Desk-sharing may not be the answer for offices post-Covid

There may well be a need for a different approach to providing office space in the post-Covid era but this is not something that gives Olivier Elamine, CEO of Germany’s Alstria Office REIT, undue cause for concern.

Elamine tells Real Asset Media’s Richard Betts that the work-from-home phenomenon is here to stay, perhaps for two days a week on average, but it is not necessarily bad for “the office”.

Employers will want to upgrade space and structure its use in a different way, Elamine says, but office requirements have changed markedly in the five years prior to Covid anyway, he points out.

Nor does Elamine believe that the quantity of space in use will necessarily diminish when the crisis is over. Companies will try desk-sharing arrangements but in general employees like a desk that remains theirs.

And he adds: “I am not a big believer in technology-enabled desk sharing policies.” In his experience, they do not work well, they are too expensive and provide too little benefit.

Click on the video to watch the full interview or listen via the podcast below.

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