The answers to both the office worker’s and the office landlords’ problems revolve around improved but invisible hygiene, the so-called ’de-densification’ of the workplace.

Bathroom designer and manufacturer, Geberit, carried out a YouGov poll in February 2021 of 1,000 office staff on their views on working life during the pandemic and their thoughts on returning to the office once restrictions are lifted. The results are unexpectedly positive for the traditional office.

An overwhelming majority (76%) were willing to return to the office, with half of them were already back behind their desks. A majority (51%) said they missed socialising with colleagues, and the plurality said they also missed getting out of the house and face-to-face meetings. Some even miss the daily commute to work (8%).

But the poll also revealed that 47% have reservations about surfaces and touchpoints in the office, and 37% of respondents are worried about standards of washroom hygiene.

Dexter Moren is an architect with a practice spanning Europe and Asia. According to Moren, office designers and landlords need to think more closely about issues of proximity – meaning the simple fact of people being close together.

This isn’t just about social distancing but about the way offices work.

Moren comments: “One of the big ideas of office workspace in the last few decades has been the open plan office, as opposed to individual cellular offices. Today people will probably be more comfortable being further apart at work than they were before COVID-19, and that probably means less demand for offices but more demand for floorspace.”

This has become known as ‘de-densification’ and it reverses the trend of several decades in which crowding people into offices became the norm. 20 years ago, each worker was notionally allocated between 150-200 square foot each.

By the time the pandemic struck last year this had fallen dramatically, down to 80-100 square foot in some workplaces. If this goes into reverse it will require high-level rethinks of how much office space is needed, and how it is used, Moren says.

The difficulty is that some members of staff will take very different views of the risk involved a post-COVID return to work. Whilst for one member of a team the risk may seem small and manageable, for another it might be a cause of an almost clinical level of anxiety.

This spectrum of concern is most visible in our attitudes to places associated with hygiene, like workplace washrooms.

Lynne Clapham-Carter is specification sales manager at Geberit, and washrooms are her business.

“It is telling that such a large number in our YouGov poll have reservations about surfaces and touch points, and almost everyone had concerns about standards of washroom hygiene,” she says.

Clapham-Carter says that touch free operation, including toilet seats that lift automatically as you approach, followed by a close and flush as you walk away, will be increasingly popular in the post-lockdown workplace.

Not all solutions need to be expensive. Basic steps like wall-mounted toilets and easy-to-remove seats can make cleaning washrooms more thorough and secure.

“The poll shows the importance of spaces that are more comfortable, and that staff are happy to use because there are cases where people have such concern that they limit their food and drink intake during the working days, which is so unhealthy,” she says.

Washrooms also have a social function. They are a place to retreat to, or emerge from, in the course of our stressful working-day. This ‘dressing room’ function becomes more important in the no-where-to-hide expanses of open plan offices.

“There have always been people who retreat to the washroom to escape, if things get a bit stressful,” Clapham-Carter says.

“And, of course, some people call them restrooms. These are places that provide a huge opportunity for businesses to show how they care for their staff and visitors. A bad impression can damage the business, but a good washroom will do their reputation a world of good.”

Clapham-Carter suggests this is yet another reason to create environments that feel secure both in the sense of being private, and being hygienic.

Yet behind the debate about workplace habits, and levels of risk, lies a tougher question: is a hygiene-led workplace even possible, and if it is, how will we recognise it?

Dexter Moren is convinced that the obstacles will be overcome.

“People want to come to the office because they want a social life and they want the chance encounters,” he says.

This will spur designers who have already taken large steps towards the ‘hotelisation’ of the workspace. This means a more relaxed and social environment, with space to move and think and enjoy a coffee.

It means that a less proximate, more socially-distanced workplace need not feel like an artificial environment. Fruitful micro-encounters can still take place, only this time safely.