1 00:00:15,370 --> 00:00:22,490 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello, dear listeners. Before we dive into another cautionary tale, 2 00:00:22,570 --> 00:00:25,410 Speaker 1: I wanted to let you know that I'm taking your questions. 3 00:00:25,770 --> 00:00:28,010 Speaker 1: Do you have any queries about one of the stories 4 00:00:28,050 --> 00:00:31,210 Speaker 1: we've covered, Are you curious about how we make the show? 5 00:00:31,690 --> 00:00:34,010 Speaker 1: Or is there anything else I can help with. I 6 00:00:34,090 --> 00:00:36,690 Speaker 1: want to hear from you, so send any questions you 7 00:00:36,770 --> 00:00:39,330 Speaker 1: might have, however big or small, and I'll do my 8 00:00:39,370 --> 00:00:41,690 Speaker 1: best to answer them in a special Q and a 9 00:00:41,850 --> 00:00:44,370 Speaker 1: episode when you get in touch. 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You can also 19 00:01:12,810 --> 00:01:15,610 Speaker 1: find the email address and number in our show notes. 20 00:01:16,210 --> 00:01:23,250 Speaker 1: And now on with the episode. By the end of 21 00:01:23,290 --> 00:01:27,650 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, Shayatt Day was the most fashionable advertising 22 00:01:27,690 --> 00:01:31,650 Speaker 1: agency on the planet. Then commissioned a short film by 23 00:01:31,690 --> 00:01:34,970 Speaker 1: the director of Blade Runner Ridley Scott to launch the 24 00:01:35,050 --> 00:01:39,250 Speaker 1: Applemac pioneered the idea of using Super Bowl spots to 25 00:01:39,290 --> 00:01:43,530 Speaker 1: create news and made an unforgettable series of adverts in 26 00:01:43,570 --> 00:01:47,930 Speaker 1: which the Energizer Bunny kept crashing through ads for other products. 27 00:01:49,050 --> 00:01:52,650 Speaker 1: But an ad agency always needs to keep things fresh, 28 00:01:52,890 --> 00:01:57,850 Speaker 1: and so in nineteen ninety three, the agents's boss, Jay Shiatt, 29 00:01:58,090 --> 00:02:02,890 Speaker 1: announced a radical plan to give Shayatt Day a jolt 30 00:02:02,970 --> 00:02:06,730 Speaker 1: of creative renewal. Jay Shiatt was going to sweep away 31 00:02:06,930 --> 00:02:11,690 Speaker 1: corner offices and cubicle and even desks. Armed with the 32 00:02:11,770 --> 00:02:15,610 Speaker 1: best mobile technology that nineteen ninety three had to offer, 33 00:02:16,090 --> 00:02:20,570 Speaker 1: Shayatt Day employees would roam free in open spaces, winning 34 00:02:20,610 --> 00:02:24,810 Speaker 1: sales and creating great ads wherever they wished. What's more, 35 00:02:25,250 --> 00:02:30,890 Speaker 1: these spaces would be playful, zany, and stylish. Shayatt hired 36 00:02:30,930 --> 00:02:34,490 Speaker 1: the legendary architect Frank Gerry to work on the Los 37 00:02:34,530 --> 00:02:38,170 Speaker 1: Angeles office, which boasted a four story sculpture of a 38 00:02:38,210 --> 00:02:42,770 Speaker 1: pair of binoculars. Curvacious two seater pods from fair ground 39 00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:46,250 Speaker 1: rides were installed with the hope that people would sit 40 00:02:46,330 --> 00:02:50,530 Speaker 1: together in them and think creative thoughts. The New York 41 00:02:50,570 --> 00:02:54,450 Speaker 1: office was designed by Gaetar no Pesche. It had a 42 00:02:54,570 --> 00:02:58,850 Speaker 1: mural of a vast red pair of lips and a luminous, 43 00:02:58,930 --> 00:03:03,450 Speaker 1: multi colored floor with hiroglyphs all over it. Chet had 44 00:03:03,490 --> 00:03:06,370 Speaker 1: a boyish sense of humor. The floor in front of 45 00:03:06,370 --> 00:03:09,650 Speaker 1: the men's room had an illustration of a man orinating. 46 00:03:10,210 --> 00:03:12,850 Speaker 1: His conference tables were made of a silicone resin that 47 00:03:12,890 --> 00:03:17,770 Speaker 1: would amusingly grab and hold important papers during important meetings. 48 00:03:19,490 --> 00:03:23,850 Speaker 1: Some of his chairs had instead of feet, springs, and 49 00:03:23,930 --> 00:03:27,090 Speaker 1: they would wobble and tip back. Not so much fun 50 00:03:27,130 --> 00:03:30,010 Speaker 1: if you happen to be wearing a skirt, but pay 51 00:03:30,490 --> 00:03:35,050 Speaker 1: creativity right from a distance. People loved the shay At 52 00:03:35,130 --> 00:03:40,050 Speaker 1: Day offices. Design magazines raved about the futuristic spaces. The 53 00:03:40,170 --> 00:03:44,490 Speaker 1: agency even started charging to give paid tours of their offices. 54 00:03:45,010 --> 00:03:48,930 Speaker 1: The New York Times architecture critic called the Manhattan office 55 00:03:49,290 --> 00:03:53,370 Speaker 1: the apotheosis of the dream factory and declared that the 56 00:03:53,450 --> 00:03:59,450 Speaker 1: agency staff were happily at home inside the dream. Time 57 00:03:59,490 --> 00:04:02,970 Speaker 1: magazine added thoroughly armed with a modern weaponry of the 58 00:04:03,090 --> 00:04:06,570 Speaker 1: road warrior, the telecommuters of shy At Day are among 59 00:04:06,650 --> 00:04:12,450 Speaker 1: the forerunners of employment in the information age, that's not wrong, 60 00:04:13,330 --> 00:04:17,730 Speaker 1: laptops and mobile phones, hot desks in zany offices. Shy 61 00:04:17,770 --> 00:04:21,010 Speaker 1: at Day really was ahead of its time. But the 62 00:04:21,130 --> 00:04:25,010 Speaker 1: closer you got to that cutting edge of workplace design, 63 00:04:25,530 --> 00:04:30,610 Speaker 1: the more likely you were to get hurt. I'm Tim Harford, 64 00:04:31,130 --> 00:04:58,530 Speaker 1: and you're listening to cautionary tales. At first, the radically 65 00:04:58,650 --> 00:05:03,530 Speaker 1: playful workspace seemed so brilliant. Jay Shiatt had been visionary 66 00:05:03,610 --> 00:05:07,250 Speaker 1: in hiring Frank Garry a few years before he became 67 00:05:07,450 --> 00:05:12,210 Speaker 1: the most famous arch techt on the planet. Equally visionary 68 00:05:12,730 --> 00:05:15,290 Speaker 1: was Shayatte's idea that the office should be like a 69 00:05:15,490 --> 00:05:20,970 Speaker 1: university campus. The idea is you go to lectures gather information, 70 00:05:21,370 --> 00:05:25,290 Speaker 1: but you do your work wherever you like, said Jay Shiatt. 