Punks in Suits: Introduction - A conversation with Kay Sargent

About Kay Sargent: 

Kay Sargent is a director of HOK’s Global WorkPlace[1] practice. With a passion for using design to transform how and where people work, she spends her days (and many nights) working with clients on workplace strategy and design.

Based in Washington, D.C., Kay leads project teams that solve clients’ business and organizational challenges related to real estate business process, strategic planning, workplace strategy and change management. She collaborates with organisations ranging from tech startups to Fortune 500 companies to optimize their real estate portfolios and create the most innovative work experiences.

In this interview Kay and I discuss work and location. Given that hybrid working and how to make that work is one of the first questions I’m asked when leaders come to talk to me after a speech, I wanted to explore the topic with someone who thinks about real estate and the changing requirements of space full-time. In this conversation Kay explores how and why we gather, how to stop treating employees as ‘potted plants’ and how technology can help make work spaces work.  

Key insights:  

• It’s not just about where we work and how we get to that location but what sort of work we do when we get there. 
• We aren’t potted plants, but many offices are often designed as if we are. We need to design them to encourage move, options, and choices. 
• Our cars have more tech than our workspaces. We need to leverage technology to enhance the user experience. 
• Remote work has a cost, financial, culturally and from a well-being perspective. It’s not for everyone and just because you can work remotely doesn’t mean you should. 
• We are sweeping biases (proximity bias, preferential treatment) under the carpet. We need to acknowledge it exist and take steps to prevent it. 
• Hybrid is the hardest way of working to pull off, it’s more of an operational model than a workplace solution and companies who endeavor to embrace it need to put in the work to make it successful.