The office furniture industry has undergone significant development in recent years, driven by advancements in technology and changes in the way we work.

One major trend in the industry has been the shift towards ergonomic furniture, as employers and employees alike have come to understand the importance of comfortable and supportive furniture for maintaining productivity and reducing the risk of injury. This has led to an increase in the popularity of adjustable desks, ergonomic chairs, and other furniture designed to support the body and promote good posture.

Another trend in the industry has been the incorporation of technology into office furniture. Many desks now include built-in charging stations for devices, and some even have integrated LED lighting or wireless charging capabilities. This reflects the growing need for employees to stay connected and productive while in the office.

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the office furniture industry. Remote work has become the norm for many companies, and has led to a decrease in the demand for traditional individual office furniture such as desks, chairs and filing cabinets. Instead, there has been a surge in the demand for hotdesking, home office furniture such as adjustable standing desks and ergonomic chairs, as well as office organization and storage solutions.

Another trend related to this is the reconfiguration of office spaces to accommodate social distancing measures and improved hygiene. This includes increased use of partitions, screens and barriers, and the use of materials that can be easily disinfected.

Overall, the office furniture industry has been shaped by the changing needs of employees and employers, as well as by advances in technology and changing workplace trends. As we continue to adapt to the new normal, it will be interesting to see how the industry continues to evolve.

It’s worth mentioning that the office furniture industry is a global market and has different dynamics in different regions and countries depending on the level of development, cultural and business habits, etc.

Demand for modern office spaces continue to increase in 2022 Q2, the best quarter so far since the start of the pandemic. New demand in parts of Europe reached 73,500sqm in the early half of the 2022, according to Colliers experts, which is about double compared to last year. The heighted demand acceleration can be attributed to a portion of the companies holding back development plans during the pandemic period and now setting in motion these plans as pandemic measures eases up.

The divide between total demand and new demand has been fascinating; with one expanding gradually and another expanding sharply. This might indicate there was an overestimation of companies who reduces their office presence amid the rise of hybrid work. That being said, hybrid work transformation continues to be a strong trend and is expected to continue – companies might soon have to look into making decisions on how to modernize their office to cater for the future. Clarity is yet to be available in the face of heightened economic uncertainty worldwide.

Occupancy has increased in most of the large office markets, especially for buildings in high-quality locations where vacancy rates are in single-digit region. Upside pressures on rent continues to hike firmly as demand picks up and perhaps in part due to inflation. Office leasing activities might recover soon to pre-covid levels within the coming years.

Notably, new themes of office spaces are emerging to meet the needs of the changing way of work. Expectations of workspace have been changed after Covid-19 pandemic. Many office spaces are going through major reconfiguration as employers and employees comes together to address the expectations on both sides.

Working full-time at home is now a bore for employees. It’s no surprise considering how most employees have been executing their day-to-day responsibilities at home for almost 2 years.

According to a survey conducted by the Rosslyn Business Improvement District, a business development agency, as the endemic continues, 70% of employees prefer to spend time in the office, while a third prefer to work from renting out coworking spaces, such as Airbnbs, and holiday homes. In the report, employees are feeling inclined to return to their workplaces by in-office privileges. 42% said coffee, food, and snacks would entice them to come back, 35% said comfortable furnishings would encourage them, and 33% said access to outdoor workstations would entice them.

“These insights are assisting us in determining how to meet the future of work by optimizing the new hybrid workplace and at the same time, balancing employee well-being and productivity,” said Mary-Claire Burick, the president of the Rosslyn BID, in a statement. “As the future of employment continues to shift, community leaders around the country are continually seeking effective solutions,” she states.

The routines and anxieties of the last 18 months have left people desiring variety, despite how working from home has gradually become more common. According to a Morning Consult poll, 31% of employees still prefer to work from home full-time, 45% prefer to stay in the office five days a week, and 24% want an equal split of work and home time. 

Approaches to Create Practical Workspace

Bryan Murphy, CEO of Breather, a private workspace provider, said the workplace may inspire productivity and cooperation even if employees only assemble a few times per week. Getting out of the rut of working from home could provide the lift that employees require. “Humans are naturally social beings, and no one wants to be alone all day, every day, not seeing other people,” Murphy says. “People want to be able to spend some peaceful time away from their families when they need to be extremely productive or make a client call.” Nevertheless, people will constantly crave the social aspect even in the comfort of working from home.

