Business as Usual: Knoll and Working from Home

 

So good afternoon, everyone. Happy Friday. This is Audrey Russo, president ceo of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. We're wrapping up the week with a lot of fun very happy on our guests today, as I am each and every day, but I think today's just a ton of fun and and a topic that I think is pretty important to all of us that are in the world of tech and working remote and everything that's happened with COVID. And you know, you name it. So in a minute, I'm going to introduce Kimberly bomb, Barry Smith, and she is actually director, Senior Director of workplace strategy at Nolan will talk about them in a moment, Jonathan kersting is here with us today, as he always is. He's vice president of all things media and storytelling and marketing for the tech Council. And he's gonna, at some point, he's gonna do a drumroll in terms of the activity that we've had all week with people sending in photographs of their workspace and, and mine is so trashed, but I'm not eligible for for winning any of these prizes. But it's been hilarious to just be able to see how people are really working for almost a year, it's pretty, it's pretty funny. So we're very thrilled to have with them. I want to thank Huntington bank, as I always do for their work and in our community, as well as them being one of the most active SBA lenders, they're very active in our tech community and across the entire community in terms of, you know, executing and leaving their civic muscle to make sure that this is an amazing place for people to live and work across Southwestern Pennsylvania, then 40 by 80. You're going to hear more about them very soon. And it's a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh tech Council. And we focus on workforce development, apprenticeships coming up soon, as well as entrepreneurship. So also, we have Knoll and work scape, who have sponsored us all week. And, Jonathan, you want to just set the stage real quick. And then I'll bring you back in in about 20 minutes. We're gonna talk about the winners.

Yeah, we're really excited What a fun week we've had Audrey working with mole and work scape, asking our viewers to send us pictures of their really terrible office space. So we can provide them with a makeover complements of Knoll and we do have a winner to announce along with some special surprises as well, too. And the thing is, the winner has to be here today. And if not, we work our way down the list.

Oh, nice. Okay,

yeah, this is this is the real deal. And we cannot wait. So I think with about I think at around 1220 or so we're going to announce the winner and kind of talk about the details. There can be some social media around some before and after pictures, which we're really excited about that. There will be automatic improvements. It's gonna be so much fun. I may

have to get my husband's drumsticks

Oh, please do

we have them for real? Yeah, definitely do that. That's awesome. And just, you know, the Pittsburgh tech Council, if you're in Pittsburgh, and you ever get a chance to come on over to where our offices are, we actually have leveraged the the expertise of both metal and work scape, and we have an amazing, beautiful environment that is very conducive to a lot of collaboration and interconnectedness across the community. So, Kimberly, thank you so much for being here. Today. You are you are in. I'm calling us from I want to say northeastern Pennsylvania, but that probably doesn't describe it. Right. That's County. Yeah. But But yes, yeah. Halfway between New York and Philly. And let's just talk about you real quick. Okay. What's your background? And then tell us about No.

Yeah, absolutely. So my background is in interior design. I went to school in Philadelphia. I grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and they went to school in Philadelphia. And what was funny was I ended up doing an internship at Merrill Lynch and corporate real estate. I didn't know that. You know, there was facilities departments at big companies. When I was going to school for design, I assumed I would just work at an architectural firm. So that was kind of an interesting early learning, but it really sort of shaped my career. So I became a project manager in corporate real estate. And now I know for I'm in my 19th year actually used to be the architecture and design manager for Knoll in New Jersey, and then in Philadelphia, in the city of Philadelphia. And almost five years ago, I moved into the workplace strategy on the workplace research team as workplace strategist.

Wow, you couldn't have landed in that in a timely fashion. Right.

