Office culture and politics have always fascinated me, writes Mark Rowe.
Perhaps it’s because at an impressionable age I worked in head offices, and branch offices where I heard from others that at the head office, the important things happened, decisions made, orders given, and (this list is in order of importance) expenses claims were signed off.
Two give two examples. Once I interviewed the MD of a guarding company who had a side office in a corner, of glass. To his staff, that may have made the MD appear to be in a goldfish bowl – you only had to look to see if he was in, and who with. Yet the glass gave privacy. Who could explain the expression on the face of someone called in, when they came out again with a different expression – had they been told off, or unexpectedly promoted? An office can be a space for performance; including wearing a mask.
Earlier this year Stuart Purcell, the head of security at The Odyssey in Belfast featured in the April edition of Professional Security Magazine, gave me a tour of the entertainment venue then took me to a meeting room (also with glass) that gave a glorious view over the lough – to the right, where the Titanic was launched; ahead, the city centre. In every city, workplaces take similar prime positions – otherwise, why pay the rentals at The Shard, or the Walkie-Talkie? For a business to base themselves in such a place, is not only an economic one about cost but it makes a statement; you are at the centre of things. Despite the drive among central government, public bodies still feel the need to base themselves in central London, such as the National Police Chiefs Council (c) – now at 50 Broadway, a stone’s throw from the 1960s era Scotland Yard, now a hotel, and, someone may have to correct me on this, in the mid-2000s the base of the then infant Security Industry Authority? Although in its earliest pre-launch days the SIA had a makeshift office south of the river.
In this meandering story you at least see how office bases are forever shifting, geographically (what central Government department wants to be south of the river?!) and in form. Because the old dynamic of the head office – inputs and outputs – has changed, and not only because of the pandemic lockdowns forcing ‘working from home’. No longer must an office have an ‘IT room’, usually hot, in some side room or basement; covid further prompted a move to cloud storage. That implies your London office’s IT staff and administrators who use it can live in Cornwall. Who would not want to be able to surf after work instead of take a 90-minute train journey to Whitstable or 60 minute Tube journey to the end of a line? Standing all the way and sweaty?
That alone explained how ready London workers were to ‘work from home’, at least Monday and Friday. Facilities management contractors such as Mitie, as featured in the January edition of Professional Security Magazine, have adapted their services, not least that sensors can give property managers and renters exact details of occupancy, and use of light and heat (useful data for sustainability purposes). Although not a specific question about security – although security contractors have to adapt to changes in commuting, just as cafes and pubs and retail have to, if fewer people are in the city on weekdays – I like to ask security people I meet in London whether commuting and working habits are back to ‘normal’, assuming a comparison with March 2020 is still valid. Overall more say that the commute is back to normal; yet still people might report that whereas pre-covid they would be on an Underground platform in the morning rush hour and have to wait until the second or third train to find a space to stand, now they can.
Which is all a preamble to the question: is it better to work from home, or work? The last corporate security person I put that to grimaced, as if to express that it’s not a simple answer. You are wise to go in the office, to see people, to make connections, but …. They admitted that when they are in the office, they go in a corner, to get things done. Otherwise, you get chatting, and things don’t get done as quick as if you are all working remotely, sit on a Teams meeting, agree on who’ll do what, and close Teams and get to work. And yet still humans feel that need to be face to face; as when that exec and I were sitting over coffee.