According to the Rosslyn BID poll, employees are open to new ways of working, especially if they have access to an outside workplace where they may communicate effectively. 76% of those surveyed thought working outside would increase productivity, and 86% said it would improve their mental health. With so many options and incentives available, companies should think outside the box when imagining what employment looks like today.

“Hybrid has taken on a new significance, and employees have more choice than ever, before in where they want to work,” Jennifer Burns, EVP of developer Monday Properties, said in a statement. “How we see hybrid working has a lot more to do with innovative, intelligent facilities than it does with home versus workplace. We have changed the way we design places depending on how they will be used in the future to create healthy, safe, and productive settings.” 

Finding the ideal work-life balance can be difficult. Undermanaged remote employees may experience job frustration, burnout, or even fraud.

There is a saying that goes, “distance makes the heart grow fonder.” Perhaps it’s a matter of “out of sight, out of mind”? Long hours of forced remote working, be it from home or virtually elsewhere, have proved that for any group of employees, both can be true at times. 

Working from home during the outbreak weakened professionals’ relationships to the consultancies, law firms, or accounting companies that employed them, according to a recent Financial Times research. With most parts of the world finally loosening their lockdown, many have been actively job-hopping because candidates could now interact face to face with prospective employers.

A decrease in commitment toward employers

There are two sides to this situation. First, the seclusion of remote working decreases commitment to your current employer; second, the return of in-person interactions pushes you to establish a bond with a new one.

On the other hand, The Financial Services Culture Board’s efforts fall into the “absence makes the heart grow fonder” camp. Its 2020 study of thousands of Britain banking employees showed increases in scores for feedback, leaders’ transparency, and health.

These scores dipped significantly this year, although they remained higher than in 2019.  According to Jenny Robinson, a senior behavioural scientist at the FSCB, believes that employees may have felt more “equipped to utilize their judgment and autonomy” when working remotely.

Then there’s the Oliver Wyman Forum survey, which discovered that a drive for more flexibility and a better work-life balance, instead of a desire to return to the office, is significantly one of the reasons for resigning or wanting to leave a job, after the quest for earning more money. Finding the ideal work-life balance can be difficult. This is because disorganized management of remote employees may experience job frustration, burnout, or even fraud.

Another survey conducted this year by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors identified the potential of a “post-pandemic organizational cultural problem.” “How do employees maintain their strong attachment to the business, continue to experience the shared purpose, values, and sense of community within their organization, and maintain expected behaviours in the absence of the old workplace-in-person conversations?” asked Heli Mooney, Ryanair’s head of internal audit.

Returning to the office as a senior and new personnel

Depending on where your position is in the hierarchy, the office will either repel or attract you. Robinson distinguishes two “humps” that reflect senior management and junior subordinates or interns.

They are more eager to return to the office than the rest of the staff. “How much of a component of an organization does someone feel if their inclusion consists of a keyboard transfer in a parking lot?”, a manager told FSCB  what it meant to work in a company with “no unifying cultural aspects,”

“How much of a part of their organization does someone feel if their inclusion consists of a keyboard transfer in a parking lot?” 

According to the FSCB, there is a distinction between connection, which technology supports during the lockdown, and collaboration, which is rather challenging. It is difficult to recreate processes that bind in new hiring or junior personnel, such as desk-side learning from experienced employees, online. It’s one of the reasons why investment banks, which place a high value on such tactics, have led “back to the office” campaigns.

Changes influencing the current labour market

Indeed, the after-effects of the outbreak have changed most organizational cultures and their point of view. Kevin Rockmann, a management professor at George Mason University in Virginia, says it’s not unusual that this is causing ripple effects in the labour market. Not everyone who was delighted with their employment prior to the pandemic will be happy after it.

In a 2015 paper for the Academy of Management Discoveries magazine titled “Contagious Offsite Labor and the Lonely Office,” Rockmann and Michael Pratt of Boston College analyzed the unexpected implications of remote work at an unnamed technology company. One major finding was that once a percentage of employees preferred to work remotely, the quality of work in the office declined. Staff members felt “alone in a crowd, surrounded by many but not getting actual social contact in the on-site workplace,” thus many preferred to work off-site.

