Pandemic accelerates shifts in office designs, limits face to face interactions

In the past two months, we have gone from working at our office desks to working at home. At home, we have gone from working at the living room table, to the dining table, to the bedroom and the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen! Some of us have picked work related phone calls while adding the curry to that beef stew.

With President Museveni easing the Covid-19 lockdown, most people anticipate to return their laptops to their offices. Arthur Tumwesigye works at a public relations firm in town and now looks forward to June 4 given that public transport is planned to return to normalcy.

“I miss interacting with colleagues at work. Our nature of work depends on collective effort to achieve the ultimate goal. This includes brainstorming and inquiries. I also miss field work where I get to interact with different people from several professions,” he says. While Tumwesigye misses the human connection, there are workers with different reasons for returning to office.
“We chat in WhatsApp groups and that’s enough. I miss free Wi-Fi only because I get to watch and learn freely on Youtube. But now, data is more expensive than monthly transport,” Bruce Karakaire, a telecom employee says.

However, as people return to offices, it cannot be business as usual, at least according to workers and experts. Tumwesigye says the standard operating procedures established by the Ministry of Health in the fight against Covid-19 must be at the centre of every workplace.

“I am confident because they had started following these procedures before the lockdown. Our office is quite big and social distancing can be clearly observed,” he says.

Social distancing spaces
Companies, it is believed, will find themselves implementing solutions that keep employees from contracting the disease at the workplace.

Willis Otto Olanya employs people at Owel Architecture Limited and warns employers about the potential for liability should employees fall sick at the workplace.

“Companies will have to invest in trying to protect their employees because employers are required by law to provide safe working environments and that is why in reputable companies, even the type of chair bought has to be one that allows someone to sit without harming their back. They can get sued because somebody can say I got this disease because of the dangerous working conditions,” Olanya explains.

There will be baby steps taken all the way especially for those that had not put in place any measures before lockdown.
Hughes Opio, an accountant at Broll Uganda, spent earlier years doing property management. He believes the placement of sanitisers as well as temperature guns will continue to play a vital role in ensuring safety within premises although this will come with an increase in operating cost.

For property owners, challenges of social distancing may be hard to enforce in tenant premises but can only be limited to public areas so reminder notices of the four meters could emerge.

He suggests “2 or 3 stand here” stickers placed in lifts to limit the number of people occupying a lift from maybe five to three depending on the dimensions.

The major battle, according to him, will be with tenant premises which is often beyond the property managers’ right as per the signed agreements. The tenants ought to adjust operations to ensure distancing within the premises.
“This involves a sensitisation plan of placing directives on washing hands and social distancing. Properties usually reserve rights of admission so this could as well be exercised with the compulsory wearing of masks to gain admission. Sensitisation of service providers on personal protective equipment and this always worn at all times.

There will be increased frequency of cleaning and disinfecting the property,” Opio explains.
Asked what changes he would like to see at his workplace, Olanya says people will have to respect their work stations.

“So you know that you are not just going to use someone’s space. Procedures of sanitation will have to change. I would also like my office to have a lot more fresh air and natural light because these closed spaces with mechanical ventilation seem to harbour these funny diseases,” he says.

Changing office designs
The open plan workplace has over the years turned popular as cubicles disappeared. The idea was to make employees feel like they are working as a team. There has been sharing of space, workstations in some cases and less privacy. Olanya, also an architect says the idea of shared space in close proximity to colleagues may be greatly challenged and force workers to return to personal cubicles.

With such a solution undertaken, there will still be impact. Psychologist Paul Nyende suggests companies will rope off parts of offices to enforce social distancing. Face to face interactions will have to be limited and replaced with more technology. Jobs that depend on social interaction will be affected. Workers who thrive on social interaction, are likely to feel bored or trapped because of the limitations, he says. Workers that prefer solitary will thrive in this situation.

“People sit in tea rooms and 90 per cent of the time discuss things not related to work. This will help workers to learn to focus and accomplish tasks before end of day. It is more of a transformation and we shall see improved efficiency in operations.

Electronic meetings will help save time spent in physical meetings,” Nyende explains.
Even with the easing of the lockdown, there is still a general feeling that the pandemic will shift the modern workplace from demand for office spaces to remote working.

Experts envision more investment in virtual offices to prevent increase in cost of rent and achieve social distancing. They predict companies may conclude that they need less workstations on location. This could lead to smaller offices with the added advantage of savings on rent.

“There is a lot of working from home so it may change office design in terms of the amount of space that is needed. Before Corona, there were some companies that were already experimenting with working from home and deliberately had less space in their offices so that only a few people can come and plug into their work place,” Olanya says.

Limited office space
The idea of a shrinking office size is expected to spill over to storage rooms. The heightened risk of infection could see storage rooms at offices get smaller because of the fear of handling physical documents and instead encourage electronic documentation and storage.

Olanya also expects to see a change in office furniture at modern workplaces.

“We may see a preference for materials and surfaces that are easier to wipe clean on a daily basis,” he explains.
Without a cure or vaccine yet and with some governments starting to urge people to learn to live with a virus that lurks out there, the way workplaces operate and are designed will have to change to fit current times. Good health is too paramount to be disregarded, even for businesses.