Latest news with #workCulture
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- Telegraph
Scruffy British office workers should put a damn shirt on
Finally, British bosses are getting tough, and workers are heading back to the office. John Lewis is insisting on a minimum of three days a week, while Conde Nast, whose magazines include the likes of Tatler and Vogue, is demanding a minimum of four. The Telegraph insists most of its workers are in the office five days a week, my dispensation excepting, as I have to be out for lunch for most of the time in your service. And one very clear indicator of this cultural shift back to sanity is that the smart shirtmaker TM Lewin is gearing up to open more shops. It recently opened a new store on Bow Lane in the City of London, with the company saying it will open other stores in the capital as well, in cities such as Manchester and Edinburgh. Which is wonderful news because it could be an opportunity for this nation to return to sanity on another issue: dress. I'm frequently drawn on social media to old footage, often colourised, of Britons walking the streets in the past. And it's heartbreaking not just to see how handsome our buildings and wide avenues were, and with the appropriate numbers of people and traffic, but how well dressed everyone was. No man is without a suit and hat, no woman without a dress, even the children are in jackets and trousers. Today, we are a nation of slobs, and the word dress doesn't even cover it, as many people's notion of clothing is not to dress at all, slouching out of bed to haul their sorry, often obese, forms onto the streets dressed in trackies and T-shirts. So let's use the return to the office as a watershed moment and consider that, as work is a professional endeavour, so we should honour it by dressing appropriately. Buy a suit, get a shirt, hell, you can even shove on a tie. And let's help the next generation get off on a good foot by scrapping mufti Friday. A headteacher I know says they dread Fridays because when the kids wear what they want, their behaviour worsens. She can't wait for Mondays when the kids turn up prim and proper and remember again to say, please, thank you, and to shake their teachers' hands at the end of the day. Research from Philadelphia's Temple University, published in the Academy of Management Journal in 2023, found that when we feel good about how we look, our productivity improves. If Britain wants to get serious, it needs to look serious. And while you're at it, shave off the beard and cover up all those hideous tattoos.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trophy offices in Canada's big cities are outperforming the rest. That's not normal
Demand for premium office space in Canada's biggest cities has been extraordinarily resilient, a new report from Colliers Canada says, dramatically outpacing the performance of lower-tier buildings as paradigm shifts continue to reshape work culture. This year, vacancy rates for A-, B- and C-class office buildings are around 16 per cent, while trophy-, or AAA-, class buildings had a vacancy rate of around seven per cent — the widest gap in at least a decade and a striking shift from pre-pandemic norms, when cheaper buildings were typically more in demand. 'If you look historically, that's not usually what happens,' said Adam Jacobs, Colliers Canada's head of research, in an interview with Yahoo Finance Canada. 'But there is kind of a new reality of work that we're all trying to figure out. You know, the return to the office.' The Colliers report says that 'demand is increasingly consolidating around top-tier, best-in-class spaces, with tenants prioritizing quality, location, and amenities over cost alone.' Colliers data show lower-tier buildings having generally lower vacancy rates than trophy-class from 2015 to 2020, which Jacobs says is the norm. The gap peaked in 2017 with trophy-class vacancy rates 3.3 percentage points higher than for lower-tier. The vacancy rates for trophy and lower classes drew even in 2019. Through the pandemic, vacancy rates rose for all building types — but the rise was steeper for lower tier. Around 2023, vacancies in AAA-class buildings levelled off and began to decline, while lower-tier vacancies continued higher. The lower-tier vacancy rate is now 8.9 percentage points higher than for AAA. There is a feeling among certain tenants especially, 'We've got to give the employees a reason to be here.'Adam Jacobs, Colliers Canada Colliers notes similar widening spreads for availability (similar to vacancy but also including currently occupied units that can be leased) and absorption (the amount of space being newly occupied or newly vacant). 