Everyone has reasons for their behaviors and decisions. Sometimes the reason is a pain point or a hassle that pushes you in a particular direction.

Sometimes the reason is a gain or benefit that pulls you in a particular direction.

Apply this concept to the WFH (Work from Home) versus WFO (Work from Office) dilemma faced by employers.

Is WFH desirable because of the WFO pains you can avoid? Given a choice, would your team prefer more time working from the office if there were reasons? Can it be an attractive alternative?

Can an organization change the WFH/WFO calculus by creating a better office environment?

Four reasons to avoid work at the office

And what we did to remedy them ….

1. It does not feel safe and healthy. As a result of the pandemic, our awareness of the health and safety of our surroundings is higher than ever before. In times when talent is hard to find, a dirty crowded office is a deal-killer for most candidates. Attention to detail in health and safety can increase employee retention as well as provide a competitive advantage in recruiting.

   When we designed Respond! we began with the premise that improving health and safety were paramount criteria for the product line. We included screens so people could feel protected yet be close enough to collaborate.

   Wire clutter on the floor has been a chronic issue for decades and we felt it time to finally address this issue. It is possible with a Respond! office system to completely eliminate wires, cords, and outlets on the floor. Cleaning crews can operate with few obstructions to create clean floors. Our decision to incorporate battery power enabled subsequent design decisions that allow Respond! facilities to be cleaner than any other system.

2. It is not as productive as working from home. For some people, working from home for a lengthy period proved to be a productivity revelation. People who felt interrupted in their work by noise, visual distractions, and co-workers discovered that working from home provided a comparative increase in peace and quiet. For some, personal time-alone space at the office is hard to find.

   If the ability to focus and concentrate is important to productivity, we decided the Respond! office system should incorporate work areas that reduce distractions. We conceived our screens so they could surround three sides of a console desk. Your desk need not be the only place for some privacy. Since we made the power system portable, you can retreat to a casual area, a dining or cafe area, or a table outdoors.

3. Collaboration does not matter. The environment is not conducive to collaboration anyway. In some situations, conference rooms are scarce, busy, and hard to schedule.

   Respond! includes product solutions for quick one-on-one meetings, ad hoc small group meetings, two-three-four person collaborations, and casual work areas.

   With the mobility features of Respond!, teams that benefit from being co-located can easily collaborate from works areas that might exist only for the life of a project. You can bring all the necessary people together in one place, arguably speeding the pace of a project and/or getting a higher quality result.

4. Culture is bad. Any excuse to avoid the office is attractive. The Respond! office system does nothing to fix a bad culture. We may not use materials or processes with toxic ingredients, but that doesn’t remedy a toxic work environment.

   On the other hand, if your task as a leader is to fix a bad culture, Respond! is a tangible way to send a message about the kind of work environment you expect. If you do not supply the tools for teamwork, collaboration, and group alignment, you cannot expect to get results.

Four reasons to prefer work at the office

And what we did to enhance the experience …

1. Remedy FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. When you are working from home, you can miss the casual conversations that are often a prelude to a new strategy, a new product, a new customer, a new policy, a new opportunity, or a new co-worker. For those who chose a career because they have a passion, isolation at home does nothing for involvement in “what’s happening”. Being at the office helps feed your passions for doing something you enjoy. It also brings you together with others that share your passions.

   To enhance interaction, we concern ourselves with more than just creating spaces for intense work. We intend our Respond! product line to be a system for accommodating different forms of work, not merely a personal desk or workstation. The “system” anticipates interaction ranging from one-on-one meetings to group meetings to lunch breaks to formal gatherings.

   We included visual design elements that repeat on different products. While this may be a good visual design decision, it also suggests that everything in the workplace is available for use by anyone at any time. We promote movement and roaming as well as personal spaces. Contrast this to the confines of your home office.

2. Managing your career. Working at the office gives you the opportunity to be noticed for your accomplishments. If you complete a lengthy or difficult project at home, would anyone be aware of your efforts?

   Think about relationships in your organization managing upward, downward, and with your peers. Being at the office gives you opportunities to demonstrate your skills in all directions.

   As previously noted, interaction with others is key to your career management. We want people to feel safe to be at the office again.

3. Eliminating isolation and boredom. If you are honest with yourself, working at home alone is probably boring. At the office, you can find like-minded people who value similar discussions and activities as you. This isolation at home is not good for your mental health.

   A Respond! office can be a very enjoyable workplace. You can have personal space and privacy. Or you can find easy ways to relax, visit, and collaborate. Our configurable screens are not as confining as panel systems plus we included lots of glass in our concept to provide an overall open feel to the workplace.

4. Creativity. If you are truly creative, you know the value of testing your ideas on others. An idea is not a “good idea” until you have explored all the boundaries to a problem and addressed every facet of an issue. It is hard to do this at home alone or in a video conference.

   In our Respond! systems furniture we provided for erasable marker boards in our Configurable Screens as well as our Adaptive Storage Carts. We suggest placing these in several places in your layout to allow people to simply grab a marker pen and sketch away. Some businesses take this concept even further and use erasable paint on permanent walls. Visualizing is an enabler for creativity and collaborative thinking.