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Summarizes the results of a computer‐based interactive questionnaire undertaken to investigate staff priorities in the workplace, identifying six distinct areas: workstation, environment, facilities, building location, appearance and job characteristics. Discusses the responses of property managers. Concludes that user satisfaction is increasingly important in decision making about the workplace, and that better techniques will have to be used to ascertain staff priorities.

The growth in flexible working by employees in many office‐based organisations means that workstation sharing at the employer's premises is increasingly attractive. However, because of peaks and troughs in demand it is difficult to decide how many workstations should be provided. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost‐effectiveness of alternative workstation sharing strategies.

The study used an agent‐based simulation model with two input variables: the employees' reaction if they are blocked (i.e. they find that all workstations are already occupied), and the number of workstations at the employer's premises. The simulation was run for 56 scenarios. The results were evaluated by assigning cost penalties for workstations, blocking and displacement; there were eight cost regimes reflecting different organisational characteristics.

The simulations showed trade‐offs between the activity and space variables, in terms of utilisation, blocking and displacement. When costs were applied the output of the simulation runs, the most cost‐effective scenarios varied markedly with the different cost regimes.

The variation in optimum strategies with different model input values suggests that cost‐effective workstation sharing strategies must be developed on a case‐by‐case basis. The simplifying assumptions in the model must be considered when applying the findings to real organisations.

Quantified analysis of the cost‐effectiveness of workstation sharing strategies has not been found previously in the literature.

To model the floorspace demand of office‐based organisations in which employees spend periods of time working at off‐site locations, and identify the scope for efficiency improvements.

The paper compares the experience gained in applying an innovative method of space‐planning in practice, with mathematical simulations of activity‐space scenarios. Both approaches are described.

Experience in practice demonstrates that significant reductions can be made in the floorspace demand of many office‐based organisations, but the simulations show that is not feasible to achieve a perfect activity‐space “fit” when the pattern of activities is uncertain. Space‐time management becomes increasingly critical as office floorspace is used more efficiently.

Shows that there are opportunities for reducing the floorspace demand of most organisations compared to current usage, but there is a limit on achievable efficiency gains.

Low utilisation is observed in many buildings and space‐sharing is often identified as a facilities management response, but uncertainty about demand makes it difficult to decide how much shared accommodation to provide. The purpose of this paper is to analyse similar problems in the discipline of yield management, a branch of operations research.

The “newsvendor problem” in yield management is adapted and applied the to the space‐sharing problem. The mathematical model identifies the optimum capacity for specified values of input variables. The model is illustrated with worked examples for systematic variation in three factors: the average demand (three values), the penalty cost ratio (six values), and demand uncertainty (three values).

The optimum capacity for shared accommodation can be mathematically determined. It varies considerably with the case‐specific values given to input variables. Three “principles of optimality” are defined that apply to optimum capacity for a given demand, or alternatively to optimal loading for a given capacity.

The variation between different cases shows that optimal capacity must be assessed for specific contexts. The mathematical model makes simplifying assumptions that have not yet been tested in real‐world situations. A comparison between optimal and actual performance would reveal whether there are opportunities for significant enhancement in facilities management performance.

Applications of yield management ideas to the space sharing problem have not been found in the literature.

More than once the British Food Journal has had occasion to deplore the inclusion, in official reports to local authorities, of elaborate statistical tables giving the impression that bare figures relating to the examination of samples of food and drugs are of more value than is in fact the case. “Figures by themselves,” said an experienced teacher of arithmetic, “have no meaning.” It is highly gratifying now to find that Mr. A. N. Leather, B.Sc., F.R.I.C., Public Analyst for the City of Manchester, has found time to discuss the problem of summarising laboratory results in such a manner as to convey a far more enlightening meaning than is to be derived from “bare” statistics. Space does not permit the inclusion of the whole of Mr. Leather's comments, but the gist of his argument—which we find most convincing—is here recorded.

When Ezra Tull, in Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, discovers a lump on his thigh, “The word cancer came on its own, as if someone had whispered it into his ear, but what caused his shocked expression was the thought that flew in after it All right Let it happen. I'll go ahead and die. He shook that away, of course. He was 46 years old, a calm and sensible man, and later he would make an appointment with Dr. Vincent…It wasn't that he really wanted to die. Naturally not. He was only giving in to a passing mood, he decided…,this summer hadn't been going well. His mother, whose vision had been failing since 1975 was now (in 1979) almost totally blind, but she did not admit it which made it all the harder to care for her…His restaurant was floundering even more than usual; his finest cook had quit because her horoscope advised it; and a heat wave seemed to be stupefying the entire city…” Ezra's situation aptly illustrates three major lifetasks of middle‐age: accepting the loss of youth (and the changing physical conditions of aging), coping with new family relationships, and handling work‐related problems. This column focuses on the loss of youth and coping with family relationships.

Sections of the world's population have always been short of food, the menace of famine ever present. Among primitive peoples, the search for food is their greatest preoccupation. In the years before the first Great War, in the civilised countries of the west, including our own, the persistent poverty of the casual and unskilled workers, helped and held to a permanent state in so many cases by improvidence, was often stretched to near‐starvation, and with few agencies really capable of affording adequate relief. Families went short of food for fairly long periods, especially in the industrial areas and towns and this during times when a dozen stale loaves could be bought for a shilling and a pint of skimmed milk for a halfpenny. In the rural areas, nature helped a little and the country folk could talk of the pleasurable flavour of a rook pie and comb the hedgerows for edible roots, but here too were the cruel flashes when men went to prison for snaring a rabbit on private land or stealing a few swedes from a farmer's clamp.

April 12, 1970 Factory — Cleaning machinery — “Young person” cleaning cylinders of printing machine — Inching button used to rotate cylinders — Whether cylinders “moving part” of machine — Whether plaintiff “cleaning” machine while rotating cylinders — Whether breach of statutory duty by employer — Plaintiffs disobedience to instructions a cause of accident — Whether fault co‐extensive with employer's fault — Factories Act, 1961 (9 & 10 Eliz. II, c. 34), s. 20.

The building industry, through its structure and its mandate, faces endemic information problems; expert systems are expected to impact positively. Expert systems are suited to situations of uncertainty; knowledge and reasoning are separated, allowing easier updating. Knowledge acquisition from human experts is difficult and problems of information reliability arise, suggesting the scope for cooperation between knowledge engineers and documentalists familiar with the domain. In building, prevailing conditions seem to indicate the appropriateness of expert systems, particularly during the design phase; however, written documentation and general research results are rarely consulted. This highlights the need for an information ‘refining’ stage between production and use. It is easier to set up expert systems for specialised sub‐domains; however, on‐going research is attempting to develop a comprehensive approach to project‐specific information that would be operational from initial design through to completed construction. Criteria for a comprehensive design information system can be listed.