Exactly. Exactly. And you know, Knoll is based in research which feels great to be on the research side of workplace. We listen to the vibe of the market to really understand what's going on, which is the really fun part we were talking pre show about not being able to travel and really see people you know, Their environments and their habitats. So we're missing that observation part of it. But we listen to the vibe of the market all the time. And then we share what we learned through a series of white papers. And right now, during the pandemic, we're constantly writing, certainly about economics, which is something we're going to talk about today. But really about getting people back to a thriving workplace, which is our latest piece that we just published. So we have a suite of resources there. And then we apply so our engineers or developers of products are waiting for our team to come back to them with findings about the vibe of the market, what's going on, and what sort of the future so we can always remain modern and timeless in the designs that we that we share. So

So would it would I be putting you on the spot by saying, so what is the vibe right now, in the last in, particularly in our space, we work in tap, we work a lot of knowledge workers, obviously, there are people who work in robotics, and they work in IoT. So they actually have to touch things. But what what is, you know, you probably have peer groups. And what are you hearing

out? We absolutely, so the second week of the pandemic, so let's say it was mid March, end of March, we heard from a lot of our customers that came to the research team or our sales teams that know and said, We need to talk to people, we can't believe this is happening. How is it that we're not in the office, right? Because they went from being like, you know, big financial giants in New York City going every single day on the hamster wheel, to not go into the office, and they're like, we don't work from home, right? So that sort of like pandemic panic. We were calling it in the very beginning. And then we started calling it the pandemic pause. But we gathered people together. And since you know, the pandemic hit, we had, let's say, at least 30, peer to peer roundtable discussions. We started a series called k talks, so we could get people to and we do once a month a topic of interest for people like this month. Just this week, actually, two days ago was casualisation of the office. We had a guy from Columbia University, a professor from Columbia University that talked about the casualisation and they did a study this is like so funny that an Ivy League would do a study but him and one of his colleagues did a study based on the what they call the zoo mullet. Have you heard the term the zoo? mullet? Oh, I think you're dressed from the waist up and bottom half is right. So it's like a mixed situation. And they thought when you wear a suit, you feel powerful and you feel authentic, you know, authentic in your casual clothes and powerful in a suit? So would you feel the best of both worlds if you had a suit on the top and you know, casual on the bottom. But the findings were a disaster that basically no, that is not the result that you actually don't feel strong or authentic. So basically they said, working from home has been such an adjustment for people. And that's sort of an aside. But the interesting finding is what it's going to do for us moving forward as we transition back into the office because many people want to get there. So they're freaking out that people are not in place because we miss each other. You know, we're missing chance interactions of seeing people having people be a visual cue, you know, I could see Audrey in the hallway and say, oh, Audrey, we forgot to schedule that time with a client. Let's put our calendars together and do so because you need those moments of reminders. And we're missing that and just not to mention people miss people they miss, you know, talking about ballgames that you get to go to or a concert that you get to go through. So like life is disrupted in so many ways.

So what about the casualisation of stay with that for one moment? So the fact that I'm wearing my pajamas right now you don't know it. But what's the impact? Well, I

mean, the direct correlation is that people are maybe sitting on their sofas, maybe not for a year because they found some better ergonomic experience because they know they're breaking their back. But if they're sitting on their sofa, the casual feeling of that might be more comforting during a very difficult time of the pandemic. So will that translate in back into a physical work environment? And the answer is yes. I mean, generally, even before the pandemic, there was a casualisation, right, we're seeing things that you know, many workplaces start to feel like co working spaces, for example, that's usually the best way that I describe. I mean, there certainly are a lot of people that still plan on using more traditional layouts, like a perimeter office, those sorts of things. But in general, we are seeing a more casualization of the office and they call it you know, resimercial you've probably heard that blended word before but resimercial or what was the other one? There's another one that's the opposite of that, which I don't like to use, but a lot of people do talk about that.

Okay, and then what else are you hearing? Are you hearing that? People are saying we're going to go back to the office at some point. I mean, what I'm hearing from you right now is, yes, there's a missing there's a misstep, right. There's a misstep and all the nuances, but what about actually what we've done learned from particularly the group that you're speaking to today?

