It is a timely decision by Bayern LB, even if it is not thought through to the end: The bank wants to do without individual offices for bosses as far as possible in the future. All managers below board level are asked to sit down with their colleagues in the company in the future. But why does the bank stop at top management? It would be more consistent to ask the board members to give up their offices.
The post-pandemic world of work will be different than it was before the Corona times. Hybrid work, i.e. a mixture of home office and office, will become the norm in many companies. Because everything indicates that many office workers will do a relevant part of their work at home even after the pandemic. The company is then no longer the place where they have to appear every day to do their routine tasks. Rather, it is a meeting place where you come when you are looking for a personal exchange with colleagues – and with your superiors.
In order for this personal exchange to succeed, it is important that everyone can be reached on site, without major hurdles. This is by no means always the case: when employees want to speak to their top bosses, they often have the feeling of breaking into the vault of a bank, with all the doors they have to go through beforehand. How much easier is this step if the managing director does not sit isolated in his palace, but with his colleagues in a visible area to which all employees have access. The advantage for the board members and managing directors: They are much more aware of what really concerns their employees.
60 percent of the companies want to reduce their office space
It is also important that bosses set a good example and show that they, too, are willing to forego something. Because regardless of whether you are a medium-sized company, public authority or large corporation: the reduction of office space is an issue almost everywhere in the country. Employers are puzzling over whether it is still worth renting huge buildings with plenty of space for each employee when in the future they will never all be there at the same time. According to a study by the management consultancy PwC, 60 percent of companies want to reduce their office space, by an average of 20 percent.
For some employees, this means that in future they will no longer even have their own desk in the company. At Bayern LB, for example, a new service agreement stipulates that the bank will only have seven workplaces per ten employees in the future. Colleagues have to reserve a workplace online if they want to come to work. The Telekom subsidiary T-Systems has already introduced this desk-sharing model.
Losing their own desk will hurt some employees. Accepting this cut should be easier for them when they see that their colleagues on the levels above them are also giving up privileges.
Modern offices need more space for human interaction
And speaking of privileges: Classic status symbols have had their day in times of the pandemic anyway. The spacious single office with a stately roof terrace just for the boss, including anteroom and huge panorama windows, is no longer up-to-date. In any case, in many modern companies there should be no more space for it if the remaining premises are converted in such a way that they meet the requirements of a modern, hybrid working environment.
This requires, for example, much more spacious rooms for meetings, workshops or kick-off events for new projects. An inviting canteen where people like to meet for a business lunch. And smaller meeting rooms, for example for target or conflict discussions. So more space for all those appointments where creativity and human interaction are in the foreground and for which colleagues and managers still have to meet physically after the pandemic.
Admittedly, hybrid work raises new questions and problems. For example, how to ensure that all employees continue to identify with the company – even if one or the other might miss their old office or their own desk. More than ever, modern managers will have to be measured by whether they manage to create a feeling of togetherness among employees. It will be easier for her to do this if the colleagues in the office have a good time together. For example, at a joint barbecue evening on the roof terrace, which is now open to everyone.