The Workplace after Lockdown and During COVID-19: The Reality, The Questions, The Expectations

By Judy R. Kyanda

We are now nearly 6 months into the Covid-19 pandemic and after Lockdown. What a roller coaster of a journey it has been, and it is not over yet! The reality is that we have all come to terms with the fact that Covid-19 is real, and we need to take all necessary precautions to stay safe. We are now firmly in Phase 2 of the greatest global workplace experiment: the phase whereby some workers are returning to offices of reduced capacity while many others are continuing to work remotely. This diverse and distributed work style will have a greater influence on the longer term re-imagining of the workplace than the enforced working from home seen during lockdown. As companies adapt and rework their policies for more flexible work styles, for many, the office will become a personal choice rather than a professional obligation.

Working from home has proven an effective stand-in for the office and will be a component of businesses’ operational structures moving forward. It is not though, a wholesale replacement. A hybrid model whereby some employees are working from home and some are working from the office is likely to prevail. Will this mean less demand for office space? Yes, in some instances, but most firms recognise that business culture is built and reliant on the interaction and collaboration that offices provide. The move toward some sort of normality is far from simple. The immediate, to long term, will continue to allow employees in office on a permission-only basis, physical distancing inherent and human transit routes governing movement within the office building. In short, a situation far removed from the working world most would recognise. For businesses, travel to the office via public transport is also a major consideration and a clear area of vulnerability. Organisations who have found other transport options other than reliance on public transport for their staff, are finding this a huge advantage in directing and managing behavioral changes from door to desk.

The questions

The questions that are plaguing many a mind of the CEO, are what impact the “wfh” option will have on their occupational requirements, and what the office of the future will look like? From the employee perspective, we have learnt that people are able to work effectively from home on a mass scale, and indeed this has brought productivity improvements and work-life balance benefits for many. But for others, it has also brought a sense of isolation and/or issues related to not having the appropriate space to work effectively from home. We should not be asking whether people can work from home, but rather who should work from home and for how long. The debate will extend beyond distinctions of work and home too, as other options and workplace settings will become equally important. Discussions with various occupiers have strongly highlighted one common belief that the office will remain central as a place to socialise, collaborate, learn and develop. The office therefore, is still here to stay.

The fundamental difference between the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 from a workplace perspective is that in 2008 most of us merely read about it, whilst in 2020 everybody has experienced it. Whereas the causes and effects of the GFC are usually known and able to be mitigated, the Covid-19 Pandemic remains a conundrum, with no definitive or conclusive solutions to its end, for now at least. Therefore, we are not even sure what our expectations should be. We have been lucky that our infection rates and fatalities are nowhere near what was initially projected by the experts, but it is still too early to celebrate victory over the Covid-19 battle. Actually, what we need to do is manage our expectations by accepting and implementing the recommended behavioural changes indefinitely and without exception. Do we need to down size on our space? maybe not, because we actually need more space per workstation now than before Covid-19 to socially distance effectively. Finally, it would be a mistake to conclude that because we have worked from home for a while that we do not need to manage the change. There will be multiple changes in terms of how we use and behave in the office, management style, team dynamics and collaboration as people start working in different ways. Change management is an essential consideration. As we wait and see how things unfold, the need to stay safe as we protect lives and livelihoods becomes increasingly critical every day.

Judy R. Kyanda, MRICS is a Chartered Surveyor and Managing Director of Knight Frank Uganda. She is also Chairperson of The Surveyors Registration Board