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Feature A recent RICS UK Facilities Management Survey¹ revealed that up to 80 % of employees will head back to the office once the pandemic is resolved and many anticipate that workspaces will evolve to meet the changing needs of employees and employers. NEW OFFICE LIFE 20 www.thefis.org R ichard Kauntze, Chief Executive, British Council for Offices (BCO) is confident that the future of working in the office is bright and definitely here to stay. When meeting people outside of the industry, I often receive the same sort of question: “I guess you’re against all this home-working business, then?” It’s assumed that here at the BCO, we must be stubborn and keen only to defend the pre-pandemic status quo. The truth, however, is quite different. The change likely to take place (a move to a more ‘mixed’ way of working; balancing time at home with the office) is a good thing and will make the office better and more important. To be clear, home working is not going to become our only way of working. The office is here to stay because we work best together. In person, we are more creative, more able to network, and we learn from colleagues in an informal way which can’t be replicated over Teams or Zoom. Offices help companies build their corporate culture in a way the virtual world simply can’t replicate. Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive, British Council for Offices