Yeah, absolutely. So what we've learned is that the peer to peer roundtable discussions that we brought together mostly facilities managers that are in charge of large companies and planning, you know, multiple campus locations or multiple office locations for them, architects, designers, we talk to brokers and real estate, and basically saying that there's, you cannot, you cannot go to someone and say, Audrey, Jonathan, you're going to be coming to the office five days a week again, because we've not had to for almost a year. So the the habitual routines have been disrupted, you know, we have different rituals now than we did that long ago. So what companies are having to do is survey their employees and see what their comfort level is, during a public health crisis of coming back, start to archetype their employees, so really putting them into buckets, right. So you have, let's just say, broadly, we would have a resident, that would be someone who would be there most days a week, so let's say four or five. But they're also the language is funny, because they're also hesitant about saying five days, they're even saying four to five, giving a little bit of latitude, then you have the hybrid, which will be likely most employees, the numbers percentage wise, with people that we know, who've been surveying that middle ground has really been most desirable for employees. And then and then the remote, you know, people may choose to stay to their where they may have had an assigned desk at the office, they may say, I'm going to be remote. So I'll be working primarily at home unless I have to be in the office for a meeting. So the we have the resident, the hybrid and the remote worker in this archetype structure.

Yeah, I mean, that's what that's what we're hearing as well. So that's great that you're doing that kind of research. They go on to the Knoll site, can they find some of these?

They can, yeah, if you go right now, if you're multitasking, you can go to you can go to the research tab, and you'll see, we actually have a landing page for the thriving workplace. And we just shared a report, actually, it's a two part series. And it shows a white paper that talks about the thriving workplace and what we see as you know, projected future. And then the other one is a report on a survey that we did on hybrid work, because we know the hybrid part is what we have to solve for from a technology perspective, right? The hybrid part is the hardest when we have a digital workforce or physical digital workforce. And you have to bring, you know, we're all equal. Now, you know, this, this set the status, mostly in many cities everywhere in the us right now and abroad, or is this we're all in equal squares and some video platform in every meeting every hour every day, once that changes, and people start to go back. I mean, certainly people have started to go back in some degree, right? I was mentioning to you, I have two appointments next week, which I'm like, I'm not working at home two days next week. It's like, it's weird. It's so weird, but there's going to be a blended environment. So we're going to have to be more tech enabled, because we have tech enabled mobility now. So we're going to have to go into workplaces that are you know, very easy to plug and play, going in making it very smooth transitions between locations. And great cameras, great microphones, like we believe that that is going to be difficult to solve for. Because we know there's an inequity when people are in a room together and someone zooming in if it's one or two people right in the past. Now how do we sort of understand connecting them in new ways of togetherness, so that they are really feeling equal in a meeting. So we believe that there's, you know, there are three key elements to making a hybrid meeting work. One is space, you have to have the right space, you know, maybe level of privacy, acoustic privacy, visual privacy, etc. The other one is technology. You need great cameras, great microphones, etc. Way of people connecting great flat screens. And then the third one is protocol. We tell people how to behave, which is the hardest one, you know, sort of trying to let them know the expected behaviors in these environments. So for example, you know, you'll walk into an office, your coffee talking, you're chatting with someone as you're walking around having coffee, and then you go into a meeting and chit chatting continues around the table. The people on the video can't really hear what's going on. It's like a disconnect. So we have to figure out what new way of connecting people.

So let's jump into talking about furniture and accessories and the importance of that you mentioned something earlier about people sitting on their couch which is really Pretty amazing. But it just from the amount of submissions that we had for the kinds of places that people are working in, it's just astounding, it's everything from standing to lying down to sitting on the floor, etc. So, you know, talk about that as well, because I think as, as employers, we have a huge responsibility to make sure that people are in sort of safe environments, ergonomically, you know that the tools they're using are not putting unusual stress on them. Yeah, better. And we haven't probably paid attention to them enough.

