No matter who your favorite character was, The Office (both UK and US versions, let’s not get into an argument here) became an iconic series because it played on one thing we all know to be true: offices are boring .

The tech industry tried to change that by bringing some ‘fun’ into the office. Their plan was to entice adults into the workplace with bright colors, slides, rock walls and a relaxed dress code, echoing the children’s jungle gym. They got rid of the 1990s cubicles and introduced open office plans, assuming that people from different teams would have each other’s shoulders to surely encourage collaboration, camaraderie and innovation.

The pandemic proved them wrong. After experiencing the comforts of working from home, many employees have had no inclination to return. Employers have either tried to get employees back to the office or have given in and made them stay home. Those choosing the latter have faced waves of workers submitting their notices in favor of employers offering flexible work options.

Is the office finally dead?

Why it’s impossible to design the perfect office

One of the biggest challenges offices face is that they are packed with people. People who all expect something different from their workplace.

While data security is a top priority for analysts on your team, it may be more important for the digital marketing team to broadcast the cool new innovations the team is dreaming up.

Likewise, it’s a well-known fact that some people need peace and quiet to do their best work, while others need people to get ideas out of. a recent research in Personalities in the Workplace by experts from the University of Arizona and California State found that extroverted workers are better focused and happier in open-plan offices. Meanwhile, those who score high on neuroticism struggle with open floor plans.

There is not only a difference in personality, but also in circumstances: a father of two young children may have different needs than his colleague who is a single dog.

Aside from these differences, new workplace and technology trends are constantly emerging and attitudes are changing. Mental health, diversity and inclusion, and data protection are just a few of the concerns of managers.

So can you really build a workplace flexible enough to work for everyone?

I visited Miele X‘s new home in Amsterdam’s modern new office building “The Valley” to find out.

A digital approach to office design

When you first get off the elevator on the Miele X floor, you encounter a display case full of curiosities: an early prototype washing machine that strangely resembles a butter churn and a 1950s vacuum cleaner, all part of history from the company.

A friendly receptionist met me at the entrance and showed me into what appeared to be a large modern kitchen. Some people were chopping vegetables or clipping herbs from a mini greenhouse, while others were chatting at café-style tables.

As my host Matea Fogec, External Communications Manager explained, what they want to build is not an office, but a home away from home where people can not only get coffee, but also wash their clothes, do yoga and have a meal together.

But how do you build a working environment that is suitable for the broad and varied use of e-commerce, data & analytics, digital marketing, operations and other departments? They decided to approach the problem in an agile way.

A team of project managers began breaking the project down into dev-style sprints. To make sure everyone’s voice was recorded, they collected feedback on the must-haves and nice-to-haves. During an ‘architect café’ they recruited interested teammates to vote on the final designs.

Of course, not every suggestion could be accepted. As the Community Space project manager and Head of Agile PMO, Markus Herfert, explained:

“A concept for a meeting room on a treadmill was rejected because it wasn’t good value for money. In the end, the question was always whether a concept fits the overall approach and design, the user/employee is central and the price-quality ratio.”

In the final phase of the project, they had a team of volunteer ‘superusers’ test the space for two weeks.

So what features made the final version?

As more remote jobs pop up, employers are realizing they need to give people a real reason to come to the office (other than “upper management is forcing me”).

Miele X equipped their space with technology-enabled work gadgets that improve both the way teams work and how they collaborate.

There is a device wall that gives Miele X teams and guests insight into the variety of content displayed on different device types, including smartphones, tablets and laptops. A user test room, including a one-sided mirror, allows teams to invite focus groups to test products on site.

There’s even a strategy meeting room, where the windows can be steamed up to protect upcoming innovations from stray eyes.

Finally, perhaps the most practical feature for all teams is a 360-degree boardroom that makes dial-in meetings a lot less clunky and much more inclusive, as everyone appears face-to-face on the screen and microphones automatically turn off and on based on who speaks.

This is great for employees like Tiny Nguyen, CRM Marketing Automation Manager B2B/Professional at Miele X, who is on a team spread across Amsterdam and Germany.

“People calling in from Germany don’t feel like they’re missing out because they can see everyone’s faces and hear everyone perfectly as if they were in the room,” she says.

All these digital marvels are great, but how do they solve the office personality problem?

Instead of choosing between open office spaces and the cubicles of yesteryear, Miele X allows employees to choose a workstation that suits their task.

The layout follows a circular design, winding around an open central atrium. If you walk along this path, you will come across a combination of meeting rooms and open office spaces. Those who want more privacy can take refuge in the private nooks built for one or two, or semi-private workspaces in the form of ski lifts and a rickshaw.

Most important of all, the round shape prevents sound from propagating. So while the operations team is chatting away in an open motor home, the sound dies down as soon as you turn the corner.

The best part is that the layouts are not permanent. Walls can be moved to create new rooms of different sizes and for different purposes.

The challenge facing offices today competes with the comforts of home. That’s why Miele X has made sure to add comforts that employees will not miss when they decide to go to work, such as:

• A laundry room with Miele appliances for washing, drying and steaming clothes
• A fully equipped Miele family kitchen for cooking together and sharing meals
• Fully equipped, dedicated areas for meditation/prayer, maternity and recreation/yoga
• Japanese style sleeping pods
• A dehumidification chamber that dries wet clothes in minutes

The perfect working environment…

So is Miele X’s Community Space a land over the moon where employees hold hands and sing songs around the indoor caravan? No.

There is no such thing as perfection, but you can always strive for better, as Miele’s motto “Immer Besser” states.

People’s needs change as social factors, technology and the way we work change. Just a few years ago, social distancing was a major necessity to bring people back together. In the future, new work trends, such as the use of generative AI, may create new needs. The point is that you should always rethink, redesign and check in with your team.

That’s why Miele X is already thinking about the next iterations.

In addition to conducting regular satisfaction surveys, they’ve posted QR codes to invite feedback on areas where they see potential for improvement, and are collecting data on phone booth, meeting room, desk and overall occupancy usage.

“It is in our DNA to challenge the status quo, so it will be a continuous process to change, update and upgrade,” says Fogec.