People like us do things like this.

Over the past series of our (ahem, award winning) podcast, Workplace Geeks, we’ve had a real dive into the history and evolution of the workplace. We spoke to Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross about their pitch for the future of the workplace that looked back on the evolution so far. We caught up with Mark Catchlove looking at Robert Propst (Designed Director at Herman Miller) who wrote about the evolving office in 1968. And we recently had the amazing Rob Harris talking about some of the economic waves shaping the workplace landscape.

What this always makes me think about is what people will think of our current workplace discourse in, say, fifty years? What assumptions will they make about the decisions that we made? What will be the characterisation of the ‘post COVID’ workplace and the discussion around hybrid and RTOs? And how many of the behaviours will exist that pre-date today’s work approach; that somehow linger because that’s just the way we do things.

It gets me thinking about the role of the ‘culture of work’ and the behaviours that stick.

I’ve been reading The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent — a fascinating book that explores how our cultural narratives shape the way we think, act, and build the world around us. Lent’s central argument is that humans are natural pattern-makers. We find meaning in connections, and over time, those patterns harden into habits. Like walking the same trail through a grassy meadow, our repeated choices form well-worn paths — and once those paths are visible, others are more likely to follow. Culture, in this view, isn’t just a backdrop to history; it’s an active force in shaping it. Lent suggests that culture influences behaviour, behaviour shapes history, and history, in turn, reinforces culture. And round and round it goes.

It’s not a million miles away from what Seth Godin — author, entrepreneur, and all-round marketing sage — boils down into a simple but powerful line: “People like us, do things like this.” For all the definitions of culture out there, that’s the one we at Audiem come back to time and time again. It’s also the thinking that influenced how we structured the ‘People’ section of our Workplace Mix. Because when you look closely at the workplace, it’s often these embedded norms — these repeated patterns — that quietly define the experience people have day to day.

So what is the culture of work, really? What are the inherited behaviours we carry — often without questioning — that were shaped by entirely different eras, technologies, and social conditions? Why do we still work 9 to 5? Is it a hangover from the rhythms of an agricultural economy, built around daylight hours? Why do we still default to working in the same physical space? Perhaps because, once upon a time, all the tools we needed — typewriters, phones, files, machines — were fixed in one central location. No one in the 1970s was “coming in to collaborate” — collaboration just happened because everything happened there.

Many of the patterns we follow today were born out of necessity. They weren’t designed to be ideal — they just worked for the moment. But once systems form around them — transport, childcare, school hours, commercial infrastructure — those patterns become embedded.

Remember during the pandemic, when one of the arguments for returning to the office was that local cafés and city economies needed the footfall? That’s how deeply rooted the culture of work is. It’s not just about where we sit from 9 to 5 — it’s the foundation many other aspects of modern life have been built around. Which is why changing work in any meaningful way is so difficult, even when something as seismic as a global pandemic shows us that another way is possible.

If we’re serious about challenging the norms of work, we need to start by asking some pretty fundamental questions: What is the purpose of work? What are we actually trying to achieve? I know — that’s holy grail territory. But it’s amazing how rarely a clear, measurable business outcome is actually articulated in workplace projects. Somewhere along the way, many strategies get diluted into abstract concepts — some consultancy-friendly language about spaces to “convene, concentrate, and collaborate” (and whatever other ‘C’ words happen to be on trend). But how often is the workplace really examined through the lens of business aims — with clear implications for space, people, and technology? Too often, it’s about finding ways to reinforce inherited norms, rather than rethinking them altogether.

But there is hope. In June, the team from GSK joined us on a Workplace Geeks webinar to share the thinking behind their new HQ in London. On the surface, it could be mistaken for another sleek, high-end fit-out — and yes, it’s a stunning space. But what sets it apart is what sits underneath: a deliberate, strategic link between the workplace, the kind of work GSK wants to enable, and the wellbeing of the people who do it. It’s not just design for design’s sake — it’s design in service of purpose. That’s the kind of thinking we need more of. My hope is that more organisations take their lead — challenge the assumptions, embrace the data, and get serious about designing workplaces that support the outcomes that actually matter.

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