Not at all. It's unbelievable what the impact of poor posture is going to have on people moving forward. I mean, certainly the usual, the eye strain from having too much screen time, we've all probably felt that in the pandemic, because all your meetings are very different. It's unlikely that your meetings from let's say, started the day to the end of the day, pre pandemic, we're all electronic, I would venture to say no. So that your eye strain, everybody's complaining that they're much more tired at night. And it's really true, your brain is functioning different as you're staring at a screen. The other part is that we're not really varying our postures as much as we're standing behind the screen. Because the expectation is, your presence is in the meeting is on camera, where it hasn't, it wasn't like that you are sort of moving about. And we know from a you know, well being perspective, that motion is good, right? So we want to make sure that we're encouraging an active work day. So that's why I sit to stand desk is great. But we say when the put pandemic first started, I was doing a lot of these sort of like quick sessions with companies, they would ask us to come in and just talk to their employees about, you know, how do you make the best of it at home, essentially. So we would talk about some strategies and things you could do like varying your postures, for example, like simple things. So if you're sitting on your couch, don't sit there all day, vary your posture, go stand to the counter, like if you have no other standing counter, go to the kitchen, clear off your counter and stand there for an hour, you know, keep like moving yourself about and also taking breaks, you know, taking a moment to really walk outside for a minute, if you're able to do so because you're used to doing that you're used to transitioning in workplaces, you're used to transitioning from your desk to your car. And in a pandemic, we've been sort of stuck, you know, you're going from your bed to your desk, wherever that is, and that might be in close proximity. So we're not getting the steps in we're not getting all the things that would really be beneficial for us.

There's so many nuances, right? There's so many nuances to this. The posture thing is fascinating. So what are the what are the tools that we should have?

Yeah, so well, it starts with a desk, right? Everyone needs a great desk. And if you have the opportunity to get a standing desk, you know, sit to stand desks, we call them or height adjustable tables or hats, we call them. So if you have a height adjustable table, you're able to be more empowered and in control of your posture. And you're supposed to bury it, you're not supposed to stand like I'm standing in my home office. That's my actually I like to say it's my guest room. But really, it's my dog's bedroom. So my dog is displaced and displeased with me right now. But so in the beginning of the pandemic, I had a little beautiful, no, of course, but a little desk that was not height adjustable. Within not even a month of time, I was like I 100% have to get a height adjustable table because I was so used to traveling, moving about the universe. And then to be sitting at my desk, I really felt very, I did not feel like myself, I wasn't feeling energetic, I wasn't feeling motivated. So within a very short period of time, I got a high adjustable table. So that's one and then starting with a great chair. So if you are someone who prefers to sit, have to have an Aeron chair that really gives you again, you're empowered to change the posture. Seat depth is amazing. A good lumbar support is also something that we talk to people often about, if you're experiencing back pain, it's likely that your chair is not adjusted properly or that you don't have the choice. Most people have been sitting on you know, maybe a barstool that's wooden or like some other material that's not as soft as a cushion. Right. So ergonomic chair, a great adjustable table, because I also feel like you have to get eye level to a great point for yourself in order to be comfortable reach is really important from an economic perspective. So if you can be in control of the height of your desk, even in the seated position, so height adjustable tables allow you to get a great seat, you know, seat height as well. And then we have to, you know, put her I was laughing when I saw some of the submissions for this contest with the shoe box and the empty boxes because everyone's doing that. I was joking, getting the pandemic and saying it was a phone book, but then I'm like nobody has a phone book anymore. I was using my daughter's sh t book. I have a high school daughter and I was using that Fat SAP study

to start?

Yeah, I was

using lighting, also Audrey lighting. So I keep getting teased that I'm in a in a production studio with a task late. But the lighting is really important too.

So what are you using what kind of light are using? Well, I'm

going to be branded, of course, because I have no I have a, we have a task light that is an LED light that's called Sparrow, SP AR o w. And it's the best because it actually spins 360 degrees, so you can really tilt it. And it also has a dimmer, so there's three different modes. So you can do you can start out in one spot and then move up as the day goes on or reverse. And again, it gives you a lot of autonomy and control over your environment.

So yeah, the the last thing is, is that are you seeing companies give their employees sort of, you know, an allocation, if they've been working from home. I stipend. Yep. So like as a benefit. Are you seeing that?

