Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I N O. X V J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 2 1 14 R E A L E S TAT E / C O N S T R U C T I O N / E N G I N E E R I N G A s the pandemic winds down and offices open back up, hybrid working appears here to stay as employers from Main Street to Wall Street rethink their office needs. In Maine, Auburn-based brand- ing firm Warp+Weft had mulled a move from a 1,000-square-foot office downtown that felt cramped before the pandemic. Now, with a staff of six, the company decided to stay put and F O C U S Space odyssey redesign its existing space with collabo- ration and brainstorming in mind. It did that by getting rid of half the indi- vidual workstations and replacing them with couches and chairs, while leaving four unassigned desks for anyone to use when they come in. "We are still a work-from-any- where company," says Jennie Malloy, who owns the company with Aimee Goodwin and heads up strategy. "Well before the pandemic, Aimee and I decided we didn't need a huge space and we didn't need to quadruple our rent or buy a building when we know we can be successful working from anywhere, but we still want someplace where we can all gather … It makes so much more sense." Nationwide, companies that have the luxury of working remotely are in a similar position and finding that there's not one size fits all. Many are opting for a blended or hybrid model with a physical space for people to meet while allowing them to keep working from home if they can and want to. Among bigger corporate entities, Citigroup and Apple have opted for flexible work policies. Twitter, Facebook and outdoor clothing retailer REI are making work from home the new norm. While some Wall Street heavyweights like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase & Co. are reportedly insisting on a full return to their offices, the move to hybrid work is gaining momentum. at's backed up in various reports including a global survey for Cisco Webex published in October. It found that 99% of companies plan sweeping workplace changes in light of COVID- 19, and that 77% of large organizations will increase work flexibility while 53% will shrink office sizes. Similarly, Microsoft in its latest report on workplace trends says the move to hybrid work puts the world "on the brink of a disruption as great as last year's sudden shift to remote work." P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY As employees head back to offices, companies rethink their space B y R e n e e C o r d e s Warp+Weft co-owners Jennie Malloy, left, and Aimee Goodwin at the branding agency's Auburn office. The firm reconfigured its 1,000-square-foot downtown space.

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