It’s a feeling where you’ve decided to return to the office anticipating meeting your colleagues only to find out that they’ve chosen to work from home on that day. 

Employers and employees, like their counterparts in 2015, may have to make choices as they try to reverse the flow of remote work, according to Rockmann. “This will cause some turbulence,” he predicts. It is acceptable to experiment, he argues, but businesses must eventually “stick their flag in the ground” and set clear working terms so that employees may choose whether or not to stay. “A lazy option is to choose an in-between model and bend over backward to accommodate everyone: the average level of discontent (with that approach) will be high.”

Needless to say, employers, and even personnel, may feel somewhat “homesick” for a cultural and management ideal that simply didn’t exist prior to the pandemic, according to Robinson of the FSCB. However, once the crisis fades, they will understand that corporate loyalty and cultures are determined less by where labour is performed but more by how it is performed, acknowledged, rewarded, and overseen. 

Getting up right before the meeting starts and joining the rest of your colleagues all while making a cup of coffee or perhaps, waiting for the toast to be done and then spending more time with the family later in the evenings: seemed like the work-life balance was actually possible and beneficial with this utopian dream.

After 18 months of the pandemic, studies and surveys present a more nuanced view of the psychological and physical effects of remote working.

One thing is for certain: working full time from home has received a boost from the pandemic across different parts of the world.

Statistics may have reduced since then in areas where vaccination rates have increased and infection rates have decreased, but they remain much higher than before the outbreak.

Ineffective communications

Through recent studies, there is an increase in providing evidence of the consequences of working from home, such as a Microsoft research published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. The technology powerhouse that commissioned the study will transition to remote work in March 2020. From December 2019 to June 2020, the study examined data and correspondence from about 61,000 employees.

Undoubtedly, while working from home has indeed increased productivity, communication and collaboration between departments decreased.

Employees, in particular, spent less time in direct one-on-one conversations and instead relied more on emails or text messages. According to the authors, this causes employees to become disconnected and obtain less knowledge to be shared, and ultimately, this could have a negative influence on output and creativity.

The study, according to Hannes Zacher, an industrial and organizational psychologist at the University of Leipzig, shows only one side of the coin.

“While the Microsoft analysis provides a somewhat passive perspective, there is also data that demonstrates that the opportunity to work from home may be favourably embraced by employees – but only within a limited framework.”

Practicing shift schedules

As a result, research shows that working from home one to two days each week is excellent for employee satisfaction and productivity. Think of it as shift work, for example, you’re coming into work twice or three times a week, and the next week you’ll work from home. This will also ensure that companies are able to keep the number of present employees in the office low to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19.

It would be feasible to converse not only online but also face-to-face in such a framework.

“From a psychological perspective, a video call is still preferable compared to an email.” In the long term, however, it cannot replicate face-to-face talks, particularly when it comes to trusting each other, working strategically together, or resolving disagreements.”

Zacher began surveying over 1,000 workers on their physical and mental wellbeing at the end of 2019. The start of the pandemic turned it into a long research: participants have been polled regularly since March 2021. The psychologist gathered data on the effects of the corona pandemic on the working world.

“Extroverts were happier and more comfortable than introverts before the pandemic took place,” Zacher says. He claims that this time has been reversed.

“The situation was more stressful for extroverts, while introverts coped better.” Reserved individuals, in particular, find formats such as video calls more enjoyable. This is in relation to the silo mentality where individuals prefer not to share details with different divisions of the same company.

Simultaneously, Zacher and his colleagues observed that teams separated into subgroups more quickly – an observation that corresponds to one of the findings of Microsoft’s study.

“A potential fiasco between personnel in the office and those working from home,” he notes.

Management must guarantee that there are no emotions of unequal treatment in this situation.

“Managers need to be able to communicate and justify work structures in order to ensure that neither employee satisfaction nor corporate culture suffers.”

In all of the debate about remote working, it is vital to remember that the workplace is also a valuable resource: “The office works as the great leveler in which everyone has the same chances,” says Zacher.

When working from home, however, socioeconomic aspects come into play.

“Spouses without children in a spacious flat may certainly work better at home as opposed to single parents or younger employees, for example, who live in shared flats or smaller places.”
— Alice Lanzke/dpa