There are some companies that are doing that which we of course think it's amazing. We started it ecommerce site for work from home that people can order directly from Nola calm now because of that. Some companies are giving a stipend. What was funny Audrey is they didn't they meaning big companies didn't know that. How long it was going to take. So as the pandemic started stretching on they started reevaluating it and going yes, we do need like, for example, one very large tech company based in California that you probably know, because you use them to search every day. They gave $1,000 per employee right there. Yeah. So that was big there. Yeah. And then they said, you know, you can also you can go to these furniture manufacturers to get you some great stuff. So the stipends are really helpful for people, not given by everybody. But some people are like, I just need to be comfortable in my home office, and they're going for it.

That's great. And all that information is on there. So so we have we have like mind, 10 minutes left, and I want to pass the baton. I know everyone's waiting. We're waiting. And I want to thank that team at work scape and the fun that we've had all week. And you know, we we could talk to you Kimberly for a long time. As you know, I probably have a litany of questions that I'd love to throw at you. But we put the resources out there, we put your link out there and take advantage of it. Because this is the kind of stuff that really matters as we have teams of employees who need lots of things that many of us no matter how long we've been leading people don't you know, just underestimate what this transition really is. So thank you for that. Don't go anywhere. Kimberly. Now passing the baton over to Jonathan kersting. And I think he is working with the work scape team. And I am going to sit back even though I know that Michael has asked a couple of questions. And same thing of john. But I want to get to this first. So sorry, guys. If we have time, we'll go back to those questions. So john? Sure.

So exciting. All right, Audrey. So I ready, we're ready to announce our winners here. And if I can share my screen, I can even show the entries as well, too. So I might do that. And while we do that, I'm actually so I'm gonna announce the winner right now, because I don't actually see the winner in our, our our field participants today. But I want to make sure sometimes they're under a different name on their screen. So it's not gonna be have our backups, which are equally as good. But we had to make some decisions as far as that. The winner we had was Nate Goda, or Gouda from Robert Morris University. And I was under a different name, please chime in, let us know if not, we're going to we're going to announce the two other ones. But we all went announces that the two runner ups are going to get a free chair, which is pretty exciting stuff. So we're really exciting. kind of spread a little extra love to all the people that participated. We did have over 30 entries. So there was a lot of activity around it. At least awesome. pretty pathetic stuff. That's all I can say. Okay, so let me so you have

pictures. How are you going to handle this?

I'm gonna do it right now. Pulling up my share my screen here and doing that right now. All right, can everyone see here? So our winner who has not stepped up yet? Ah, first, our first pick was very good. As you can see, a lovely face here. Seems like a classic setup. We thought in many ways as you you know, look at the depleted chair, headset hanging from the monitor multiple small desk with multiple items all over it. And of course, you need a special spot for your RTD to in the upper right hand corner there. So let's you know we would love to be able to showcase that But hey, the rules are the rules. That's right and your instead we will give them a chair to replace that pile of junk. He has right there. So let's go to the next minute who I know is here, and that is Tara crow. She works with Wolf, LLC. Very excited and her setup is right here. She's using a rocking chair, a tiny desk, and a little old filing cabinet. She needs help. And we're going to give it to her with a makeover. Very excited about this. So Tara is here we're going to get in touch with you. Our third place finisher who will also receive a chair is Bill phrase he's a regular on this show. Now his setup is pretty janky as well if you look at that, I mean he's got it going on a lot of disorganization going on there but we're gonna at least get him a chair to replace that you know, early 70s kitchen chair.

Better already once you have an ergonomic chair, every one of these right?

And we are everybody who submitted an entry is going to get a discount code compliments of No. So they go to name.com and they type in the discount code of w wo rk wfh all capitals like work from whom they can then be qualifying for a discount on anything they would like to purchase. Okay, so

that in the chat, yes,

chat, and terraces for chiropractors been very busy, which we would agree with.

Oh, the rocking chair, Tara is terrible. I'm so glad that you are the winner.

We're going to show before and after picture. So after the makeover is done, we are going to be spreading and showing the good work as to what a good efficient home office can look like and function like. And hopefully we can eliminate her trip to the chiropractor. He'll be very upset. She'll be very upset. But that's okay. We want you to be healthy back with a nice no chair.

