A love letter written with a typewriter today would be considered a romantic gesture, however in 1906 they were called the most “cold-blooded, mechanical, unromantic production imaginable” by one writer.
https://newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/when-typewriters-killed-romance
Tag Archives: office
Malls Are in Trouble Again, Offices Are Next
“The mall business can provide a preview to the challenges owners and lenders of office buildings may face in the coming years,” said Vince Tibone, a retail analyst at Green Street.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-02-17/us-malls-collapsing-have-commercial-real-estate-lenders-getting-aggressive
What ails Google. And how it can turn things around. (The maze is in the mouse)
Google has 175,000+ capable and well-compensated employees who get very little done quarter over quarter, year over year. Like mice, they are trapped in a maze of approvals, launch processes, legal reviews, performance reviews, exec reviews, documents, meetings, bug reports, triage, OKRs, H1 plans followed by H2 plans, all-hands summits, and inevitable reorgs. The mice are regularly fed their “cheese” (promotions, bonuses, fancy food, fancier perks) and despite many wanting to experience personal satisfaction and impact from their work, the system trains them to quell these inappropriate desires and learn what it actually means to be “Googley” — just don’t rock the boat. As Deepak Malhotra put it in his excellent business fable, at some point the problem is no longer that the mouse is in a maze. The problem is that “the maze is in the mouse”.
https://medium.com/@pravse/the-maze-is-in-the-mouse-980c57cfd61a
What do we mean by flexibility? (developing a new language for the future of work)
Flexibility is often used loosely to mean not working in the office. We’re all still having those, ‘How many days are you in?’ conversations as hybrid working continues to evolve. Post-pandemic, however, expectations of flexible working are much broader than before. Recognizing this, Unilever’s approach is more holistic.
External data and commentary suggest that most people look for what we call ‘everyday’ flexibility – the ability to manage and adjust start and finish times, the freedom to manage work commitments in and around life commitments and for work to be measured in outputs delivered, rather than hours worked.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/flexible-working-productivity-and-growth-davos23?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social_scheduler&utm_term=Davos+2023&utm_content=24/01/2023+05:00
Related report: Work in the Pandemic Age
Why Office Buildings Are Still in Trouble
“We see lots of tenants not renewing their leases, going either fully remote, or renewing their leases but signing up for less space,” said Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, one of the authors of the paper, and a professor specializing in real estate at Columbia Business School. “It all adds up.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/business/office-buildings-real-estate-vacancy.html
Analyzing Hybrid Work
I have been getting students in my Fall Analyzing Trends class at Parsons School of Design – The New School up to speed in mapping speculative past/futures over the last few weeks. We started off by looking at the topic of hybrid work that has been in the news so much of late. As companies begin to put a stake in the ground on where they might sit in designing the meaning of work.
The archetypal extremes of “everyone back” (Tesla) to “work anywhere” (Airbnb) frameworks have been getting the most attention as to where work and the office might be going next. From the evolving design of offices from open plans to the emerging new types of privacy needs, to the ways technology and human skills begin to overlap and hint at possible emerging unknowns that will impact education, skills, and sustainable investment. #work#foresight#speculativedesign#mural#midjourney
Future of Work (McKinsey)
The world of work is changing. Artificial intelligence and automation will make this shift as significant as the mechanization in prior generations of agriculture and manufacturing. While some jobs will be lost, and many others created, almost all will change. The COVID-19 crisis accelerated existing trends and caused organizations to reevaluate many aspects of work. This regularly updated collection of articles draws together our latest perspectives on the future of work, workforce, and workplace.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work
Workers Forced to Return to the Office Are Demanding This Surprising, Old-School Feature
Proponents of the “open” office setup might tout benefits like collaboration and transparency, but research confirms that high noise levels are as detrimental as they seem, causing physiological stress and heightening negative moods by 25%. People want the privacy and personal space they’ve come to expect at home. In fact, Kristi Buchler, principal at Interior Architects, which helps companies plan workspaces, told WSJ that “seated privacy” is the latest buzzword in office design.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/workers-returning-to-the-office-want-their-cubicles-back/435485
Analyzing Trends with Tim Stock 