Two Views of Work Spaces

A "debate" by Lucy Kellaway, a management columnist at the Financial Times, and Tyler Brule, also a FT columnist and the founder of Monocole, a global affairs and lifestyle magazine, about decorum in the modern office derives from two different views of the work world. Ostensibly, the discussion is about the appropriateness of workplaces resembling homes with more casual environments, including employees' dogs at work. But, what Kellaway is really reflecting by favoring a more formal, almost sterile, environment is a view of work as relatively devoid of fun. To her, the workplace is purposeful: get in, get the job done, and then go home. Brule reflects a view of the workplace as an extension of the people who work there, including many amenities of home, just so long as the amenities reflect his sense of design and style.I took particular note of the exchange between Kellaway and Brule about dogs at work. I began bringing my Golden Retriever to the office years ago when a kitchen remodeling made it a challenge for him to stay at home. Now, my Bernese Mountain Dog is a fixture at our office whenever I am in town. In fairness, Triangle Associates is a small company and I am a co-owner, meaning that dogs at work for us means something different than it might in, say, a school with dozens of employees. Nonetheless, I can't help thinking that Brule and Kellaway are tapping into something important about a divergence in views of work, regardless of whether or not it is a good idea to bring one's dog to work.This divergence taps into something essentially human about our aesthetic sense: some of us see work as an extension of who we are and what we value as people, while others think of our out-of-work lives as more reflective of who we are. Brule's design sensibility about Monocle reflects the first of these, and Kellaway's cycling to work reflects the second.One approach is neither better nor worse than the other, though I must admit a preference for Brule's aesthetic. Schools can ill afford a one-size-fits-all approach to human resource management, especially in talent-scarce disciplines. As the old American TV sitcom said, "different strokes for different folks."