work with a team of people. The difference between me and the team is the title, I have been given the title of Public Protector and the team was working as hard.
There was nothing special about me, other than the fact that I had a title and in terms of brains and commitment, the men and women I worked with were equally talented colleagues and worked hard.
I am not remarkable beyond other females, I am just blessed in that people seem to focus on the good I do.
Thinking of South Africa after my term is that it’s such a beautiful and  remarkable country, there is so much to do in this country.
It has come this far, but today is better than yesterday and tomorrow is certainly going to be better than today. Chin up and focus on the dream, the dream that’s been captured in the Constitution.
&nbsp;
– As told to Thandi Xaba

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‘That Friday Was Like  A Fast-Forwarded Movie’

It’s a story that has stuck on Bradley Porter like a tattoo. When you are in the business of renting office space, not being able to pay rent as the leaser can be quite ironic.
Born in the Free State province in South Africa, and growing up in the coastal city of Durban, Porter’s future in entrepreneurship was inevitable having had a father who had a tiling business.
“It’s almost an affliction you are born with and I can’t really help it. I had a burning desire to have control of my own fate and destiny. And whatever it takes, you have to fulfil that desire and passion,” says Porter.
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He grew up at the height of apartheid, attending the University of Durban-Westville which at the time was one of the political institutions in the country. When he didn’t succeed in university, he joined the army and from there decided to go live in Britain for nearly 10 years.
It was during this time as an employee that he realized he couldn’t work for someone else for the rest of his life. He packed his bags, returned to Durban, and with the little money he had saved he started two businesses. Along the way, one of his friends, who had purchased space in a building, suggested Porter hire 200 square meters for his ‘Experience This’ business on Florida Road in Durban, a hub of activity for tourists and locals.
“I said ‘I don’t need all that space. I don’t’ need 200 square meters’… but I said ‘if you are prepared to try start this business with me, I’ll take the 200 square meters and we will experiment with this business’ which became known as Flexible Workspaces,” remembers Porter.
In October 2005, Porter founded Flexible Workspaces after spending eight years in the serviced office industry of Britain. The company provides fully serviced offices in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province and Johannesburg. It was founded as a solution to the ever-changing business environment and to offer alternative options to the business community.
The business caters for small businesses that are starting out. Finding the right office space can be daunting especially when your budget is limited and you working with a small team.
Porter and his friend set up offices. They started with just furniture, the phone system that was already supplied and around $10,500 to get the business going.
“We were so undercapitalized it was unbelievable and we didn’t have any spare cash. To start off your business these days, realistically for 1,000 square meters, you would need at least R4 million ($350,000). For 200 square meters, you would need around R1 million to R2 million ($87,000 to $175,000),” he says.
Two years later, Porter says they decided to open up their next offices in Umhlanga, around 17 kilometers from Durban, even though the first offices on Florida Road were not flourishing.
“The reason we opened in Umhlanga was because of the trend at the time. This was around 2007, the trend was very much up north, outside Durban. We needed to be able to provide a presence in Umhlanga, which is becoming the commercial hub for KwaZulu Natal or Durban anyway,” says Porter.
But this move ushered in his worst day.
“I think every entrepreneur will have one and for me personally it’s so real it’s like a tattoo on the back of my brain. I can relate to it now. I get goosebumps when I think about it because it’s just so real still,” says the 44-year-old.
He calls it Black Friday. It was September 7, 2007 and they had just expanded Flexible Workspaces and the rent was due. Porter was abroad on holiday but had to come back to South Africa to solve numerous problems, the main one being that they hadn’t paid R73,000 ($6,360) in rent for the 500-square-meter Umhlanga offices.
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Unfortunately for them, with a business renting out space to other small business, Flexible Workspaces didn’t have any bringing in money so that they could pay rent. Porter sat in one of the offices looking at the Gateway shopping Centre with one hand on his head and the other holding the telephone to his ear. He was calling the landlord, apologizing for the late rent and begging for some leniency.
“The business model worked in such a way that we take a risk, we’re a bit like a hotel but for businesses. So we’ll go into a space, we do a deal with the landlord, we take a risk on all the capital expenditure. We fit it out, we staff it, we supply the internet, tea and coffee. Everything gets supplied. These services all have to be supplied on day one. And on day one you usually don’t’ have any clients. Unless you’ve been clever about it and been more strategic,” he says.
“But usually, particularly for us, the day one meant no clients. So by the time we got to day 30, we might have had one or two clients but it wasn’t enough to cover our rent and the overheads we had.”
After spending 15 minutes, which felt like years, on the phone with the landlord, she agreed to give them an extension for a few days to come up with the rent money.
Fortunately, they made it happen. It wasn’t more than a week when the business signed a deal with a data storage company, who remain his clients today. But they had to hobble through paying rent for the following months.
“We went through a three-year recovery period and then in about 2011 we started looking at space in Sandton. And that went really well. We took a small portion of 600 square meters and we filled it very fast. And about a year later, we recovered sufficiently to double the space to 1,200 square meters in Sandton. And we are looking for more now,” he says.
“With the benefit of hindsight I should have started this business in Johannesburg. I think it would have been much more successful by now.”
Flexible Workspaces caters to those who want an office space instead of working from home. Porter says serviced offices reduce the costs and hassles of renting space and combines the best features of a low-cost office in a prime location.
“Our objective was to build a network of business centers, so we were never going to stop at Durban or Umhlanga,” he says.
Since then, the business has 15 employees and turns over around $1.3 million a year.
In October 2013, Flexible Workspaces opened its third serviced offices next to the swanky Montecasino precinct, outside Johannesburg. Porter says that he hopes to open more offices along the continent’s only fast train, the Gautrain, from Johannesburg’s city center all the way through to the country’s capital, Pretoria.
“We want to expand the business nationally and cross borders. I’d like to have a national footprint in five years, international I can’t tell you. We are growing this business organically, so we are using our own money, it’s all self-invested. The pace at which we can grow is limited to the amount of money we make.”

Tag: Office

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