Our everyday lives are now almost entirely dictated by the activity of mobile devices. There is little escape in the modern world, and customer experience futurologist at BT Nicola Millard put it into stark context at this week’s EG Offices and Office Workplace Summit. “Your phone is like having a screaming three-year-old toddler. Screeching and shrieking at you 24/7 at regular intervals, constantly, all the time. Think about that in terms of stress levels. Scary.”
Sick habits of homeworkers
Another warning from this week’s workplace conference – hazardous homeworkers. A trend that suggests homebodies are actually more likely to come into the office when they are sick has been identified. Those who are used to spending their days alone working out of converted spare rooms or from their kitchen tables crave company when they are at their weakest, said Tim Oldman, chief executive of workplace satisfaction benchmarking company Leesman. He claimed they are therefore more likely to bundle themselves into the office with a hacking cough and a raging temperature. “At home no one can see you are sick so there is no human response,” he said. “At work there are people to sympathise, offer support and go to the shops to buy Lemsip.”
The digital inbetweeners
Are you between the ages of 35 and 44? Bad luck. As “digital migrators” you are in the age bracket least likely to cope well in a modern office environment, according to design and fit-out advisers KKS Strategy. Your younger digital native counterparts are streaks ahead on the tech side, while your more senior colleagues are resigned to their old-school ways. Those in the middle are most likely to feel pressured to attempt to learn about a myriad of new apps, systems and tech advances. And there is a lot to get to grips with. Can you spritz yet? Google it.
Can’t be me, I’m gluten free
We’ve all experienced the interminable disgrace of an office kitchen thief in our time. And this week the good folk at LandAid became the latest victim of this heinous crime, taking to social media to entreat Estates Gazette to out the perpetrator. The impassioned pleas came after half a quiche, half a sausage roll, a healthy chunk of a rum cake and two pints of soya milk where robbed from the LandAid kitchen. The British Property Federation, which shares an office with LandAid, quickly weighed in to exonerate themselves, pointing out that they prefer a diet of gherkins and cans of ham (might want to consider a culinary rethink there – not sure pickled cucumbers and salted meat products constitute a balanced diet). Diary can only hope that the culprit does the right thing and replaces the goods. Maybe without the soya milk.
Manchester, then the world
The ambitions of the North West office of Colliers International have been the subject of a good deal of speculation lately, after it hired a string of agency Galacticos as part of an overhaul of its team. On a recent trip to Manchester, Diary was curious to see a North West-themed monopoly board sitting innocuously on the office’s main meeting table. Nobody at the firm would be drawn as to why it was there, or which of the agent’s fearsome cast had most recently played with it. But it will do little to soothe rival agents’ qualms that Colliers is plotting world domination.
Sunshine but no pasties
For all the glamour and fine cuisine Bahrain offers, expat Tom Carter, Cluttons’ senior property manager in the kingdom, says he is lamenting one fine tasty eatery from his homeland: Greggs. Yes, you read that right. All the sunshine in the world apparently can’t make up for a lack of serious pastry provision. Carter told Diary he misses a range of delights from the UK culinary retailer, from sausage rolls to doughnuts.