71 00:05:26,570 --> 00:05:30,410 Speaker 1: That idea is so influential that it's now a cliche. 72 00:05:31,250 --> 00:05:36,050 Speaker 1: Microsoft has a campus, Pixar has a campus, Google has 73 00:05:36,050 --> 00:05:39,690 Speaker 1: a campus, and many of the offices which regard themselves 74 00:05:39,770 --> 00:05:45,970 Speaker 1: as cool today mimic Gaetano Pesche's bright colors, different architectural zones, 75 00:05:46,210 --> 00:05:51,530 Speaker 1: and clusters of couches interspersed with large tables. Shayatt Day's 76 00:05:51,730 --> 00:05:55,810 Speaker 1: free range office really was ahead of its time, but 77 00:05:55,970 --> 00:05:59,250 Speaker 1: even before the full majesty of the Shayatt Day vision 78 00:05:59,330 --> 00:06:04,730 Speaker 1: was unveiled, problems started to emerge. The agency had experimented 79 00:06:04,770 --> 00:06:09,090 Speaker 1: by removing a few people's desks to see what would happen. Unfortunately, 80 00:06:09,530 --> 00:06:15,210 Speaker 1: when what happened happened, they didn't seem to care. One 81 00:06:15,210 --> 00:06:18,650 Speaker 1: of the guinea pigs was an associate director called Monica Miller. 82 00:06:19,130 --> 00:06:21,410 Speaker 1: When they took her desk away, she got hold of 83 00:06:21,410 --> 00:06:25,970 Speaker 1: a little red wagon, the classic children's toy. She described 84 00:06:26,010 --> 00:06:29,930 Speaker 1: to the journalist Warren Burger how every morning should pile 85 00:06:30,010 --> 00:06:33,610 Speaker 1: the little red wagon high with documents and files, then 86 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:37,290 Speaker 1: walk up and down the hallways of shy at Day 87 00:06:37,730 --> 00:06:42,490 Speaker 1: looking for a desk left temporarily vacant. Everyone thought it 88 00:06:42,570 --> 00:06:46,290 Speaker 1: was so cute, she said. I'd be trudging down the 89 00:06:46,330 --> 00:06:49,370 Speaker 1: hall and they'd laugh and say, oh, look, here she 90 00:06:49,490 --> 00:06:51,850 Speaker 1: comes with that little red wagon. It was like a 91 00:06:51,850 --> 00:06:57,210 Speaker 1: bad dream, Like a bad dream. Well, the New York 92 00:06:57,250 --> 00:07:01,690 Speaker 1: Times did call it a dream factory. The laugh would 93 00:07:01,690 --> 00:07:05,770 Speaker 1: be on those mocking colleagues soon enough. When they returned 94 00:07:05,770 --> 00:07:08,810 Speaker 1: from their holiday break at the start of nineteen ninety four, 95 00:07:09,450 --> 00:07:14,330 Speaker 1: the hot desking era had begun. They were confronted with 96 00:07:14,450 --> 00:07:19,090 Speaker 1: row upon row of lockers less college campus, more junior 97 00:07:19,170 --> 00:07:23,330 Speaker 1: high school. Jay Shiatt had sneered dismissively that the lockers 98 00:07:23,330 --> 00:07:27,810 Speaker 1: would be for people's dog pictures or whatever, But there 99 00:07:27,890 --> 00:07:32,490 Speaker 1: wasn't room for much. People started hauling armfuls of paperwork 100 00:07:32,690 --> 00:07:36,890 Speaker 1: along with their clunky laptops. Monica Miller, of course, had 101 00:07:36,970 --> 00:07:40,970 Speaker 1: her little red wagon. Every day there'd be these frantic 102 00:07:41,130 --> 00:07:45,290 Speaker 1: email messages like has anybody seen my binder? Does anyone 103 00:07:45,370 --> 00:07:48,730 Speaker 1: know where my files are? She recalled. It was a 104 00:07:48,970 --> 00:07:53,410 Speaker 1: colossal headache. Part of the problem was simply that Jay 105 00:07:53,450 --> 00:07:58,610 Speaker 1: Shiatt's cutting edge idea had been so badly executed. Using 106 00:07:58,610 --> 00:08:02,370 Speaker 1: a laptop and a portable phone seems mundane today, but 107 00:08:02,570 --> 00:08:05,530 Speaker 1: back in the early nineteen nineties that sort of gear 108 00:08:05,730 --> 00:08:11,370 Speaker 1: was expensive, temperamental, and clunky. Staff wouldn't take their phones 109 00:08:11,450 --> 00:08:15,570 Speaker 1: or computers home. Instead, they'd sign them out each morning 110 00:08:15,930 --> 00:08:18,490 Speaker 1: and return them to a concierge when they went home 111 00:08:18,530 --> 00:08:22,490 Speaker 1: at night, and to save money, shy at Day didn't 112 00:08:22,490 --> 00:08:24,850 Speaker 1: buy enough for all of the one hundred and fifty 113 00:08:24,890 --> 00:08:30,450 Speaker 1: staff who worked in the Manhattan office. Instead, ill tempered 114 00:08:30,570 --> 00:08:35,450 Speaker 1: queues formed like breadlines each morning at the concierge desk. 115 00:08:36,330 --> 00:08:39,450 Speaker 1: Staff who lived near the office would show up at dawn, 116 00:08:39,890 --> 00:08:43,410 Speaker 1: sign out a precious computer and phone, hide them somewhere, 117 00:08:43,610 --> 00:08:45,810 Speaker 1: and then go back to bed for a couple of hours. 118 00:08:46,610 --> 00:08:50,010 Speaker 1: Senior staff would enlist their assistance to rise early and 119 00:08:50,170 --> 00:08:53,290 Speaker 1: secure their kit. Damned if I was going to get 120 00:08:53,370 --> 00:08:55,330 Speaker 1: up at six in the morning to get a phone 121 00:08:55,730 --> 00:08:58,290 Speaker 1: recalled one, I had to put my foot down. I 122 00:08:58,410 --> 00:09:00,970 Speaker 1: told my assistant, go in there at six in the morning, 123 00:09:01,010 --> 00:09:03,090 Speaker 1: get me a phone and a computer, and hide it 124 00:09:03,210 --> 00:09:06,570 Speaker 1: till I get there. I'm not sure that's what putting 125 00:09:06,610 --> 00:09:09,450 Speaker 1: my foot down really means, but you get the gist. 126 00:09:10,330 --> 00:09:13,210 Speaker 1: Rather than freeing people to work anywhere and any time 127 00:09:13,250 --> 00:09:17,530 Speaker 1: that suited them, shy at Day's campus had staff queuing 128 00:09:17,610 --> 00:09:22,770 Speaker 1: before daybreak of basic equipment. In the Los Angeles office, 129 00:09:23,090 --> 00:09:27,130 Speaker 1: people started using the trunks of their cars as filing cabinets. 