An architecture CEO says there’s too much focus on return-to-office rates. The real conversation is the future of hybrid work

On the latest episode of Coins2Day podcast Leadership Next, Hoskins and her co-CEO Andy Cohen shared with Coins2Day CEO Alan Murray and editor-at-large Michal Lev-Ram their insights into how people are working right now.

Office vacancy rates in the U.S. Are around 15%. But if you take a closer look at which offices are vacant, Hoskins says, it’s out-of-date buildings. There’s been a “flight to quality,” in which businesses are choosing buildings constructed after 2015. Vacancy rates in those buildings are in the single digits, as employers seek out better-quality offices and amenities, perhaps to soften the blow of RTO. “Buildings that cannot play in that amenity game are going to have to find other uses,” Hoskins says.

That might seem like a convenient data point for an architecture firm behind some of those new offices. Or it may signal which kinds of businesses are succeeding at RTO and which are struggling to visualize a future in which RTO sticks.“We have our finger on the pulse of where companies see themselves going,” Hoskins says. And that’s what vacancy rates speak to—how companies are planning for the future, not how many people are showing up to work today. People are “over-focusing” on the latter issue, Hoskins says.

This isn’t the first time Hoskins has seen business standards shift amid rapid societal change. She and Cohen have led Gensler for 18 years. And, rather than a unique response to pandemic-era work-from-home culture, today’s way of working is a natural part of an economic cycle, she argues.

The 1980s savings-and-loan crisis in the U.S., she says, led to a focus on workplace “flexibility.” The dot-com era inspired organizational flattening; in physical offices, that meant tearing down cubicle and office walls and creating more visibility on office floors. The 2008 crisis was up next. “Collaboration was really born out of the global financial crisis,” Hoskins argues. In fact, she says that co-working came out of the recession era.

What COVID has altered, seemingly permanently, is the concept of hybrid work. “It has become a way to decrease expenses, which is a normal response during an economic downturn,” Hoskins says. “So the question is: to what extent will hybrid continue through an upturn?”

Hoskins and Cohen are the authors of a forthcoming book Design for a Radically Changing World. You can listen to their full Leadership Next interview on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe

The Broadsheet is Coins2Day’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- A culture of quiet. Robert Hadden, an obstetrician at Columbia University, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in July for sexually assaulting patients, 245 of whom have come forward. New details, however, show that Columbia frequently undermined the legal process against Hadden and even let him continue his practice—and assault more women—after police showed up to investigate his crimes. Columbia has apologized for the pain patients suffered "as a result of [Hadden's] abhorrent misconduct" and blamed the doctor for "purposely work[ing] to evade oversight." ProPublica

- Shared identity. Lyft is rolling out a new feature that allows female and non-binary users to prioritize passengers and drivers of the same gender identity, a move the company hopes will boost the number of women driving and riding on the app. Those who toggle on the “Women + Connect” feature can still be matched with a man if no woman or non-binary person is in the area.CNN

- Back to grind. The COVID-19 pandemic marked the first time in history that more U.S. Women lost their jobs than men, but the number of women in the workplace is already back to pre-pandemic levels. Women now make up half of the labor force for only the third time in history. Still, Black women are recovering more slowly from their deep losses. The 19th

- The name game. A majority of women still take their husband’s last names during marriage, but certain groups are more likely to than others. White women, women without a college degree, and conservatives change their names more often than their counterparts.New York Times

- Maternal care revisited. Melinda French Gates is warning that “it’s still a very dangerous day when a woman goes in to deliver a baby” after coauthoring a report this past Tuesday that exposes the damning prevalence of maternal mortality. To help curb deaths, French Gates recommends the widespread use of cheap plastic bags that can measure blood loss and iron infusions that can treat or prevent severe anemia.Coins2Day

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Pega hired Jen Pratt as general manager of the U.S. Government sector. LaGuardia Gateway Partners appointed Suzette Noble to chief executive officer. WSP named Jennifer Gagnier as senior vice president of health, safety, environment, and quality for the United States. Deputy hired Jana Schuster as vice president of revenue operations and growth strategy. Maven appointed Dr. Hiba Sher Khan as U.K. Medical director. Zevia named Kirsten Suarez as chief marketing officer.

ON MY RADAR

Betty Friedan and the movement that outgrew her The New Yorker

We don't: the bridesmaid burnout Glamour

Opinion: Women in journalism pass another milestone Washington Post

PARTING WORDS

"Why is everyone so upset that these women were just telling what happened to them?"

—Caroline Suh, codirector of the new documentary Sorry/Not Sorry, on the women who were criticized and forgotten after calling out Louis C.K., who returned to comedy less than a year after his scandal