New technology, a pandemic, and evolving notions of hotdesking.
Office, hybrid or WFH? The British working week looks very different today compared to 10 years ago. People are increasingly opting for roles in companies that offer flexibility over rigid definitions of what constitutes a working day. According to some studies, as many as 90% of employees favour flexible working over other perks.
Now, new research suggests that another switch is underway—in particular among execs and founders. Rather than heading for the office or the co-working spot, it seems that as many one in 10 business owners are increasingly conducting operations from the comfort of their favourite restaurant, cafe or bar.
The survey, of 1,000 workers and business owners, found that 85% of people who come into central London at least once a week to work do so in an office or co-working space. However, of these, one in ten (11%) business owners said that when in town they work primarily from restaurants and cafes. Staff of small businesses of between two to nine employees were also more likely to use eateries as a work venue, with 19% saying they used restaurants and cafes as quasi-offices.
Sicilian Avenue Research Graph - When in Central London, where do you work?
This isn’t power lunching—this is doing most or all of your usual, work-related activities from the comfort of a bistro.
These findings and what they say about our changing work habits are at least as significant for central London’s food and beverage sector as they are for business staff and employers. If there is significant demand for these spaces, how are restaurants and cafes adapting? What can be done to entice these itinerant and often high-net-worth operators into an establishment? Conversely, will some restaurant owners regard the trend as a low-value loss-maker, assuming that most of these saloon-hopping executives aren’t opting for high-margin F\&B orders throughout the day?
Time will tell. But with the arrival of food-and-drink focused locations like Sicilian Avenue, with its oodles of interior and exterior lounge and dining spaces, set bang in the centre of Bloomsbury and Holborn’s hotdesking hotspot, it’s clear that our changing lifestyle and workstyle preferences are altering London’s very layout. This being the case, perhaps you’d care to take a look at the menu?