130 00:09:27,650 --> 00:09:30,250 Speaker 1: They'd head out to the parking lot whenever they needed 131 00:09:30,290 --> 00:09:33,970 Speaker 1: a new document. Staff in the Manhattan office, of course, 132 00:09:34,170 --> 00:09:38,930 Speaker 1: could only dream of using cars as filing cabinets. The boss, 133 00:09:39,290 --> 00:09:42,810 Speaker 1: Jay Shiatt, seemed to be in denial about how much 134 00:09:42,890 --> 00:09:47,570 Speaker 1: paper and advertising agents he needed. Paper was something he 135 00:09:47,690 --> 00:09:52,410 Speaker 1: frowned on. He'd send emails around reminding staff that shy 136 00:09:52,450 --> 00:09:58,010 Speaker 1: At Day was a paperless office. One creative director remembers 137 00:09:58,090 --> 00:10:02,730 Speaker 1: Jay mocking the paper storyboards and demanding the removal of 138 00:10:02,810 --> 00:10:07,330 Speaker 1: posters showing the agents's latest ads. But the truth was 139 00:10:07,410 --> 00:10:10,330 Speaker 1: that paper was still in a sensual part of the 140 00:10:10,410 --> 00:10:14,970 Speaker 1: creative flow. That was doubly true at an organization where 141 00:10:15,050 --> 00:10:17,890 Speaker 1: people had to queue in the hope of scoring a 142 00:10:17,970 --> 00:10:21,530 Speaker 1: laptop for the day. Who would switch to digital in 143 00:10:21,530 --> 00:10:24,370 Speaker 1: a world where they couldn't even be sure of getting 144 00:10:24,370 --> 00:10:29,570 Speaker 1: a computer. The execution of Shayatt Day's new office was 145 00:10:29,930 --> 00:10:36,050 Speaker 1: disastrously bad, making false economies with clunky equipment. But Jay 146 00:10:36,090 --> 00:10:42,210 Speaker 1: Schiatt made another mistake, one that was more serious, more fundamental, 147 00:10:43,090 --> 00:10:48,130 Speaker 1: and much much more common. But he wasn't the first, 148 00:10:48,970 --> 00:10:55,730 Speaker 1: not by a long way. A century ago, a French industrialist, 149 00:10:55,770 --> 00:10:59,850 Speaker 1: Henri Frugis commissioned a rising star in the field of 150 00:10:59,930 --> 00:11:04,250 Speaker 1: architecture to design some radical new homes for factory workers 151 00:11:04,250 --> 00:11:09,890 Speaker 1: in Paysack, near Bordeaux. The architect's name was Charles Genera 152 00:11:10,130 --> 00:11:16,850 Speaker 1: gre Today we know him as Lacobouzier, the Caurbouzier designed 153 00:11:17,090 --> 00:11:21,290 Speaker 1: Cite Frugi's to pay Sac, a set of modern cubes 154 00:11:21,490 --> 00:11:25,530 Speaker 1: stacked into family homes. The Caurbousier, of course, was the 155 00:11:25,810 --> 00:11:30,210 Speaker 1: arch modernist, a man who dealt in minimalism and concrete. 156 00:11:30,930 --> 00:11:34,690 Speaker 1: His vision couldn't be more opposed to the spring loaded 157 00:11:34,810 --> 00:11:38,690 Speaker 1: chairs or four story sculptures of binoculars that adorned the 158 00:11:38,770 --> 00:11:43,170 Speaker 1: offices of Shai at Day. One creative director of Shai 159 00:11:43,210 --> 00:11:47,810 Speaker 1: at Day described the experience of working in Gaetano Peche's 160 00:11:47,890 --> 00:11:53,330 Speaker 1: radical office as like sitting inside of a migraine. How 161 00:11:53,330 --> 00:11:57,730 Speaker 1: he must have yearned for the pared down minimalism of Lacobouzier. 162 00:11:58,930 --> 00:12:01,970 Speaker 1: We are tired of decor. What we need is a 163 00:12:02,010 --> 00:12:09,570 Speaker 1: good visual laxative. Lucobouzier once explained, bare walls, total simplicity, 164 00:12:09,610 --> 00:12:13,730 Speaker 1: that is how to restore our visual sense. And yet 165 00:12:14,410 --> 00:12:18,290 Speaker 1: the humble factory workers didn't seem to see Laco Boozier's 166 00:12:18,370 --> 00:12:22,490 Speaker 1: vision quite like that. They hated it and they refused 167 00:12:22,490 --> 00:12:26,250 Speaker 1: to move in. It was terrible, said one. I felt 168 00:12:26,290 --> 00:12:29,050 Speaker 1: as if I was being sent to prison. If you 169 00:12:29,090 --> 00:12:34,250 Speaker 1: focus on the design, this seems paradoxical. Gary and Peche 170 00:12:34,250 --> 00:12:39,730 Speaker 1: and Jayshiat were offering the workforce a playfully riotous explosion 171 00:12:39,810 --> 00:12:45,010 Speaker 1: of visual stimulation. Or Refugees and Laco Boozier were offering 172 00:12:45,050 --> 00:12:52,930 Speaker 1: the workforce bare walls and total simplicity. The design ideas 173 00:12:52,970 --> 00:12:59,890 Speaker 1: were radically different. The reaction was the same, people hated it. 174 00:13:05,650 --> 00:13:18,810 Speaker 1: Cautionary tales will return after the break. In two thousand 175 00:13:18,850 --> 00:13:23,250 Speaker 1: and ten, two psychologists at the University of Exeter, Alex 176 00:13:23,290 --> 00:13:27,330 Speaker 1: Haslam and Craig Knight, conducted an experiment to test the 177 00:13:27,450 --> 00:13:31,010 Speaker 1: impact of different office spaces on how much people got 178 00:13:31,050 --> 00:13:34,690 Speaker 1: done and how they felt about it. Haslam and Knight 179 00:13:34,810 --> 00:13:39,570 Speaker 1: recruited experimental subjects to spend an hour on administrative tasks 180 00:13:39,650 --> 00:13:43,970 Speaker 1: such as checking documents, and randomly assigned these subjects to 181 00:13:44,130 --> 00:13:48,330 Speaker 1: different kinds of office. There were four office layouts in 182 00:13:48,370 --> 00:13:53,130 Speaker 1: the experiment. First was the minimalist office, a clean and 183 00:13:53,250 --> 00:13:58,330 Speaker 1: spartan space with a bare desk, swivel chair, pencil and paper. 184 00:13:59,530 --> 00:14:03,210 Speaker 1: Many people in Haslam and Knight's experiments found the sheer 185 00:14:03,570 --> 00:14:08,490 Speaker 1: tidiness of the minimalist office oppressive. It just felt like 186 00:14:08,490 --> 00:14:12,490 Speaker 1: a show space with nothing out of place, commented one participant, 187 00:14:12,770 --> 00:14:18,650 Speaker 1: adding you couldn't relax in it. The second office layout 188 00:14:18,970 --> 00:14:25,050 Speaker 1: was decorated nothing radical, no binocular sculptures or fair ground pods. 189 00:14:25,370 --> 00:14:27,970 Speaker 1: It was just the simple, minimalist office with a few 190 00:14:28,170 --> 00:14:33,330 Speaker 1: tasteful additions, some potted plants, some large framed prints hanging 191 00:14:33,370 --> 00:14:37,530 Speaker 1: on the wall. The Prince showed close up photographs of plants, 192 00:14:38,050 --> 00:14:42,810 Speaker 1: vaguely evoking a Georgia o'keeefe painting. All simple enough, but 193 00:14:43,130 --> 00:14:47,770 Speaker 1: