Which workplace works best?

With productivity in the UK so hopeless, it is difficult not to suggest that people spending much of their time working from home rather than a traditional office is part of the problem. The thunderclouds roll in from the politicians. Some government ministers fire off noisily about how everyone must be at their desks, while other suggest that even once they are there the effort that people put in at work is next to useless. Meanwhile the advice columns are full of ideas on how summer will be an immensely pleasurable rather than productive time.

The New York Times has been offering advice on what kit you need for WFO – working from outside. ‘There’s always something invigorating about shifting my Zoom background to unfurling ferns and blossoming dogwoods after huddling in my home office all winter’ is how it sets the scene.

Friends here in the UK report how unreliable the wifi in their office is compared with that of the outdoor terrace of a nearby wine bar. This is a very different world from the old days of the sweaty commute, the unreliable or non-existent air-conditioning in the office, and the desperate cooling down outside the pub later on.

Home alone

The arguments are still completely unresolved about how working life ought to be organised. The concept of belonging is still seen as important, with teams being brought together rather than scattered at a distance.

But the battleground is not just office-based. According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) more than 2.5 million people in the UK are not working because of health problems. The graphic in the most recent ONS report shows a great swathe of bilious green growing and swamping its labour force survey.

Working from home, particularly in isolation, inevitably means people look inwards. Health, both physical and mental, looms larger. Working physically together confers context and a different perspective, with an outward-looking stance more likely to emerge.

But the great experiment that we are working, or not working, our way through is also scrutinised by outside consultants. And their conclusions are unsurprising and influential. Professional firms and purpose-driven organisations manage to create working systems that allow highly motivated staff to produce good work. In corporate and public sector organisations, this tends to hold good only at senior levels. So the new way of working seems to need different managerial approaches that depend on the culture and motivation of specific organisations.

Pitcher perfect

Perhaps one approach that might help could be to pull the strands of business life together rather than relaxing in the great outdoors workplace. This doesn’t relate to the pandemic at all, but the summer has seen an experiment take place in what Americans see as their great summer pastime: baseball. As with cricket, tennis and golf, baseball has shown a tendency for highly paid players to take ages over their next moves, so games last far longer than originally envisaged. But unlike cricket, tennis and golf, baseball has done something about it.

This season the sport has instituted, among other things, a fixed timer system. Rather than pondering their next pitch, scowling at the batter, tugging at their cap or slowly readying themselves, a pitcher now has to do what they are there for: pitch the next ball smartish, or incur penalties.

The effect has been extraordinary. Games that used to last three and a half hours are now down to two and a half. Everyone, from fans to players, is happier. Perhaps everyone would feel different about their own jobs if they could get the same amount of work done in less time.

In the end it is about feeling brisk, motivated and purposeful in work. Perhaps it is indeed time to go in search of the effective outdoor wifi and wait, watch and see how all this pans out. This summer will be the test.