In a Commentary published in 2017, I urged researchers to consider place both as a setting and an agent fostering collaborative practices in open-plan corporate offices (Andrews, 2017). This Commentary updates that article. The 2020 pandemic shuttered offices and sent individuals home, where they are gaining new habits and personal control in working remotely. To lure reluctant workers back to the office, companies are reimagining and redesigning their workplaces—a biophilic perspective helps—as homey studios or collaboration centers which an individual might choose to come to for the in-person gatherings unavailable at home. Hybrid strategies, negotiated with empathy between employees and employers, are emerging to manage work life and individual well-being across these principal workplaces.
AndrewsD. (2016). The physical environment for communication in 21st century workspaces: A research model. In AlessiG. M.JacobsG. (Eds), The ins and outs of business and professional discourse research (pp. 37–62). Palgrave Macmillan.
2.
AndrewsD. (2017). A space for place in business communication research. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(3), 325–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488416675842
3.
AndrewsD. (2021). Coworking: A rhetorical enterprise situated in place. In JacobsG.DecockS. (Eds.), Good data in business and professional discourse research and teaching: Further explorations (pp. 167–194). Palgrave Macmillan.
4.
AndrewsD.RobertsD. (2017). Academic makerspaces: Contexts for research on interdisciplinary collaborative communication [Conference session]. SIGDOC ‘17: Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference on Design of Communication, Halifax, NS, Canada. ACM.
5.
BadgerE. (2022, July10). Lonely last days in a suburban office park. The New York Times, B1.
6.
BerkB. (2022, August7). Work’s changed. So must its design. The New York Times, ST, 9.
7.
BindleyK. (2021, February27–28). A cubicle in the cloud. Wall Street Journal, B7.
8.
BindleyK. (2022a, March5–6). Back to the office, sort of. No pressure. Wall Street Journal, 41.
9.
BindleyK. (2022b, May14–15). The return-to-work rebellion gets serious. Wall Street Journal, B1.
10.
BindleyK. (2022c, July26). ‘Back to the office’ sweetened with ‘anywhere’weeks. Wall Street Journal, A11.
11.
BrayC. (2019, November4,). Your desk? Take your pick. UBS rethinks work space in its London offices. The New York Times, B6.
12.
BrownellB. (2015, November11). Putting place before products in office design. Architect Magazine. Putting Place Before Products in Office Design | Architect Magazine.
13.
CooperE. (2022, August7). Young workers shouldn’t stay remote forever. The New York Times, SR 10.
14.
CutterC. (2021, January15). The death of the desk?Wall Street Journal, p.R6.
15.
CutterC.PutzierK. (2021, December11–12). That warehouse used to be a corporate campus. Wall Street Journal, B4.
16.
GloedeK. (2015, February17). 7 ways to enhance indoor environments with biophilic design. Architect. Available 7 Ways to Enhance Indoor Environments with Biophilic Design | Architect Magazine.
17.
GoldbergE. (2022a, May15). Last year’s quitters? Most of them are at work. The New York Times, BU.
18.
GoldbergE. (2022b, August7). For disconnected times, unconventional new roles. The New York Times, BU.
19.
HarrissH.WinstanleyS. (2005). Capture it: A future workplace for the multi-generational knowledge worker. Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, Royal College of Art.
20.
Herman Miller. (2022). White paper: From office to everywhere. Author.
21.
HobsbawnJ. (2021, March). The nowhere office. Demos. www.demos.
22.
Kaufmann-BuhlerJ. (2021). Open plan: A design history of the American office. Bloomsbury.
23.
LaingA.BaceviceP. A. (2013) Using design to drive organizational performance and innovation in the corporate workplace: implications for interprofessional environments. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 27(2), 37–45. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2013.792043
24.
MargoliesJ. (2022, May11). Making conference rooms less boring. The New York Times, B7.