people liked it. In the experiment, workers preferred the decorated 194 00:14:47,810 --> 00:14:50,570 Speaker 1: office space to the minimalist one, and they got more 195 00:14:50,730 --> 00:14:54,930 Speaker 1: and better work done there too. But this experiment wasn't 196 00:14:54,970 --> 00:14:57,850 Speaker 1: really about the effect of having some greenery or a 197 00:14:57,850 --> 00:15:01,890 Speaker 1: few pictures on the wall. What really interested Haslam and 198 00:15:02,050 --> 00:15:08,090 Speaker 1: Night wasn't pot plants. It was power. And so the 199 00:15:08,210 --> 00:15:12,050 Speaker 1: final two office layouts used the same components as the 200 00:15:12,130 --> 00:15:16,490 Speaker 1: decorated office. Visually they seemed much the same, but there 201 00:15:16,490 --> 00:15:20,250 Speaker 1: was an invisible distinction, something that made all the difference 202 00:15:20,290 --> 00:15:25,530 Speaker 1: between a pleasant space and a hellhole. That invisible distinction 203 00:15:26,010 --> 00:15:32,090 Speaker 1: was all about autonomy. The most successful office space offered 204 00:15:32,090 --> 00:15:35,410 Speaker 1: the same tasteful prints and the same little shrubs, but 205 00:15:35,610 --> 00:15:41,690 Speaker 1: it offered something else to control over the space. Participants 206 00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:45,330 Speaker 1: were invited to spend some time arranging those decorations however 207 00:15:45,370 --> 00:15:49,170 Speaker 1: they saw fit, or even having them removed to perfectly 208 00:15:49,210 --> 00:15:52,970 Speaker 1: mimic the minimalist space if that's what they wanted. The 209 00:15:53,050 --> 00:15:59,290 Speaker 1: researchers called this arrangement the empowered office. The empowered office 210 00:15:59,330 --> 00:16:02,410 Speaker 1: could be just like the minimalist office, or exactly like 211 00:16:02,490 --> 00:16:05,490 Speaker 1: the decorated office, or it could be something else. The 212 00:16:05,570 --> 00:16:09,530 Speaker 1: point was that the person working in the office had 213 00:16:09,570 --> 00:16:14,210 Speaker 1: the choice. The empowered office was a great success. People 214 00:16:14,250 --> 00:16:16,810 Speaker 1: got much more done there than either the minimalist or 215 00:16:16,810 --> 00:16:20,890 Speaker 1: the decorated office, and they liked it more too. And 216 00:16:21,010 --> 00:16:24,250 Speaker 1: you can guess what Alex Haslem and Craig Knight did 217 00:16:24,330 --> 00:16:28,170 Speaker 1: to produce a hated environment. They simply said they were 218 00:16:28,170 --> 00:16:32,730 Speaker 1: offering people control and then took the control away. They 219 00:16:32,770 --> 00:16:35,970 Speaker 1: invited people to arrange the prints and the plants, but 220 00:16:36,050 --> 00:16:39,330 Speaker 1: then at the last minute a researcher returned and undid 221 00:16:39,370 --> 00:16:43,930 Speaker 1: all that personalization, instead setting everything up as it was 222 00:16:43,970 --> 00:16:48,370 Speaker 1: in the decorated office. If they were questioned or challenged, 223 00:16:48,490 --> 00:16:52,090 Speaker 1: they simply said that the previous arrangement hadn't been suitable 224 00:16:52,130 --> 00:16:58,250 Speaker 1: for the experiment. The scientists called this condition the diseempowered office. 225 00:16:59,130 --> 00:17:04,130 Speaker 1: People loathed it. I wanted to hit you. One participant 226 00:17:04,210 --> 00:17:07,730 Speaker 1: told the researchers. Later, after the experiment had been explained, 227 00:17:08,490 --> 00:17:14,490 Speaker 1: several Paul felt physically unwell. And remember, there was nothing 228 00:17:14,730 --> 00:17:19,370 Speaker 1: actually wrong with the physical design of the disempowered office. 229 00:17:19,930 --> 00:17:23,370 Speaker 1: It was exactly like the decorated office, which people had 230 00:17:23,410 --> 00:17:30,250 Speaker 1: found perfectly pleasant. What mattered was the sense of powerlessness, 231 00:17:30,290 --> 00:17:34,650 Speaker 1: of implicitly being told that you'd done it wrong, that 232 00:17:34,730 --> 00:17:40,410 Speaker 1: you weren't in charge, that you didn't matter. The lesson 233 00:17:41,450 --> 00:17:45,570 Speaker 1: office design doesn't matter nearly as much as letting people 234 00:17:46,050 --> 00:17:52,250 Speaker 1: design their offices, and this explains why the simple clean 235 00:17:52,370 --> 00:17:57,130 Speaker 1: homes that Henri Frugie's commissioned for his workforce met with 236 00:17:57,250 --> 00:18:02,170 Speaker 1: much the same revulsion as the crazy, chaotic workspace that 237 00:18:02,290 --> 00:18:07,210 Speaker 1: Jay Shiatt commissioned for his It wasn't a response to 238 00:18:07,250 --> 00:18:11,770 Speaker 1: the esthetics themselves. It was a response to being powerless 239 00:18:12,050 --> 00:18:17,730 Speaker 1: as those esthetics were imposed by an overconfident employer. As 240 00:18:17,770 --> 00:18:22,650 Speaker 1: one of Jay Shiatt's deputies werecalled, Jay didn't listen to anybody, 241 00:18:23,530 --> 00:18:27,490 Speaker 1: He just did it. But this study doesn't tell us 242 00:18:27,610 --> 00:18:33,690 Speaker 1: everything about why Jay Shiatt's experiment failed. The scientists looked 243 00:18:33,810 --> 00:18:37,810 Speaker 1: only at how office esthetics affected a worker's productivity on 244 00:18:37,930 --> 00:18:42,490 Speaker 1: an administrative task, and people didn't just do admin. At 245 00:18:42,530 --> 00:18:47,650 Speaker 1: shiat Day, they came up with creative ideas. When Gaetano 246 00:18:47,770 --> 00:18:51,690 Speaker 1: Pesche and Jay Shiatt swept away the cubicle farms and 247 00:18:51,770 --> 00:18:55,250 Speaker 1: the office doors, they were trying to stimulate a certain 248 00:18:55,370 --> 00:19:02,090 Speaker 1: kind of serendipitous, imaginative way of working together. Pesche thought 249 00:19:02,130 --> 00:19:06,250 Speaker 1: that office doors and cubicle walls were just barriers to 250 00:19:06,330 --> 00:19:12,130 Speaker 1: that creative teamwork. You don't need the office, he recalled 251 00:19:12,210 --> 00:19:15,690 Speaker 1: in an interview with the Planet Money podcast. His vision 252 00:19:15,770 --> 00:19:20,930 Speaker 1: was different, somewhere