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The purpose of the study was to assess how the well-being and loneliness of public relations and communication professionals are impacted by the post-pandemic characteristics of the work environment: flexible work schemes, non-territorial office arrangements and video communication technologies. It was hypothesised that the post-pandemic workplace landscape poses several new challenges to the practice of PR – an industry which invariably relies on working with other people and demands a good level of social resilience. Loneliness and well-being both depend on the experience of having good and efficient social relationships, but the pandemic has directly and indirectly led to their deterioration.

The project employed a correlational design and used an online survey system to collect responses from Gen Z professionals employed in the public relations and communications industry in the UK and the US via the Prolific platform. Demographical and workplace-related characteristics were assessed to investigate links with loneliness (measured using a three-item scale adopted from Russell et al., 1980 in Hughes, 2004) and well-being (using a short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scale). Causal relationships between data were tested using regression analysis for continuous variables and analysis of covariance for categorical factors. Bootstrapping was used to test mediated relationships that explain loneliness, job satisfaction and the well-being of Gen Z PR professionals.

Several types of flexible working schemes, defined as the ability to work from home on any number of weeks, showed an impact on loneliness and job satisfaction but not on well-being. However, all remaining aspects of the post-pandemic office did manifest as important predictors. In the sample, 30% of Gen Z PR professionals showed signs of mild to clinical levels of depression, and the best protection from this state was the presence of a significant other. Lower levels of loneliness were related to non-territorial office arrangements and job satisfaction. The use of hot desks and open-plan arrangements led to a significantly lower level of job satisfaction than a traditional, cellular office. Both excessive online meetings and face-to-face only interactions led to marginally lower levels of loneliness and job satisfaction.

The present research is limited in several aspects. Firstly, while the project evaluated loneliness, job satisfaction and mental well-being (with each of these elements including a component of the requirement for building effective relationships), the quality of relationships built by PR professionals was not measured. Secondly, the project focused only on post-pandemic aspects of the workplace and did not cover other important components of job satisfaction. Lastly, the measure of online meetings was declarative rather than behavioural, and greater control of the number of online meetings held would be required to show more reliable links between variables.

This study calls for proposing recommendations for employers to develop organisational-level measures and programmes to counteract loneliness. While traditionally intimate relationships of employees were not a direct focus of HR programmes, employers should develop elements of organisational culture that would support employees in building effective intimate relationships. Separately from this, despite immediate financial benefits, employers should avoid using open-space and hot desk policies, as they contribute negatively to job satisfaction (and indirectly to well-being). The sample of UK and US professionals was chosen for analysis because in these countries employers have more capacity to introduce changes to tangible characteristics of the workplace and work culture, which may positively impact the well-being of their employees.

It is expected that both employers and employees will revisit their approach to post-pandemic financial and logistic challenges related to the workplace. A lower level of job satisfaction and well-being is linked to the lack of assigned office space, but the ability to work exclusively from home leads to loneliness. Employees – when offered this possibility – should work in offices they are provided. Employers must appreciate the negative link between open and hot-desking policies and job satisfaction and well-being of their employees.

This study is the first to examine the post-pandemic workplace and personal characteristics of public relations and communications professionals in the UK and US and show how they impact job satisfaction and well-being. The study shows that 30% of employed in the PR industry are at risk of depression or anxiety. The connecting factor between personal and work-related characteristics that explains this problem is loneliness.

This paper aims to strengthen the connection between therapeutic built environments and tourism research and practice. While there is evidence in the importance of the Built Environment (BE) of cities, workspaces and health-care facilities to health, the BE of facilities for tourism in relation to health remains relatively unexplored.

The paper conducts an exploratory search on architecture and tourism BE and narrowed it down to a scoping review on wellness tourism and architectural health impacts from 2010 to 2024. This would highlight lessons learned from the field of medical architecture, i.e. a cross-disciplinary field combining BE research, public health and health-care services research, to explore potential synergies of cross-pollination with the field of hospitality and medical architecture.

Principles and theories of medical architecture can be incorporated into the BE of wellness hospitality, tourism for ageing and pandemic preparedness.

The paper sets the basis of a novel cross-disciplinary collaboration between therapeutic architecture and hospitality for increasing the societal impact of the latter. This is particularly important in a post-Covid and an ageing society.

本文旨在加强治疗性建筑环境与旅游研究和实践之间的联系。虽然有证据表明城市、工作场所和医疗设施的建筑环境(BE)对健康很重要, 但与健康相关的旅游设施的建筑环境仍相对未被探索。

作者对建筑和旅游建筑环境进行了探索性搜索, 并将其缩小到2010年至2024年期间的健康旅游和建筑健康影响的范围审查。这将突出医疗建筑领域的经验教训, 即结合建筑环境研究、公共卫生和医疗服务研究的跨学科领域, 以探索与酒店业和医疗建筑领域交叉授粉的潜在协同效应。

医疗建筑的原则和理论可以纳入健康酒店业、老龄化旅游和大流行病准备的建筑环境中。

我们为治疗性建筑和酒店业之间的新型跨学科合作奠定了基础, 以增加后者的社会影响。这在后疫情时代和老龄化社会中尤为重要。

Este documento pretende reforzar la conexión entre los entornos construidos terapéuticos y la investigación y la práctica del turismo. Aunque existen pruebas de la importancia del entorno construido (EC) de las ciudades, los espacios de trabajo y las instalaciones sanitarias para la salud, el EC de las instalaciones para el turismo en relación con la salud sigue estando relativamente inexplorado.

Realizamos una búsqueda exploratoria sobre arquitectura y el EC turístico y la acotamos a una revisión de alcance sobre el turismo de bienestar y los impactos arquitectónicos en la salud desde 2010 hasta 2024. Esto pondría de relieve las lecciones aprendidas en el campo de la arquitectura médica, es decir, un campo interdisciplinar que combina la investigación de la EC, la salud pública y la investigación de los servicios sanitarios, para explorar posibles sinergias de polinización cruzada con el campo de la hostelería y la arquitectura médica.

Los principios y teorías de la arquitectura médica pueden incorporarse a la EC de la hosteleria para el bienestar, el turismo para el envejecimiento y la preparación ante pandemias.

Sentamos las bases de una novedosa colaboración interdisciplinar entre la arquitectura terapéutica y la hostelería para aumentar el impacto social de esta última. Esto es especialmente importante después de la crisis y en una sociedad que envejece.