A guide to new office jargon

How many do you already know?

With the explosion of social media and an increased reliance on connectivity, language is evolving quicker than ever, and the your workplace will be expected to keep up. From likes, follows and trends to e-blasts, vid-conferencing and even Brexit, the language we use in the office is far removed from what it was 20 years ago. Faxes have become emails, LinkedIn has replaced most Filofaxes and everything’s saved in the cloud, but what does the future hold?

Worktech Academy Director, Professor Jeremy Myerson has provided us with his predictions for the words you’ll need to understand going into 2018.

Flex-Space
Watch out as large companies shrink their corporate footprint in 2018 and seek out flexible alternatives, making the co-working juggernaut unstoppable. Another latte, anyone?

Biophilia
2018 will be a big year for bringing nature into the workplace to boost wellbeing. Not just plants but natural materials such as slate and hemp too.  And not just natural plants – tech-enabled robotic plants will make their entry too.

Superfoods
In a fresh bid to improve performance and productivity, companies will focus on the links between nutrition and neuroscience, offering the right diet to sharpen the brain.

Chatbots
Artificial Intelligence (AI) switch from science fiction to a workplace near you in 2018 with Chatbots leading the charge. But the discourse will swing from robots taking our jobs to humans having to do the work of robots.

Smart Precincts
A big year ahead not just for smart buildings but for smart precincts, which are the building blocks of digital cities. These digital districts (think Hudson Yards or King’s Cross) are set to blend mixed-use developments with smart services.

Mindfulness
The big health and wellbeing accent in 2018 will be on the mind rather than the body. Mental health will top the agenda, as days lost through stress, anxiety, depression and burnout cut into corporate profits.

Narrative
The workplace brandscape will make a comeback in 2018, but the storytelling element will be more abstract and subtle in approach than the overt branded statement interiors of the early 2000s.

Data Analysts
2018 will be a breakthrough year for collecting data in the workplace building through smart sensors and beacons, but the key question will switch from how we collect the data, to what we do with it. In-house data analysts could be on answer.

How has office life changed since you entered the working world? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.