that would encourage collaborative chats. It was 253 00:19:20,930 --> 00:19:24,130 Speaker 1: an open space with a lot of corners, with a sofa, 254 00:19:24,410 --> 00:19:27,690 Speaker 1: comfortable chair, with a coffee shop, because I think people 255 00:19:27,770 --> 00:19:30,890 Speaker 1: when they meet, they like to have a drink. You 256 00:19:30,930 --> 00:19:34,210 Speaker 1: can see the logic. A coffee shop is just the 257 00:19:34,330 --> 00:19:37,610 Speaker 1: kind of place where you might serendipitously bump into a 258 00:19:37,730 --> 00:19:44,290 Speaker 1: random colleague and unexpectedly have a creative conversation. Sometimes you 259 00:19:44,370 --> 00:19:49,170 Speaker 1: just want some peace and quiet. You felt totally exposed, 260 00:19:49,570 --> 00:19:53,010 Speaker 1: recalled one executive at shy at Day. There would be 261 00:19:53,290 --> 00:19:56,890 Speaker 1: six conversations going on around you. I'll try to think, 262 00:19:57,290 --> 00:20:00,770 Speaker 1: and I couldn't. We were the laughing stock of the industry. 263 00:20:01,370 --> 00:20:04,130 Speaker 1: It was weird. You just had no idea where you 264 00:20:04,130 --> 00:20:09,010 Speaker 1: should go. There was a rush for the only enclosed 265 00:20:09,570 --> 00:20:15,810 Speaker 1: spaces in the place, the meeting rooms. The rooms would 266 00:20:15,930 --> 00:20:18,450 Speaker 1: quickly fill up with people and then they'd say to 267 00:20:18,570 --> 00:20:22,770 Speaker 1: everyone else, get out, this is mine. And what about 268 00:20:22,810 --> 00:20:26,330 Speaker 1: when you wanted to talk to someone in particular and 269 00:20:26,450 --> 00:20:31,090 Speaker 1: you just couldn't find them. When the journalist Warren Berger 270 00:20:31,290 --> 00:20:35,290 Speaker 1: wrote an epic magazine feature about the Shayat Day experiment, 271 00:20:35,770 --> 00:20:41,250 Speaker 1: he titled it Lost in Space. I can remember coming 272 00:20:41,250 --> 00:20:44,250 Speaker 1: back from a presentation and being unable to find my 273 00:20:44,370 --> 00:20:50,730 Speaker 1: creative department for two days, complained one creative director. Another 274 00:20:50,890 --> 00:20:54,890 Speaker 1: developed what he called the three time around rule. If 275 00:20:54,930 --> 00:20:58,090 Speaker 1: he walked around the entire office three times and he 276 00:20:58,170 --> 00:21:01,090 Speaker 1: still couldn't find the person he wanted, he'd walk back 277 00:21:01,130 --> 00:21:04,170 Speaker 1: to the concierge, hand back his laptop and his phone, 278 00:21:04,890 --> 00:21:08,770 Speaker 1: and go home. And if someone needed me, they could 279 00:21:08,810 --> 00:21:13,610 Speaker 1: find me on my virtual couch. It's hard to bump 280 00:21:13,650 --> 00:21:17,850 Speaker 1: into random colleagues when everyone's given up and gone home. 281 00:21:18,850 --> 00:21:22,970 Speaker 1: And that's a problem. Because Shayatt and Peche weren't wrong 282 00:21:23,010 --> 00:21:27,610 Speaker 1: about the need for personal proximity to spark creative conversations. 283 00:21:29,690 --> 00:21:33,610 Speaker 1: Back in the nineteen seventies, a management professor named Thomas 284 00:21:33,690 --> 00:21:40,330 Speaker 1: Allen measured how communication between workers dropped off exponentially as 285 00:21:40,370 --> 00:21:43,690 Speaker 1: their desks were further and further away from each other 286 00:21:44,650 --> 00:21:47,250 Speaker 1: fifty yards apart, and it was like they were in 287 00:21:47,370 --> 00:21:51,970 Speaker 1: different states, different floors or buildings. They might as well 288 00:21:52,010 --> 00:22:00,130 Speaker 1: have been different planets. Let's leave Jay Shiatt's unhappy nomads 289 00:22:00,170 --> 00:22:04,490 Speaker 1: behind for a while and travel forward in time five 290 00:22:04,610 --> 00:22:09,090 Speaker 1: or six years to another employer with a strong esthetic sensibility, 291 00:22:09,770 --> 00:22:13,090 Speaker 1: a clear sense that he was right about everything, and 292 00:22:13,210 --> 00:22:18,810 Speaker 1: a creative, collaborative office space to design. He needs no 293 00:22:19,010 --> 00:22:23,890 Speaker 1: introduction because Steve Jobs is one of the most famous 294 00:22:24,170 --> 00:22:28,810 Speaker 1: entrepreneurs in history. He was the force behind the Apple Mac, 295 00:22:29,530 --> 00:22:34,850 Speaker 1: the iPhone, those little round glasses. But for our purposes, 296 00:22:35,090 --> 00:22:38,930 Speaker 1: he was the force behind the headquarters of Pixar, the 297 00:22:38,970 --> 00:22:43,290 Speaker 1: animation studio that's produced films from Toy Story to Wally. 298 00:22:44,850 --> 00:22:49,210 Speaker 1: Steve Jobs was a man who hated ugliness and demanded 299 00:22:49,250 --> 00:22:54,690 Speaker 1: beauty everywhere he looked. In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, 300 00:22:55,490 --> 00:22:59,850 Speaker 1: one of the saddest and most eloquent stories, describes Jobs 301 00:22:59,890 --> 00:23:04,370 Speaker 1: semiconscious after receiving a liver transplant, ripping off his oxygen 302 00:23:04,450 --> 00:23:07,690 Speaker 1: mask because it was ugly, and demanding that the medical 303 00:23:07,730 --> 00:23:11,250 Speaker 1: team bring him five alternative designs so that he could 304 00:23:11,290 --> 00:23:16,170 Speaker 1: pick the best. In happier times, he had much more 305 00:23:16,210 --> 00:23:22,250 Speaker 1: to say about Pixar's headquarters. The construction budget was almost unlimited, 306 00:23:22,650 --> 00:23:26,770 Speaker 1: and the building, set in Emeryville near Oakland and San Francisco, 307 00:23:27,370 --> 00:23:31,730 Speaker 1: was crafted in an industrial style, full of exposed steel, 308 00:23:32,050 --> 00:23:37,410 Speaker 1: wood and brick, with Jobs obsessing over every detail. He 309 00:23:37,570 --> 00:23:41,290 Speaker 1: poured over samples of steel from across the country and 310 00:23:41,410 --> 00:23:45,130 Speaker 1: selected a particular steel mill in Arkansas, which he judged 311 00:23:45,210 --> 00:23:49,490 Speaker 1: to have the best color and texture. He insisted that 312 00:23:49,530 --> 00:23:53,170 Speaker 1: the girders were bolted rather than welded, and the bolts 313 00:23:53,170 --> 00:23:57,010 Speaker 1: were designed with circular caps to look like rivets, even 314 00:23:57,050 --> 00:24:00,130 Speaker 1: though rivets hadn't been much used for half a century. 