'The gap between AAA and the rest of downtown [office space] is just becoming larger and larger and larger to the point where I'm not sure how much larger it can get,' Jacobs said. Most of the recent premium buildings in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver had big-name tenants before construction started — Jacobs pointed to a 'big boom' in tech companies looking for 'the top-drawer stuff.' Since then, the Colliers report notes, trophy-class demand has been 'further supported by renewals, lease extensions, and general interest in top-tier premises where large pockets of vacant space had been unlocked.' One of the drivers of this interest, Jacobs says, is the pressure the era of working from home has put on employers now trying to bring employees back to the office full or part-time. 'There is a feeling among certain tenants especially, 'We've got to give the employees a reason to be here,'' Jacobs said. ''We have great amenities. We have great coffee, we have great food, we have a great view, we have a prayer room, we have a green building. We have everything, you know, tick every box.'' Location is also a factor, with proximity to transit corridors essential for people less willing to deal with arduous commutes and parking. 'It's harder and harder and harder to get downtown than it used to be,' Jacobs said. 'And that sort of weirdly benefited these really premium buildings, because it's like, just get on the suburban train, show up at the main rail station and you're a one-minute walk from your building. Because [AAA class] have the best locations.' Regardless, the current reality is highly unusual, Jacobs says. "AAA office is a luxury product. Like, it's expensive, and I would say most tenants can't afford AAA office. So generally it has a bit higher vacancy." Colliers says the vacancy rate gap is 'expected to peak as premium supply tightens, driving renewed interest in broader downtown inventory,' as more firms look to bring workers back to their offices. Jacobs says several factors — the 'boom or bust' development cycle, a tough lending environment for major real estate developments, the major pension funds largely investing outside of commercial real estate — mean there won't be any new premium office spaces in the next five years. That alone means some organizations will eventually seek out options in the next tier. 'This has already been a very prolonged increase in vacancy,' Jacobs said. "It's usually like, vacancy goes up for maybe two, two-and-a-half years, and it levels off, and then it starts coming back down. It's been going up for five-and-a-half years, and we are still waiting for it to peak.' John MacFarlane is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on X @jmacf. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Working late? You're not the only one, research shows
New research shows employees are working late into the evening hours as they catch up on meetings and emails. Microsoft has released its 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, and the results paint a startling picture of a work culture that has shifted away from the traditional 9-to-5 job. The triple peak day, a trend among remote workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, has become the norm for many, according to Microsoft, despite many workers returning to in-office work. Microsoft researchers began using the term to describe a shift in productivity during the pandemic. Usually, there are two productivity peaks in a workday, before and after lunch, but now there is a third peak in the evening hours. The new data collected by Microsoft showed meetings after 8 p.m. are up 16 percent from last year. This increase is primarily due to 'global and flexible teams,' Microsoft said in a release detailing this data. Ravi Desai of California manages a global customer success team for a software company. He told The Wall Street Journal, 'There is a tendency to be generally connected all the time.' Additionally, the average worker sends or receives more than 50 messages outside of normal business hours. By 10 p.m., 29 percent of workers go back to check their inboxes. And it's not just employees' evenings that are being eaten away. They are also losing time on their off days. Almost 20 percent of employees working on the weekend are checking their inboxes before noon on Saturday and Sunday, Microsoft researchers found. After 6 p.m. on Sundays, more than 5 percent of workers check their emails again. 'The Sunday scaries are real and measurable,' Microsoft said. Microsoft's study also found the average worker receives 117 emails daily and 153 Teams messages per workday. Dan Quitério's workload increased at his former social media-marketing job in New York after his department leader left the company and wasn't replaced. He told the Journal, 'There were definitely situations where I, just as a single human being, couldn't do all the things.'
