The Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) presented a luncheon seminar on the changing American workplace.
Connections: The Value of Buildings took place at The Water's Edge at Giovanni's, and was attended by members of Southern Connecticut BOMA and their guests.
Co-presenters Melissa Marsh, principal at Plastic Architecture in New York, and Karolina Graves, director of sales and business development at Alianza Services LLC in New York, led a program exploring changing behaviors and workplace expectations across multiple generations. The discussion addressed the role of buildings in refocusing the social structure of the workplace.
Marsh and Graves discussed the multiple generations, from Traditionalists and Boomers to GenX, Y, and Z-ers, who come together in a work setting.
The varying perspectives of these diverse age groups must also contend with changes in technology and economy, including downsizing, subleasing, and the constant replacement of outdated office equipment (e.g. typewriters, pagers) with new devices. Participants at the Southern CT BOMA seminar were invited to consider differences in today's office environment, which tends to focus on "co-working" and "making a statement," as compared with the offices of the past, designed more to "enable a function" and "not offend." The private, career-track offices of prior generations stand in stark contrast to today's trend toward transience and collaboration, with everything from ZipCars to shared office spaces available for temporary loan.
The luncheon seminar concluded with a glimpse into the workplace of the future. Marsh and Graves cited the characteristics of diversity (a mix of spaces), propinquity (being with others), autonomy (choices of where/how people work), and reusability (repurpose furniture for other uses) as critical elements of the successful workplace.
Southern CT BOMA holds monthly meetings on topics that are of interest to those in the real estate industry.