315 00:24:00,930 --> 00:24:04,850 Speaker 1: Jobs commissioned a brick manufacturer from Washington State and told 316 00:24:04,890 --> 00:24:08,250 Speaker 1: them to precisely match the bricks on the Hills Brothers 317 00:24:08,290 --> 00:24:11,530 Speaker 1: Coffee plant cross the Bay on the San Francisco waterfront. 318 00:24:12,250 --> 00:24:16,450 Speaker 1: Then Jobs kept sending back samples, insisting they didn't match 319 00:24:16,490 --> 00:24:20,210 Speaker 1: the exact color palette he had in mind, until the 320 00:24:20,330 --> 00:24:26,730 Speaker 1: manufacturer threatened to quit. Steve Jobs was one of a kind, 321 00:24:27,890 --> 00:24:31,170 Speaker 1: but when it came to dictating how his underling's office 322 00:24:31,170 --> 00:24:34,650 Speaker 1: spaces should look, you can draw a direct line from 323 00:24:34,770 --> 00:24:39,370 Speaker 1: Uru Fruges and Look or Boozier through Shiatt, Gary and 324 00:24:39,530 --> 00:24:44,810 Speaker 1: Pesche to Steve Jobs that pix up and Steve Jobs 325 00:24:44,850 --> 00:24:47,810 Speaker 1: didn't limit himself to the patina on the steels and 326 00:24:47,850 --> 00:24:52,290 Speaker 1: the palette of the bricks. Like Jay Shiatt and Gaetano Pesche, 327 00:24:52,930 --> 00:24:57,450 Speaker 1: Jobs had become fascinated by the idea of random meetings 328 00:24:57,490 --> 00:25:04,690 Speaker 1: sparking creative conversations. Pixar's president Ed Catmull explained, Steve had 329 00:25:04,730 --> 00:25:07,290 Speaker 1: this firm belief that the right kind of building can 330 00:25:07,370 --> 00:25:11,410 Speaker 1: do great things for a color. Steve wanted the building 331 00:25:11,450 --> 00:25:15,010 Speaker 1: to support our work by enhancing our ability to collaborate. 332 00:25:16,450 --> 00:25:21,370 Speaker 1: Jobs hit upon a plan. Pixar's headquarters should have just 333 00:25:21,450 --> 00:25:26,250 Speaker 1: a single pair of large restrooms of the main lobby. 334 00:25:26,450 --> 00:25:30,570 Speaker 1: People would make new connections or revive old ones because 335 00:25:30,610 --> 00:25:33,530 Speaker 1: everybody would have to head to the lobby brought together 336 00:25:33,570 --> 00:25:38,610 Speaker 1: by a shared human need to urinate. It starts with 337 00:25:38,690 --> 00:25:43,370 Speaker 1: the most benevolent aims, doesn't it. One moment you're trying 338 00:25:43,410 --> 00:25:46,770 Speaker 1: to make a place that looks elegant and beautiful. The 339 00:25:46,890 --> 00:25:51,250 Speaker 1: next you're trying to control people by manipulating their bladders. 340 00:25:51,930 --> 00:25:56,090 Speaker 1: The road to office hell is paved with precisely the 341 00:25:56,250 --> 00:26:02,290 Speaker 1: right color palette of good intentions. Cautionary tales will return 342 00:26:02,810 --> 00:26:18,650 Speaker 1: in a moment. Lucalbousier had demanded a visual laxative with 343 00:26:18,770 --> 00:26:23,690 Speaker 1: bare walls and total simplicity. The eventual residence of Paysack 344 00:26:23,930 --> 00:26:28,210 Speaker 1: did not agree. They added old fashioned shutters and windows. 345 00:26:28,730 --> 00:26:32,250 Speaker 1: They erected pitched roofs over the flat ones. They put 346 00:26:32,330 --> 00:26:37,210 Speaker 1: up flowery wall paper over the uninterrupted monochrome walls, and 347 00:26:37,410 --> 00:26:41,330 Speaker 1: marked out little blocks of garden with wooden picket fences. 348 00:26:41,890 --> 00:26:46,770 Speaker 1: Their gardens were decorated with gnomes. I can't imagine anything 349 00:26:46,810 --> 00:26:50,130 Speaker 1: that Steve Jobs would have hated more than a garden 350 00:26:50,290 --> 00:26:58,210 Speaker 1: known like Paysack's residence. Jay Shiatt's employees gradually began to 351 00:26:58,290 --> 00:27:02,250 Speaker 1: chip away at the purity of his vision. They figured 352 00:27:02,290 --> 00:27:04,770 Speaker 1: out a system where you could sign up in advance 353 00:27:04,850 --> 00:27:08,930 Speaker 1: to reserve a particular place. Rather than queuing each morning 354 00:27:09,130 --> 00:27:13,090 Speaker 1: for laptops and phones, they'd store them overnight in their lockers. 355 00:27:13,770 --> 00:27:19,450 Speaker 1: Makeshift desks started to appear, and before long desktop computers 356 00:27:19,530 --> 00:27:24,610 Speaker 1: too shy. At Day's dream factory, like the Kobouzier's pay 357 00:27:24,650 --> 00:27:28,890 Speaker 1: sack was steadily being retrofitted by the people who had 358 00:27:28,930 --> 00:27:34,290 Speaker 1: to live with it every day. These twentieth century cautionary 359 00:27:34,290 --> 00:27:36,890 Speaker 1: tales feel to me like they have lessons to teach 360 00:27:36,970 --> 00:27:41,450 Speaker 1: us about work life in the twenty twenties. On one hand, 361 00:27:41,690 --> 00:27:46,970 Speaker 1: knowledge workers are finally equipped with genuinely portable computing technology, 362 00:27:47,250 --> 00:27:50,130 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that might actually make a functional 363 00:27:50,170 --> 00:27:55,170 Speaker 1: workspace out of Gaetano Peschet's cool sofas, hot desks, and 364 00:27:55,250 --> 00:27:58,770 Speaker 1: nowhere to put your dog pictures. On the other hand, 365 00:27:59,090 --> 00:28:02,010 Speaker 1: this technology means we could easily work from home during 366 00:28:02,050 --> 00:28:06,250 Speaker 1: the pandemic, and much of the office workforce has since 367 00:28:06,290 --> 00:28:10,090 Speaker 1: been in no rush to get back to the office. 