Why we must bring young people back to the office - Fiona Collier

Three members of my team are under 30 and I believe it was the best option for them – for their mental health, for socialisation, for collaboration and their career development.

The UK Government has stopped instructing people to work from home but many firms have said they will maintain a cautious approach to bringing staff back to the office. If those businesses have junior staff, I think this is misguided.

My team is made up of qualified interior architects and designers. The creative work we do means they need to be able to collaborate and communicate to do their jobs effectively. And we are not alone.

My goddaughter is 26 and works as a marketing campaign manager. She couldn’t wait to get back into an office because it’s a dynamic, social environment where she can gain experience from people she doesn’t work with directly.

My son has just graduated and will go straight into an office alongside more senior architects who he can learn from. Last week, one of the leading office research organisations, Leesman, shared home working experience data that stated those under the age of 25 are suffering the most by working from home. It made me wonder if those of us who’ve moved up the echelons of senior management with our lovely homes and gardens with adequate workspaces have forgotten how it was to be a junior.

Can you imagine living in a houseshare, using one room for sleeping, working and downtime? Battling for wifi and airspace with the other five people in the house and using an ironing board as a desk? In the early stages of your career, learning from others is crucial for development.

Without guidance, inexperienced employees can go down a rabbit hole and there is no one casting an eye over them to quickly pull them out before they’ve spent too much time in the wrong direction. Working in person gives colleagues the power to learn from each other.

Have we also forgotten when you’re young, the social side of working in an office is part of the joy? I’m yet to meet one person who tells me the ‘virtual happy hour’ gives the same personal connection as office banter or Friday drinks.

How many people over 50 are still in touch with their work colleagues from their 20s? I know I am. I run a commercial interior design business in Yorkshire so I’m at the coalface helping adapt office environments for the new world we find ourselves in.

Forward- thinking businesses are redesigning spaces to make them more flexible and collaborative so they can bring this generation back into the office.

Yes, there may need to be flexibility over how often employees go into an office and what work needs to be face-to-face and what can be virtual, but to instruct juniors to solely work from home for the inevitable future is folly. The time of crisis management is over.

Our young are the leaders of the future, they need us to allow them to get back into the office.

By Fiona Collier Owner of Bluesky Design Interiors

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