Amazon prime?

Employee response to Amazon’s back-to-work mandate (according to a Xatana On article, one survey suggested 91% dissatisfied and 73% considering changing jobs) demonstrates just how much things have changed since the pandemic.

This mass exodus means not only a loss of talent to the business but a gain for competitors.

The office needs to earn the commute, and the thriving the workplace design sector is proof that the employers are taking the challenge seriously. What does that mean when it comes to the lights?

Three broad trends in the research

• Smart buildings - integrating natural and dynamic artificial lighting to optimise energy use, performance and comfort - optimised daylighting can not only reduce energy use by over 60% (Meeting User Needs through Building Automation and Control Systems: A Review of Impacts and Benefits in Office Environments) but improve productivity and even physical activity and sleep. But a word of caution - these hyper-automated systems only work when the employee is actively involved and understands how to use the system and feels the boss has their interests at heart - when we feel we’re being controlled by a faceless big brother we find ingenious ways to thwart the system - as anyone who has put gaffer tape over a CCTV camera will know - A review of select human-building interfaces and their relationship to human behavior, energy use and occupant comfort.
• Zoning - using brightness colour temperature, contrast and scale to encourage different preferences and activities. The interaction. is complex, and preferences will depend on age, culture and even gender (Interactive effect of illuminance and correlated colour temperature on colour preference and degree of white light sensation for Chinese observers), but bright cool open effects seem to boost focus, while softer warm enclosed environments encourage more intimate, collaborative behaviour (Effects of correlated color temperature of office light on subjective perception, mood and task performance)
• Local control - simply having access to a light switch tops the list when it comes to engagement and perceived environmental quality. But how to navigate the wide differences in personal preferences? Dominant team members are more likely to hog the remote control - the humble light switch could become a source of office politics and defeat the object of the exercise - Lighting preference profiles of users in an open office environment.

Of course, the most beautiful lights in the world won’t make up for a toxic culture or a space that’s noisy, airless and dirty space that’s too hot or too cold - Productivity Driven by Job Satisfaction, Physical Work Environment, Management Support and Job Autonomy.  

But it seems to me that how you do one thing is how you do everything,

If you’re in Stockholm on Tuesday 8th, please join me for a rare chance to go behind the scenes at EY’s LEED Platinum certified office and rub shoulders with some incredible experts including Ikea, Gensler and Ericsson and to . Link to register here.