368 00:28:10,850 --> 00:28:14,250 Speaker 1: In the United States, for example, nearly half of all 369 00:28:14,410 --> 00:28:18,330 Speaker 1: paid working days in twenty twenty one were worked from home, 370 00:28:19,050 --> 00:28:23,170 Speaker 1: and that figure barely shifted as effective vaccines were made 371 00:28:23,170 --> 00:28:27,450 Speaker 1: available to everyone who wanted them. Instead of eagerly returning 372 00:28:27,490 --> 00:28:31,330 Speaker 1: to their creative office spaces to boldly strut from one 373 00:28:31,410 --> 00:28:35,370 Speaker 1: collaborative huddle to another, people preferred to stay at home. 374 00:28:38,690 --> 00:28:43,490 Speaker 1: Homeworking isn't always fun. Writing emails on a laptop while 375 00:28:43,570 --> 00:28:46,130 Speaker 1: perched on a bed, or trying to stop the kids 376 00:28:46,170 --> 00:28:50,050 Speaker 1: from crying during a client meeting. But many people noticed 377 00:28:50,090 --> 00:28:52,810 Speaker 1: one thing that more than makes up for all these 378 00:28:52,850 --> 00:28:57,930 Speaker 1: strains and sorrows at home. Nobody complains if you leave 379 00:28:57,970 --> 00:29:01,650 Speaker 1: your dog pictures on your desk. People got a taste 380 00:29:01,650 --> 00:29:05,090 Speaker 1: of control over their own space, and they didn't want 381 00:29:05,130 --> 00:29:08,770 Speaker 1: to give it up. In surveys, one of the leading 382 00:29:08,770 --> 00:29:12,930 Speaker 1: reason that people give for working from home is the autonomy. 383 00:29:13,770 --> 00:29:17,650 Speaker 1: Alex Haslam and Craig Night could have predicted that it 384 00:29:17,850 --> 00:29:22,890 Speaker 1: is no small thing to be the undisputed boss of 385 00:29:22,930 --> 00:29:28,370 Speaker 1: your own desk, but that's a problem for serendipity. Zoom 386 00:29:28,490 --> 00:29:31,610 Speaker 1: is fine for the meetings we plan, but it's hopeless 387 00:29:31,610 --> 00:29:35,850 Speaker 1: at facilitating chance encounters with colleagues we don't know so well. 388 00:29:36,610 --> 00:29:39,890 Speaker 1: A large study at Microsoft during the first wave of 389 00:29:39,890 --> 00:29:43,890 Speaker 1: the pandemic found that virtual workers tended to connect only 390 00:29:43,930 --> 00:29:47,490 Speaker 1: to people that already been close to And when we 391 00:29:47,570 --> 00:29:51,490 Speaker 1: need to urinate, we're going to feel something very far 392 00:29:51,730 --> 00:29:55,290 Speaker 1: from serendipitous to light if we bump into a random 393 00:29:55,330 --> 00:30:03,650 Speaker 1: coworker outside our own bathroom door. When Steve Jobs got 394 00:30:03,690 --> 00:30:07,370 Speaker 1: an important idea, in his head. It wasn't easy to 395 00:30:07,370 --> 00:30:11,490 Speaker 1: dissuade him. His plan to impose a single pair of 396 00:30:11,650 --> 00:30:16,090 Speaker 1: serendipity inducing mega bathrooms on Pixar seemed to be a 397 00:30:16,210 --> 00:30:22,330 Speaker 1: very important idea. Indeed, proximity mattered, thought Jobs, and he 398 00:30:22,450 --> 00:30:25,890 Speaker 1: was right. And what better way to ensure that different 399 00:30:25,970 --> 00:30:30,090 Speaker 1: people from different departments spent some time in close proximity 400 00:30:30,410 --> 00:30:33,050 Speaker 1: than by forcing them all to go through the atrium 401 00:30:33,250 --> 00:30:36,690 Speaker 1: several times a day at intervals governed by the call 402 00:30:36,850 --> 00:30:42,690 Speaker 1: of nature. He felt that very very strongly, says Pam Kerwin, 403 00:30:43,330 --> 00:30:48,770 Speaker 1: Pixar's general manager. So Jobs explained his idea to Pixar 404 00:30:48,970 --> 00:30:52,370 Speaker 1: staff at an off site meeting, and the staff didn't 405 00:30:52,450 --> 00:30:57,690 Speaker 1: like it at all. As Kerwin recalls, one pregnant woman 406 00:30:57,730 --> 00:31:00,610 Speaker 1: said she shouldn't be forced to walk for ten minutes 407 00:31:00,970 --> 00:31:03,290 Speaker 1: just to go to the bathroom, and that led to 408 00:31:03,330 --> 00:31:08,370 Speaker 1: a big fight. Some senior Pixar staff stood up for 409 00:31:08,410 --> 00:31:14,170 Speaker 1: the pregnant. Jobs was frustrated people just didn't understand the vision. 410 00:31:14,610 --> 00:31:19,170 Speaker 1: They didn't get it. But then Jobs did something extraordinary 411 00:31:19,450 --> 00:31:25,090 Speaker 1: and out of character. He compromised. The Steve Jobs building 412 00:31:25,290 --> 00:31:30,650 Speaker 1: contains not one, but four pairs of bathrooms. There is 413 00:31:30,690 --> 00:31:34,770 Speaker 1: still plenty of opportunity for serendipity, thanks to an atrium 414 00:31:34,850 --> 00:31:37,730 Speaker 1: that focuses activity, with the main doors of the building, 415 00:31:38,090 --> 00:31:44,170 Speaker 1: a cafe, a game area, the mailboxes, three theaters, conference rooms, 416 00:31:44,210 --> 00:31:49,170 Speaker 1: and screening rooms all spilling into it. Pixar's bosses said 417 00:31:49,210 --> 00:31:54,370 Speaker 1: that Jobs's basic instincts had been correct. I kept running 418 00:31:54,370 --> 00:31:56,730 Speaker 1: into people I hadn't seen for months. I've never seen 419 00:31:56,770 --> 00:31:59,970 Speaker 1: a building that promoted collaboration and creativity as well as 420 00:31:59,970 --> 00:32:04,370 Speaker 1: this one. People encountered each other all day long, inadvertently. 421 00:32:04,650 --> 00:32:09,570 Speaker 1: You've felt the energy in the building, No doubt that's true. 422 00:32:10,890 --> 00:32:14,410 Speaker 1: But the serendipity at Pixar wasn't just down to Steve 423 00:32:14,490 --> 00:32:18,090 Speaker 1: Jobs's ideas, but to his willingness to let them go. 424 00:32:19,770 --> 00:32:23,410 Speaker 1: Junior staff were able to stand up to Steve Jobs, 425 00:32:23,810 --> 00:32:29,330 Speaker 1: the owner, the legend, the control freaks, control freak, and 426 00:32:29,490 --> 00:32:34,050 Speaker 1: get their own way about something that mattered to them, 427 00:32:34,090 --> 00:32:37,970 Speaker 1: that was more important than all the vaulted steel and 428 00:32:38,170 --> 00:32:45,890 Speaker 1: elegant brickwork Pixar's success could buy. Inside Jobs's beautiful building, 429 00:32:46,210 --> 00:32:51,370 Speaker 1: the Pixar staff ran riot. The most famous example is 430 00:32:51,370 --> 00:32:54,210 Speaker 1: a concealed room that can be reached only through a 431 00:32:54,290 --> 00:32:57,730 Speaker 1: crawl way in which was originally designed merely to provide 432 00:32:57,730 --> 00:33:02,330 Speaker 1: access to the air conditioning valves. Once a Pixar animator 433 00:33:02,410 --> 00:33:06,610 Speaker 1: discovered the secret panel into the space, he installed Christmas lights, 434 00:33:06,890 --> 00:33:11,770 Speaker 1: lava lamps, animal print fern's, a cocktail table, a bar, 435 00:33:12,210 --> 00:33:17,290 Speaker 1: and napkins printed up with the logo the Love Lounge. 