News.com.au
02-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Is this normal?': Boss makes wild demand on a bank holiday
A bizarre exchange between a boss and an employee asking for the bare minimum has gone unsurprisingly viral. UK workplace expert Ben Askins has found his niche online by sharing anonymous but increasingly bizarre text message exchanges between workers and their bosses. He recently shared a wild exchange after an employee sent him a heated work text exchange and asked him, 'Is this normal?' It started normally enough. A boss texted a worker and asked them to make some design changes because the client had been chasing the workplace about it. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Wrong. The boss made this demand when it was a public holiday, and the worker was completely entitled to the day off. 'Oh sorry I thought we had bank holidays off,' the worker texted back. 'Technically yes but US clients don't have the same ones and if they need something we need to jump on it,' the boss replied. 'I'm not sure I will be free. I just made plans today assuming it was a proper day-off,' the worker replied. 'You are going to have to cancel them I am afraid. Nothing we can do about it,' the boss wrote back. The worker replied and went straight to bargaining asking if there was any possible wriggle room and if they could do the work in the afternoon or at night. The boss responded and shared they'd been online all day and claimed the worker needed to be more 'responsive'. 'I am not asking for much here,' the boss claimed. The worker continued to try to find a middle ground and suggested emailing the client on their day off to explain the situation and let them know they'd work on the design changes later on. 'Look I have said no. I need you on this now. I can't keep repeating myself,' the boss claimed. 'Okay I will take a look,' the worker fired back. Mr Askins immediately called out the boss, claimed they were being 'ridiculous,' and claimed that most clients would be completely understanding. 'You're completely missing the point. It is your business, of course, you're going to care a lot more. If you want people to care about it during bank holidays you have to incentivise them,' he argued. 'Pay them more or give them some skin in the game.' Mr Askins said that the boss needs to set up their business better and annoy employees on a public holiday. 'This is totally not okay and really poor,' he declared. Naturally most people online weren't impressed with the boss making such demands. 'Why do people respond to work messages outside of working hours?' One asked. 'No. If it's my day off, I'm not working,' another declared. 'How about you pay people to work a public holiday,' someone else suggested. 'Normal? Probably. Acceptable? Absolutely not,' one raged. 'People need to touch grass. Unless someone is going to die over the delay, it can wait,' one claimed. Someone else said it was 'bullying' the worker into working for free, and this exact behaviour was why they'd left their last job.
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Wrong': Insane request from boss goes viral
A boss is going viral for the wild text message he sent a female worker on annual leave. UK workplace expert Ben Askins has found his niche online by sharing anonymous text messages submitted by workers and calling out bosses. He has racked up over 27 million views, sharing people's work sagas and giving a real glimpse into modern workplaces. Mr Askins recently shared an exchange between a boss and an employee where he claimed the boss got it very 'wrong' with his behaviour. It started out innocently enough: A boss texted a team member and asked if they could handle a presentation for a co-worker who couldn't make it to the meeting because they were at an emergency client meeting. The employee replied and explained that she couldn't come in because she had booked in annual leave and had plans with her children. 'It wasn't really a request TBH. I need you in by 11am,' the boss fired back. The worker didn't accept the demand and argued that she had been working extra hours for weeks and was entitled to leave, which had been approved in advance. The boss didn't agree and argued, 'One day isn't too much to ask. I can revoke your day off and expect you in at 11am.' 'That doesn't feel very fair,' the mum fired back, before arguing that a co-worker attending a lunch shouldn't take priority over her spending time with her children. 'Not going to lie. I decide what is fair. We will have a conversation about our commitment when you're in today. If you're not here, it is coming out of your bonus,' the boss said. Mr Askins claimed he'd never seen someone 'be more wrong in a text message' and argued that under no circumstances do you get to 'guilt people' into giving up their annual leave. He also argued that the boss had his priorities all wrong and looked horrified by the exchange. 'How are these people in management?' he asked. People online weren't impressed by the text exchange, with many sharing, and this is exactly why they don't respond to work requests outside of office hours. 'Last time I checked paying me doesn't mean owning me,' one pointed out. 'This is why you don't answer works texts outside of office hours,' another advised. 'This is tough to watch. Definitely not the kind of leadership anyone deserves,' one admitted. 'I swear some managers wish annual leave didn't exist,' one said. 'This is awful,' someone else said. 'I hope they quit that job,' another wrote.
