19 degree as before. This may be the case for workers within the IT sector, for example – a group that receives a great deal of consideration and attention due to the high levels of competition for this profession. Effectively what this means, then, is that, going forward, it might not be possible to gather all professional groups in-person in the same way as before. Atmosphere and variation is a dealbreaker Beyond shedding light on the different workplace needs of different professional groups, remote working has also led employees to place greater demands on their work environment. In order to break this perception among employees of the home office as the primary work- place, I believe that organisations will need to provide the same type of work environment at the office going forward, with all the same aspects and elements that employees appreciate. In addition to good ergonomics and height-adjustable desks, a good hybrid office work environment should also encompass qualities such as visibility, stimulation and ability for recovery. The office’s primary competitive advantage over the external workplace thus becomes the atmosphere it offers in combination with proximity to colleagues and social coherence of the workplace. As a result of the different work-environment needs of different groups, I also believe that the office of the future will accommodate a greater diversity of work environments, and this poses yet another challenge going forward. Allowing employees to incorporate variation into their work can be one way to both ‘compete’ with the work environment at home and also to strengthen their link to the organisation. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so the appeal of an office lies largely in the eye of the employees. Flexibility and greater autonomy require good self-leadership Remote working during the pandemic gave employees greater autonomy, but it also placed demands on their abilities for self-leadership. It is difficult to wind back the clock so long as performance levels are being maintained. It is therefore likely that the matter of the work environment will revolve much more around self-control in the future, meaning flexibility and independence at both the employee and professional group levels. In the former case, this might mean having a private room and independent work materials, while in the latter case, it could be a functional project space. Some of the respondents feel that a successful hybrid work set-up requires organisations to take a flexible and less bureaucratic approach in order to avoid talent flight.
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