In the early 2000s, I worked on a project team that integrated US energy trading, based in Houston, into global energy trading, based in London. One of my tasks was to redesign the US trading office so that US energy trading worked together in one building. It was decided to relocate US hydrocarbon trading into the US gas and power trading office building. In addition to the relocation, the trading floors were redesigned along with installing new furniture, adding additional breakout rooms, upgrading technology, and building a reception area.
I formed a small team to manage this project. An architectural firm was hired to create the floor design. I had no experience in office design, but I did understand how trading worked. It was my job to communicate trading’s requirements to the consultants and keep the project within budget. I sought input from various stakeholders and balanced conflicting priorities. I quickly learned that office seating is a political landmine. Where one sits is personal for many employees.
Although I mainly dealt with the various trading managers, I had to interface with corporate real estate who worked in another downtown Houston building. One of the meetings occurred in corporate real estate’s office so my team walked over to their building. We took an elevator up to their floor and walked into the reception area. Immediately, my team started to look around the room and smiled at each other. The corporate real estate offices were spacious and lavishly decorated compared to the trade floor.
Traders sat in small, open trading desks connected to their teammates’ desks. Real estate employees had individual offices, large wooden desks, and window views of downtown Houston. Trading meetings were in small breakout rooms containing white boards, metal tables, and ergonomic chairs. Real estate’s large meeting rooms had wooden tables, lamps, wooden cabinets topped with refreshments, and plush chairs. I felt I had entered a high-powered, flush legal office funded from astronomically high hourly fees.
The most surprising thing that occurred at the meeting was when the corporate real estate people told my project team that our budget needed to be reduced because the company was in a cost-saving mode. Corporate real estate managed real estate costs by negotiating real estate purchase and lease agreements but was not a profit business. It struck me how odd it was to tell a profitable business how to manage their costs when a service organization did not follow their own advice. My project team left the corporate real estate building chuckling at their hypocrisy.
More than 20 years later, office life has greatly changed. During my trading years, traders could not trade outside the office. They were required to work in the trading office five days a week. Trading deals had to be entered the day the deal was completed. There were strict compliance rules and if not followed, dismissal was a strong possibility.
When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, the close office proximity of traders was not feasible anymore. Quickly, trading computers and screens were moved to employees’ homes. The company installed home communication boxes so that traders could easily talk to their team members without being together in the office. Trading support teams, operations, and finance also worked from home. The few remaining office workers spaced themselves around the largely empty office floors. Trading found a way to work from home and remain compliant.
After the pandemic subsided, it took time for workers to return to the office. Some enjoyed the solitude of working from home while others missed the community of their fellow workers. Post-pandemic, trading is again required to work on the trade floor, although employees do find occasional reasons to work from home. Perhaps equilibrium will be found in a hybrid model tailored to the needs of both workers and employers, as well as flexibility to create better balance than that of the previous inflexible rules.
When my project team departed the corporate real estate office and walked back to the trade floor, one of my team members made a wise suggestion: move the corporate real estate offices to the new trade floor. Make them live like the employees who funded their salaries. This suggestion reminded me of a wartime general who told his staff to feed him the same food that the privates ate on the battlefields. This way, the general understood what they were experiencing in the field as he made battle plans. Treating others like you treat yourself is an eternal truth that will help corporations flourish in a very competitive world.
Corporations must compete effectively and efficiently to financially survive. This is a fact of life in a capitalistic economy. It took a pandemic to change the office culture. Finding the right balance between changing employees’ work habits and business needs is a positive attribute to be leveraged, not a downward slide towards bankruptcy. Technological advances certainly have propelled the changes, but having the right frame of mind towards your neighbor is just as important.
