A 2019 survey from flexible office-rental company Hana included responses from 1,000 US workers about what they value most in an office. It showed that only 26% of people considered using shared space a vital aspect of work, and just 30% enjoyed using office amenities. “What Covid-19 has done more broadly has exposed existing fault lines” in the workplace paradigm, says Rob Briner. “If you look at the uptake of flexible working, people were already starting to vote with their feet” prior to the pandemic. Perks are “mostly symbolic and mostly about image”, adds Briner. “I think it was more of an image thing to look attractive, to look cool.” They may have helped with recruitment, but other measurable benefits are less concrete – and, in some cases, detrimental as some companies used these perks to try to keep workers at the office longer. And for some employees, it took the pandemic to help them realise that many perks could be superfluous. And, according to Briner, falling back on some of those traditional perks after workplace restrictions are lifted could be seen by workers as “even more superficial, a waste of money and tokenistic”. Post-pandemic, the best office perk may be somewhat ironic: the ability to spend more time outside the office than ever before.
Sam Blum, ‘What happens to workplace perks when no-one’s in the office?’, BBC
