Is the cost of living crisis changing the way we work?

Cost of Living.
Several studies have examined the impact of the living crisis on household incomes. While they vary in their findings, they all suggest that the economic impact of the pandemic is more widespread in lower-income households than among families in the top-income bracket. This has been widespread across the world.
This has created two options for households: go to work to avoid heating the home or avoid going to work due to the price of the commute. It will mostly depend on the household as this is on a case-by-case basis. Older staff are more likely to live in older homes, which makes it more costly to heat the space, therefore, more likely to return to work.
As workspace providers, what can we do to help our employees and clients during this crisis? One long term option to combat the rising cost of commutes incspaces have been exploring is suburbs as new site locations, instead of city centres. The benefits of a “work from near home” premise would be twofold – cutting commute times and costs for workers, and also breathing life and money into the local economy.
By installing features like fitness suites, showers, and lockers we are adding features that all our clients can benefit from, that will help cut their everyday costs if used regularly and things like gym memberships are cancelled.

Mental well-being
The COVID-19 pandemic gave many employees a chance to take a step back and reflect on themselves. This includes self-health and mental health reflection. Plus how some companies were handling the pandemic. Due to this reflection and getting to work on mental health, did ignite the Great Recession, which showed that it’s working to live, not living to work.
As more offices were opening back up, more employees stood their ground. Nowadays, many companies offer the option for hybrid work and complete remote work for their employees. This still offers a sense of community within the work culture, but it still allows mental health for the employees to continue growing.
At incspaces, we have continued to reinforce the idea that we are more than just a work place by placing the wellbeing of our members at the forefront of our operations. Every detail of our spaces have been carefully thought out to maximise productivity and positivity. Natural light, biophilic design, community events, dog friendly spaces – the list of ways we are prioritising wellbeing to offer benefits that working from home cannot provide is expansive, and always growing.

An ageing workforce
It’s not hidden information knowing that the workforce is getting older. People past retirement age are sticking to work rather than starting on retirement. Alternatively, it may be a partial retirement. However, one thing to note is that as long as the cost of living is high, more retirement-age workers will continue to work. This is due to the fear that the cost of living may be too challenging to sustain itself.
For others, it may be the fact that they were isolated during the pandemic and want to go back to work to be social. While there is a larger aging workforce, this also impacts younger workers, meaning it’s more challenging to get promoted.

Unity
Having hybrid and remote work has surprisingly increased unity within the company culture. While much upper management in major organisations has feared that remote work would create a lack of connection in company culture, it’s been doing the opposite. Both remote and hybrid have allowed employees to feel a sense of community within their job, but they’re still able to maintain individuality by working from home- their personal space. This has helped employees stay happy and unify with their fellow teammates.
With 24 hour access across all incspaces sites, and a range of meeting rooms, break out areas, private booths, and outside space, members are free to choose exactly when and where they do their best work.