What a crisis like this can bring. At the beginning of the intelligent lockdown, half of the Dutch people were worried: working from home... how do you do that?! The tips flew over the internet: make sure you have a good workplace, work with a tight schedule and do something else or walk around if you can't concentrate. After a couple of weeks, we started to get used to it: it was normal when a child or cat flew by during a zoom meeting, and we actually liked the fact that we were able to eat at 6 o’clock sharp.

In the meantime, the newspapers are heading: ‘Working from home is here to stay’ and other catchy statements that make it seem as if we'd prefer to stay at home together forever. I regularly get a comment or question: aren't you afraid of what that will do to the flexible office operators, now that people have discovered their home office?

Yes, we are going to live in a society where people want to work from home, and I also think that there are employers who will allow that. But no, that doesn't have a negative impact on our industry. The entire world now discovers how big the social aspect of their job is. After 2 months of working from home, surrounded by your family, without social activities where you meet other people (after all, we weren't allowed to go to the gym, equestrian center, golf course, etc, etc), we yearn for that chat at the coffee machine. Occupational psychologists point out that social contact is necessary to recharge the battery, and that mental exhaustion is lurking in your home office.

We also notice it at Tribes. Many more members already come to the office, some a few days a week, and others half days. They work with schedules to give all colleagues a day at the office or have already placed orders for plexiglass with us. At safe 1.5M they catch up, and we hear more than once that they 'love to be back at the office'.

But that office has to be coronaproof, and for that you need a lot more space than most companies have. We've done a good job with our Blue Zone Offices, but if you have your own office, you might not be able to create enough 1.5M safe zones. They will move to a flexible solution. The advantage is that you’re not bound to long lease terms, because as a flexible office operator we offer nice flexible and short terms.  We have already received the first requests for such temporary office spaces. However, there is a recurring request: the companies want the office to radiate their own corporate identity. 

And all those wishes come together in our Private Floors. Office spaces for larger groups of employees, which can be transformed in their own style, with everything you want in terms of plexiglass, desk pads, signage and routing. We can arrange everything for you. And yes, of course, we can do that for a short period of time as well. We are already seeing this happening in Asia. Companies with a long-term lease want to switch to a shorter term, but still want their own space and they want it decorated in their own style. So no, I'm not afraid of the long-term impact of working from home on our business!

Would you like more information? Call 0800 22 55 874 or mail simba@Tribes.world for more information!