The Evolution of the Office Space
When we think about an office, some of us still hold ideas like this:
… A place with superiors who look like this:
But today, more and more workplaces have experienced the shift from grey cubicles to colourful, bright, open spaces. We’ve all seen the stories about the fun and cool offices that look like upscale apartment building and hotels rather than places of work.
Though some of those (really cool) offices may take things to the extreme, there is a method to the madness.
Lyn Van Tassel of Saint John’s LVT Design has been working in interior design since 1984. She has worked on more than 2 million square feet of office space in both New Brunswick and Ontario. She says when she first entered the industry, offices were still set up like the TV show Mad Men. The executives (who were hardly in the office) had the offices along the outside with the window views, while the rest of the employees were clustered at the centre.
“No sunlight, isolated lunch rooms, lunch rooms that were in the centre or the core of the building,” she says. “So again, no daylight.”
This didn’t create the happiest employees.
“Employees are one of your largest expenses for a company, so there would be a lot of sick time, a lot of retention issues … I think what they realized is that things like sunlight and a view were very important,” says Van Tassel. “If you’re going to be sitting in an office all day, you’re going to have to be able to look out. You’ve got to be able to see a little bit of weather and sun.”
She says about 10 years ago, executives started to realise their private office window wasn’t worth the impact on employees and therefore overall business.
“They found if they made the space more about the employees as opposed to the executives who are only in their office maybe three days a week, sick time would go down and retention [would] work,” says Van Tassel.
It also helped with attracting new talent.
“If you’re looking for a position and you walk into a space that caters to the employees, it makes that person want to work there as opposed to an old, traditional style office environment.”
In 2016, the most common office setup is the open concept office. Everyone is working in the same space with ample room for collaboration, socialization and asking if anyone wants coffee.
Although open concept has its benefits, it does not a great office make. Van Tassel says today’s office space needs to incorporate the new and old. It’s important that there are spots to go when employees have meetings, or just need some solitude while they work. There is also the fact that with some careers, like accounting, might require regular space where workers can constantly be focused.
“I think the most successful offices are the spaces that have a combination of open areas and closed. The closed areas are in the core, so the open areas have all the daylight. I think the successful office has something that caters to the four generations that are working there,” Van Tassel says. “[Open concept] is not a blanket solution. What you do is work with each department and understand how they work and what level privacy they require.”
Before starting her own business, Van Tassel worked for TOSS Solutions where she helped redesign the Crosby’s Molasses office in Saint John. Company president James Crosby says after over three decades in the space, it was time for an upgrade.
“The building that houses our main office was built in the early 1950’s. We moved our office into the building in the early 1970s and as the company grew, offices were added wherever space could be found,” he says. “There was a mishmash of furniture and the office layout was a bit like a rabbit warren.”
When it came to redesigning the space, Crosby’s needed more offices, but not at the expense of everything else.
“We needed more offices than we had before so we needed a smart design that could fit more people without it feeling cramped,” Crosby said. “And we wanted things like the kitchen, bathroom and boardroom in locations that made sense for employees and customers.”
With that in mind, TOSS Solutions gave the Crosby HQ a complete redesign.
Here is the final look:
For Crosby, the new space isn’t just fresher, brighter and contemporary, it has changed the way their team works.
“The redesign has improved our sense of togetherness and created important gathering spaces that we didn’t have before,” he says. “We’re even able to host our company-wide parties in the main office space which makes for events that are more fun and relaxing.”
So there’s a formula for what works in 2016, but what’s next for office space?
Paryse Beatty, a Moncton-based interior designer says she sees offices incorporating more shared spaces. More and more people are working flexible hours and/or have positions that allow them to be nomadic. Less can be more when that need for flexibility and the cost of urban real estate is combined.
“By doing it that way you kind of lose that personal space, but I think the new generation is more open with that,” Beatty says. “I see a more flexible space. Maybe different takes on furniture.”
“Just for example, moveable walls. That will be the big trend I think. Because that makes the space really flexible. If they just need to modify one area for their needs, it’s very easy to do without doing a complete renovation of the walls and disturb everyone around it.”
No matter what you do, a good office, like a home, is where everyone can be happy.
“I think the coolest office space is the one that has the flexibility that caters to the employees and everybody is happy,” says Van Tassel. “That’s who it benefits in the long run, everybody.”