436 00:33:19,970 --> 00:33:23,570 Speaker 1: The animators who work here are free to note encouraged 437 00:33:23,610 --> 00:33:28,850 Speaker 1: to decorate their workspaces in whatever style they wish, explained 438 00:33:28,890 --> 00:33:33,090 Speaker 1: the Pixar boss ed catmul. They spend their days inside 439 00:33:33,170 --> 00:33:38,170 Speaker 1: pink dollhouses whose ceilings are hung with miniature chandeliers, tiki 440 00:33:38,250 --> 00:33:43,130 Speaker 1: huts made of real bamboo, and castles whose meticulously painted, 441 00:33:43,250 --> 00:33:48,490 Speaker 1: fifteen foot high, styrophoamed turrets appeared to be carved from stone. 442 00:33:50,650 --> 00:33:56,890 Speaker 1: Steve Jobs apparently hated all that juvenile mess, but he 443 00:33:57,050 --> 00:34:01,050 Speaker 1: let it happen, and the serendipity he craved became a 444 00:34:01,210 --> 00:34:05,570 Speaker 1: daily feature of life at Pixar, even if not precisely 445 00:34:05,730 --> 00:34:10,250 Speaker 1: as set out in his original blueprint. Steve Jobs wanted 446 00:34:10,250 --> 00:34:13,410 Speaker 1: to create an office space that would still be beautiful 447 00:34:13,530 --> 00:34:17,410 Speaker 1: and functional in a century. We'll have to wait a 448 00:34:17,410 --> 00:34:21,530 Speaker 1: while to know whether he succeeded. All we know is 449 00:34:21,570 --> 00:34:25,850 Speaker 1: that Jay Shiatt did not. He sold his company to 450 00:34:25,890 --> 00:34:31,290 Speaker 1: a bigger advertising conglomerate, helped perhaps by all the attention 451 00:34:31,410 --> 00:34:35,090 Speaker 1: that had been lavished on his radical office space. Yet 452 00:34:35,450 --> 00:34:39,330 Speaker 1: neither the Gary offices in Los Angeles nor the riotous 453 00:34:39,490 --> 00:34:43,690 Speaker 1: Gaetano Peche offices in Manhattan survived the merger for long. 454 00:34:44,690 --> 00:34:50,970 Speaker 1: The entire experiment had lasted just a few years. Jay 455 00:34:51,010 --> 00:34:54,610 Speaker 1: Shiatt declared that it was the only thing I ever 456 00:34:54,650 --> 00:34:59,130 Speaker 1: did in business that I was satisfied with. Very few 457 00:34:59,170 --> 00:35:03,610 Speaker 1: of his colleagues seemed to agree, and while the giant 458 00:35:03,650 --> 00:35:08,570 Speaker 1: binocular sculpture remained in Los Angeles, the interior designs are 459 00:35:08,690 --> 00:35:19,890 Speaker 1: long gone. In contrast, Lacobusier's modernist homes for workers at 460 00:35:19,890 --> 00:35:24,850 Speaker 1: Paysack did last a century. Paysack is now viewed as 461 00:35:24,890 --> 00:35:29,490 Speaker 1: something of an architectural destination. It's full of people with 462 00:35:29,610 --> 00:35:34,930 Speaker 1: money and modernist tastes, people who love Lacorbousier's visual laxative, 463 00:35:35,610 --> 00:35:38,010 Speaker 1: even though they're very far from being the kind of 464 00:35:38,050 --> 00:35:43,690 Speaker 1: people Paysack was designed for. Long after Lacurbousier himself had died, 465 00:35:44,330 --> 00:35:47,930 Speaker 1: these new residents cleared away the picket fences and the 466 00:35:48,010 --> 00:35:52,210 Speaker 1: pitched roofs and the garden gnomes and restored the purity 467 00:35:52,530 --> 00:35:57,890 Speaker 1: and simplicity of his original vision. But I don't think 468 00:35:57,930 --> 00:36:01,570 Speaker 1: it's a coincidence that that vision withered when it was 469 00:36:01,610 --> 00:36:06,410 Speaker 1: imposed on workers, and blossom when people who loved it 470 00:36:06,530 --> 00:36:11,930 Speaker 1: got to choose. As the pandemic receded and bosses started 471 00:36:11,970 --> 00:36:16,370 Speaker 1: to worry that working from home was undermining workplace serendipity, 472 00:36:17,050 --> 00:36:21,090 Speaker 1: many decided to mandate a return to the office. But 473 00:36:21,210 --> 00:36:25,410 Speaker 1: maybe they should instead try harder to create the kind 474 00:36:25,450 --> 00:36:29,250 Speaker 1: of office that workers will freely choose to come into. 475 00:36:30,290 --> 00:36:34,370 Speaker 1: Maybe the principle for a flourishing creative space is that 476 00:36:34,410 --> 00:36:38,970 Speaker 1: if we build it, they will come, provided we don't 477 00:36:39,010 --> 00:36:44,610 Speaker 1: try too hard to control what happens there. The Cabuzier 478 00:36:44,730 --> 00:36:48,850 Speaker 1: himself might have agreed. When he was told about the 479 00:36:48,890 --> 00:36:52,410 Speaker 1: garden Gnomes of Paysack, he said something that I wish 480 00:36:52,530 --> 00:36:57,610 Speaker 1: all the tasteful, powerful people like Jay Shiatt could understand. 481 00:36:58,610 --> 00:37:03,650 Speaker 1: You know, life is always right. It is the architect 482 00:37:04,210 --> 00:37:10,130 Speaker 1: who is wrong. For a full list of our sources, 483 00:37:10,330 --> 00:37:15,810 Speaker 1: please see the show notes at Tim Harford dot com. 484 00:37:15,850 --> 00:37:19,930 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. 485 00:37:21,010 --> 00:37:24,770 Speaker 1: It's produced by Alice Fines with support from Edith Russolow. 486 00:37:25,570 --> 00:37:28,370 Speaker 1: The sound design and original music is the work of 487 00:37:28,490 --> 00:37:32,610 Speaker 1: Pascal Wise. The show wouldn't have been possible without the 488 00:37:32,610 --> 00:37:37,770 Speaker 1: work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilley, Julia Barton, Greta con Lttell, 489 00:37:37,850 --> 00:37:43,810 Speaker 1: Millard John schnars Kylie Migliori, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano, 490 00:37:44,130 --> 00:37:49,490 Speaker 1: and Morgan Ratner. Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. 491 00:37:49,810 --> 00:37:52,930 Speaker 1: If you like the show, please remember to share, rate, 492 00:37:53,010 --> 00:37:56,770 Speaker 1: and review. It helps us for mysterious reasons, and if 493 00:37:56,770 --> 00:37:59,610 Speaker 1: you want to hear the show, add free sign up 494 00:37:59,610 --> 00:38:02,770 Speaker 1: for Pushkin Plus on the show page and Apple Podcasts, 495 00:38:03,170 --> 00:38:49,970 Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus