In the ‘Envy Office’ reporters find a trend and a story

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Maybe you’ve seen them on Instagram: offices that look a lot cooler than yours. There are soundproof telephone booths. Winged armchairs. Bookshelves full of strategically placed art books and old copies of The New Yorker.

They evoke a trending workplace style that New York Times reporters Emma Goldberg and Anna Kodé have anointed the Envy Office. As they write in their article, companies hope that an Instagrammable office design will lure employees off their couches and back to the workplace – to do their work on the velvet and dog-friendly couches.

The Envy Office trades both the cubicle farms of traditional workplaces and the climbing walls of Silicon Valley tech campuses for upholstered chairs and faux fiddle-leaf figs nestled in cozy corners. But it’s not just an aesthetic: the design also prioritizes flexibility while reflecting a company’s brand. And some employers are hoping their younger employees will share their trendy workplaces on social media.

Ms. Kodé and Ms. Goldberg began reporting in August, visiting offices in New York City. But the style trend is spreading across the country: Gensler, one of the world’s largest architectural firms, said it was increasingly receiving requests to build office spaces with banquettes and library nooks.

In addition to their article, Ms. Kodé and Ms. Goldberg have also developed a quiz that allows readers to discover their dream office design. (Their answers labeled them both as Sofa Sophisticates, or as people who enjoy working in tastefully designed spaces that facilitate social connections.)

In an interview, they talk more about their reporting — and why they like working in The Times’ more traditional office, which was recently updated with some Envy Office flair. This conversation has been edited.

Anna, you deal with real estate, and Emma, ​​you deal with the future of work. What brought you together for this article?

EMMA GOUDBERG Anna and I had a long-standing dream that we would find something to work on together. Likewise, we’re always looking for whimsical, creative, or just plain fun avenues into what could be drier topics. When we saw this one, we felt like it was a natural intersection of what we both cover.

ANNA KODÉ It clearly has to do with Emma’s rhythm. And then it had a separate angle of design and social media, which I’ve reported on a lot. The overlap was just there.

How were you first introduced to this type of design?

GOLDBERG I go to so many offices as part of reporting for my beat, and something I’ve noticed everywhere in recent months is the shift toward offices that look like something between living rooms and hotel lobbies. Instead of the tech-bro campuses of the mid-2000s, workplaces began to look trendy, more sophisticated, and more hospitality-adjacent.

One of my favorite books, ‘Cubed’ by Nikil Saval, is about the history of the cubicle. There has been a shift from cubicles to open floor plans to tech campuses. The questions Anna and I first discussed were: What is the next phase of office design? What comes after the technology campus?

The Envy Office looks less masculine. It’s sophisticated and communal, but without the frills the technology campus is known for. I didn’t see any sleeping pods.

KODÉ There is an element that is definitely more tasteful, and there is a feminine design sensibility, especially at one of the firms we focused on, Roarke, who designed the Wing, the women’s social club that is now closed. I think there are still some elements of ‘fringe’. Many responses to the story were: We don’t need Instagrammable furniture. We need better benefits.

Do these workplaces contribute to a better office culture or do they increase productivity?

KODÉ I think it depends on the type of person and work, but design does have a major effect on our interactions and how we organize our daily lives. Everything from the way a hallway is designed to the presence of plants can shape the behavior and emotions of people in any space.

GOLDBERG One of the ideas we wanted to explore was that the design of an office always incorporated certain ideas about how a company wanted that space to function. For example, some historians we spoke to said that one of the things that boxes have done is convey a sense of hierarchy. At every stage of office design, there have always been next-level ideas that companies are trying to communicate.

Much of what an Envy Office does reflects a company’s brand or identity. For example, when we visited cereal brand Magic Spoon, the designers kept emphasizing that they wanted the space to feel like a cereal box. They wanted to capture the idiosyncrasy of their brand. I think companies hope that when people walk into an office space, they see the story the brand is trying to tell.

What was something you didn’t expect?

GOLDBERG One thing I was surprised by was the idea that companies are actively thinking about how their employees will project the brand’s image on their own social media channels, as we hear a lot more about companies struggling to change the way their employees do their jobs to keep in check. Employees use social media.

The Times newsroom has an open layout and bright red walls. Are you inspired by it?

KODÉ I love our building. I love Renzo Piano, its architect. I’m a bit of a nerd about it. The interior design has changed. The Times recently added some of those library nooks we wrote about.

GOLDBERG I love our office, and I feel like I romanticize it too. Similar to the companies we discussed that wanted their brands represented in the design of their offices, much of what I love about The Times is walking into this space and seeing colleagues doing their work.

I love the slightly chaotic energy of the newsroom, and what it represents about the excitement of the people who work there and the history of the place.