Coming home to the office
By Ross Fittall, MEPC
While some government ministers and company CEOs have urged people to return to the office in recent months, how that process is managed and what it means for people on the ground is a vital part of what destinations like Paradise are all about.
The government’s recommendation for people to work from home ended four months ago, and 10 Downing Street’s official spokesman recently said now was the right time to push for a return to pre-pandemic levels of office occupancy.
The spokesman said that returning to the office was not just about occupying buildings for the sake of it, but would be of benefit to staff – particularly junior staff – whose career development and teamworking may have been hampered by a lack of face-to-face working with colleagues.
And while working from home may have helped young families manage the last two years, the experience has never been welcomed by everyone. For some, working from home may have been a challenging, even negative and lonely experience. The cost of the pandemic on people’s mental health has yet to be effectively measured, but I think we all understand that it is, and will be, substantial.
As more people continue to head back into the office after the pandemic, at Paradise we are working hard behind the scenes to ensure our buildings and public spaces are as clean and welcoming as possible so that people can return to the office in a safe and sustainable way.
Our job is to encourage and support those who return so when they do, they find the experience welcoming, safe and secure. New office occupiers in particular are using our buildings to create workspaces that staff want to return to and in which they can learn, collaborate, share knowledge – and socialise.
Our first three commercial buildings – One Chamberlain Square, Two Chamberlain Square and the soon to be completed One Centenary Way – have been designed with people in mind, and right now nothing could be more important than putting ourselves in the shoes of the people who work or visit our buildings and open spaces.
With extensive public realm surrounding them, active leisure units on the ground floor and architecture designed to project both a sense of arrival and a sense of place, our buildings beg to be occupied, used and enjoyed. Each one features touch-free access from front door to desk. We have always strived to create working spaces that are as easy to access and navigate as they are welcoming.
At Paradise, we have a special responsibility for remaking the civic heart of the city and turning it into a truly mixed use, 24 hour a day corner of the city. With activities, events and places to visit on the doorstep, it’s crucially important that when people return to the office – whether it’s part-time, full-time or only occasionally – they feel like they’re coming home.
Not in the literal sense of course, but in the sense that the working environment should be a place they are familiar and comfortable with, understand and appreciate. It should be a place that supports and motivates as well as encourages people to develop themselves, and succeed.
An inspirational place as well as a place for work.
As all of us play our part in rebuilding the kind of supportive working environment in which everyone thrives, we can all understand that when people do return to the office, it should be a cause for celebration.
And it should be a cause for quiet optimism about the future.