Real freedom or hunting for places, is the flex office a good idea?

In Flex office, workers do not have an assigned position and can change them as needed -

• With the economic difficulties linked to the coronavirus crisis and the rise of teleworking, more and more companies are considering establishing the flex office, or shared office, in their organization.

• This consists of not allocating a fixed place to workers, who settle in every day according to their needs or availability in the company.

• If opinions are mixed among employees who have experienced the flex office, it is according to experts because the establishment of this organization does not provide the necessary security and confidence to employees.

In the 2000s, the images of employees playing foosball, chatting on sofas, laptops on their thighs or on a kitchen table, were the prerogative of start-ups.

Little by little, this type of work space arrangement - shared - has developed, without causing a tidal wave.

According to a Parella-Esquisse survey, 27% of Ile-de-France tertiary companies have already passed the flex office milestone.

And with the confinement linked to the coronavirus and the rise in teleworking that resulted from it, added to the scarcity of spaces in the city, many companies would be seduced by the idea.

This is not always the case for employees.

Economic reasons accentuated by the coronavirus

“The only thing the company has gained is less square footage to pay.

»Among the testimonies of the readers of

on the flex office, this argument of Joachim comes up regularly.

No mystery, the first interest for companies to set up shared offices is to reduce workspace and the costs that go with it.

This is also the principle of the flex office: assuming that 100% of workers are never present at the same time, no need to provide a position for each.

Although "shared", the idea of ​​the common office could have been reduced with the risks of contamination.

But it is not.

Eric's company is an illustration of this: some of the workstations have been condemned to respect safety distances, each employee has been allocated a locker for his personal effects and chooses a position on arrival.

“It worries me, because it's up to everyone to clean their place when they leave, but there is no guarantee that this will be done.

"If her fear seems legitimate, Odile Duchenne, director of Actineo, observatory of the quality of life in the office, sees an advantage:" On condition of a certain discipline of employees or a dedicated team, shared offices are 100 times better cleaned ”.

With employees clearing their way out, disinfecting equipment would be easier.

But the flex office existed before the coronavirus, and its supporters were already making their arguments.

Moffi.io, a company that offers a workspace reservation tool (very useful in the context of shared offices), explains on its site the reasons which led the company to make this choice of organization: “The flex office mixes several environments to allow each employee to have the workspace best suited to their situation at a given time. ”The company argues that, accompanied by adequate management, the flex office would allow creativity to be developed , by more freedom, and the confidence of employees.

In the same vein, Alexandra, a

reader

who has been experimenting with the shared office for five years, specifies that this allows you to change views and neighbors very regularly, thus avoiding routine: "And the offices remain clean, tidy, airy. and ensure good data protection, since no document or computer is lying around.

»Eric is overwhelmed and is delighted, after some reluctance, to rub shoulders with new colleagues and to create new collective dynamics.

Overall negative experiences

But for a large majority of employees who testify, the experience is much more negative.

For Caroline, the flex office is a disaster: “People come together by affinities and reserve places for their friends.

She also regrets that the bad reflexes come back and that her colleagues end up allocating places for themselves not to move.

Practices that can have an impact on work, such as not being able to be near colleagues.

It happened to Yan: “It's the little game of musical chairs, depending on the time of day you arrive, you find yourself far away from your colleagues on duty.

It is counterproductive.

"

The layout of spaces is also a source of conflicts, some positions being more valued than others.

What penalizes Louise: “It's the race in the morning to who will arrive first.

Since I have my daughter, I have to take her to school, so I arrive later and I always have to settle for bad places.

"Fighting for a seat, being away from her colleagues, Ondine had the bitter experience of this in one of her previous jobs:" I was new and shy, I never managed to get closer to the members of my department and I didn't interest the others.

I never managed to fit in.

"Finally, Cécile puts her finger on an element that comes up often: overbooking:" As there are more employees than offices, the days when everyone is there, it overflows and it becomes "little murder between friends" between the different teams upstairs.

"According to Odile Duchenne, for this to work, there must be enough workstations:" The space must be generous, otherwise it can be a source of stress.

"

To be successful, the company must ensure the moral security of employees

The flex office therefore has its detractors and its followers.

But for Dominique Steiler, holder of the Peace Economic Chair at the Grenoble School of Management and specialist in stress and well-being at work, it is not so much the idea of ​​a shared office that is to be questioned as that of its implementation.

The first condition is not to impose it on employees without involving them in its development: “If the decision is shared, there will be greater involvement, less frustration.

This consideration is all the more important given that most employers still address themselves to workers who have known the individual office.

"The office, just like the salary or certain benefits, such as a car or a work phone, contributes to the recognition of the employee, and secures him in his role and in his social contribution", explains Dominique Steiler.

For this expert, social relations in the company must also be taken into account: “We are living beings, so our social network is important.

The stronger it is, the more confident the employee is.

In short, even without an office, a worker must be able to forge links, other than virtual ones, in the company.

It is up to the latter to set up the conditions.

Same scenario to apply for managers, whose task is complicated by "remote" management.

Dominique Steiler insists on the need to set up events that allow everyone to come together.

And to give and take, with the equation: shared office = possibility of teleworking: "The counterpart is to be able to arrange your work as you wish".

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