45. The future of offices and teamwork - with workplace strategist Su Lim.
Following the COVID outbreak, the necessary reforms to workplace occupational health and safety and our experiences working remotely will most certainly shape how we use the office space in the future. How do you imagine things are going to change?
In this episode of The Job Hunting Podcast, we have an exceptional guest to address this and many questions I had about workplaces, office space, the dynamics of working from home versus working in an office, and how to be productive in both. Her name is Su Lim, and I interviewed her a few weeks ago, just as we were starting stage four of lockdown here in Melbourne.
Su is a workplace strategist and organizational coach. Selfishly, I wanted to get her insight into why it is so good to work from home for certain things; on the other hand, why is it so hard for me to get other projects going?
This was an episode I was looking forward to recording. I have been a client of Su's business, and I know how wonderful it can be to have experts helping design great workplaces for collaboration, concentration, productivity, and creativity. I hope you enjoy this chat as well!
Timestamps to guide your listening:
- 14:49 – Su's expertise and description of what she does.
- 15:29 – The power of the physical space.
- 19:29 – What are the trends and expectations once we go back to the office.
- 28:36 – New office spaces transitioning to a collaborative work environment?
- 31:21 - Has Su already been engaged by clients to consider new workspaces or redesign, readjust what is already there?
- 32:57 – Can we go back to the workplaces we have, as they are designed, right now?
- 34:53 – What are the things to look out for and raise your concerns if you are concerned about your workplace?
- 36:52 – Tips and ideas for people working from home and finding it hard to be productive.
- 39:20 – Su's consulting work: helping companies with physical space and remote working.
- 42:04 – The possibility of employees based in rural areas, overseas, and interstate for remote working.
- 45:43 – Risk management for remote work.
- 49:53 – What the effects of COVID could be in terms of bringing people together as a community.
- 52:07 – What keeps Su awake at night?