I love the fact that Tara said it's a nice memory foam pillow. What else? What are some of the other things that that you folks saw? What were some examples of some some

certainly eye level in this picture that you know you're supposed to be within three inches from the top of your screen down for eye level comfort and this is not at all This chair is way too low for all the way up unless they're working? Yeah, they're straining their neck by looking up like this.

Oh my gosh.

Unless that's the standing posture that could be bill if you're on the phone, maybe that's your standing computer and you're working to the one on the left.

I'm not sure but that height is the heights are way off there from a visual perspective. So Jonathan, do you just see that Nate go to just popped in is for everyone to say make go to just popped in that I couldn't get in. I was stuck on the phone with the student guides. Oh, you need some sort of consolation for him. He's getting a chair. That's chair.

Yes. The other love that no one works gaping through his way would be awesome. We hate to see someone just miss this by the skin of their teeth.

Wow. May we still read? Yeah. Jenny Ross child, I was gonna unmute her. I asked. I asked Lexie on our team to unmute her. But she leads work scape, which is partners with no and just tremendous value to the community, in terms of all the things that Kimberly was talking about and leveraging that. Cindy, do you want to say anything?

Yes, honestly, I wanted to help everybody. These pictures like gave me heart palpitations yesterday. It was, I mean, we are a resource and we'd love to be a resource and we can work in all price levels to help everyone. So we Yes, we have discount codes, but we certainly have some ability to be a resource. So encourage you guys to get in touch with us. I will be emailing every person who did submit making it really, man oh man, we're gonna help we'll help meet bill and tear out in some ways.

Well, so you can see that people have been writing on here that they need help. Yes. So we will make sure that you get connected to all of them.

If I can offer I am actually an eo II economic evaluator. So if these three guys would like a virtual economic assessment of their office, oh wow them in advance of making a purchase. What items would be you know, top of the list we do that often with people they'll have to fill out a questionnaire though I have a little little form you have to fill out and then we'll set up a great time So

do we have your contact information up there? Everyone's in? We all need help. Yeah. I'm standing and I can feel the back of my neck today. For some reason,

your height of your screen might be off we don't know we'll have to deal with full of that.

It's It's pathetic. Mark my words. It's pathetic. But I anything else that you want to say Ginny or Kimberly Thank you so much. You know, first of all, thanks for no was the packed information and the resources. And the research is just phenomenal. Jenny, do you want to add anything?

I mean, we've been a key partner with a lot of Pittsburgh tech council members. I mean, Audrey mentioned, we worked with them to do their space. We're a key partner, I don't want to be a plugger of all the people we've worked with. But a lot of the places that you're seeing in the news, Smith and Nephew, Crystal, biotech, connective Rx, those are all key, you know, jobs that we've done over the last few years. And it's really interesting to be working with teams right now as they talk about this thriving workplace. You know, as people go back, we're going to have different expectations. So your workplace is going to have to evolve. And, you know, we just encourage anyone if you're involved in influencing your company, or if you have opinions and want to learn more, we have an eager team ready to help. And we're very fortunate to have snow and dirt as great partners.

It's great work safe, and they're a ton of fun to work with Tim food always helps not only are they resourceful, so Kimberly, any final words that you want to share with us.

Thank you so much for having me. And I do believe a well designed environment is very inspirational. So we will and we always have fun when we're helping people get to a better place. So thanks for having us.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you. So Jonathan, any wrap up what's going on next week?

Well, we're kicking off next week strong we have Katherine Coleman from the Port Authority rejoining us your second time on business as usual to update us on all things your public transit, our keeping it safe and getting people to where they need to go. See even electric

some conversation around electric buses to good stuff, and meet people. It really is Friday that I know every day I usually get it mixed up. And I always think it's either Friday or Monday, but I would like everyone stay safe. Stay safe if you can get a vaccine, get a vaccine. And these are just such important topics that we get a chance to cover and really a ton of fun. It was great meeting you Kimberly, thank you so much. Great to work with work scape. If you don't know them, get to know them. There's so many ways that they can help. So everyone stay safe. Have an amazing weekend. Thank you again. See you on Monday.

Thank you be well

Transcribed by https://otter.ai