The Attention Era vs. The Attendance Era
Written by Jess Klay
As AI accelerates the pace of work and employees face increasing demands on their focus, organizations are being challenged to rethink what workplace success looks like. In Volume 1 of The Red Thread Report, Jess Klay explores why attention, not attendance, may be the more valuable workplace metric for the future of work, and what that shift means for workplace strategy, design, wellbeing, and performance.
For the last several years, workplace conversations have centered around one primary metric: attendance.
How many days are employees coming in?
How do we increase utilization?
How do we encourage people back into the office?
Though after spending some time recently at Steelcase alongside workplace strategists, researchers, designers, and industry leaders from across the country, one thing became increasingly clear:
The future of work is no longer about attendance.
It is about attention.
That shift fundamentally changes how we think about workplace strategy, performance, and the role of the office itself.
“We are entering an era where the most valuable workplace resource is not square footage or visibility. It is cognitive readiness: the ability for people to think deeply, solve complex problems, collaborate meaningfully, and sustain creativity in increasingly fast-moving and AI-enabled environments.”
And many workplaces today are unintentionally working against that goal.
From Presence to Performance
For years, organizations have optimized workplaces around visibility and density. Open plans became synonymous with collaboration. Presence became a stand-in for productivity. Activity became a signal of engagement.
Meanwhile, work itself has become exponentially more cognitively demanding.
Employees are navigating constant notifications, screen fatigue, ambient noise, multitasking, fragmented attention, and overstimulation throughout the day. The result is often a workplace experience built around reactive attention instead of intentional focus.
As someone who personally experiences overstimulation and attention challenges, this topic resonates deeply with me.
I understand the cognitive exhaustion that can come from trying to concentrate in environments where the brain is continuously filtering distractions. I also recognize the subtle ways proximity bias can emerge in workplace culture, where visibility is sometimes rewarded more than effectiveness.
“Proximity bias occurs when employees who are seen more often in physical environments are unintentionally perceived as more engaged, collaborative, committed, or productive than those who may work differently, remotely, quietly, or with a greater need for focus. In many organizations, this creates pressure for performative visibility rather than meaningful contribution.”
That becomes especially problematic in open environments where constant accessibility is often prioritized over sustained concentration.
These are not isolated experiences.
Steelcase research around “A New Mindset” reinforces the growing need for workplaces that support a wider range of cognitive and emotional needs throughout the workday. Employees increasingly require environments that allow for focus, restoration, movement, privacy, collaboration, and connection depending on the task at hand.
The modern workplace can no longer operate as a single-mode environment.
The Evolving Role of the Dealer
One of the most inspiring parts of my time at Steelcase was seeing the level of strategic thinking happening across the dealer community.
There is still a common misconception that furniture dealers are simply there to order desks and chairs.
The reality is, the best workplace partners today are doing far more than procurement.
We are researchers, strategists, problem-solvers, experience designers, change agents, technologists, and translators between business goals and human behavior. We are helping organizations think through how work is changing, how employees experience space, how technology is reshaping behavior, and how environments can better support performance, wellbeing, and innovation.
“When leveraged correctly, dealer partners can become a critical extension of an organization’s strategic team.”
That is especially important right now, because workplace challenges are no longer purely physical. They are behavioral, cultural, cognitive, and operational.
The organizations making the greatest progress are the ones bringing strategy, research, design, technology, and human experience together instead of treating them as separate conversations.
Is Attention the New Competitive Advantage?
AI is increasing the value of human attention more than ever.
While AI continues to improve efficiency and automate repetitive workflows, it is simultaneously increasing the importance of distinctly human capabilities: strategic thinking, synthesis, emotional intelligence, creativity, relationship-building, and nuanced decision-making.
Those capabilities require environments that support deeper thinking.
“Personally, AI has transformed the way I work. I actively use AI tools to challenge antiquated processes, streamline research, organize information more efficiently, and create space for higher-level strategic thinking. It has become a meaningful extension of my workflow and a catalyst for curiosity and experimentation.”
At the same time, it has exposed how many workplace systems and operational processes remain outdated.
There is growing tension between the speed at which technology is evolving and the environments many employees are expected to perform within. Organizations cannot continue expecting innovative, cognitively intensive work to thrive inside spaces that create continuous distraction and cognitive fatigue.
That disconnect is becoming increasingly visible.
Supporting the Work Behind the Work
The role of the office is evolving.
Increasingly, the workplace is shifting from being a container for people to becoming a cognitive support system designed to help individuals perform at their best.
This requires a broader and more intentional range of workplace experiences, including:
- spaces for deep focus and heads-down work
- areas that support restoration and decompression
- environments that accommodate neurodiversity and sensory sensitivity
- settings that encourage meaningful collaboration without constant interruption
- hospitality-inspired experiences that reduce stress and support wellbeing
- flexibility to move between different modes of work throughout the day
“This is not about abandoning collaboration or reverting entirely to enclosed offices. It is about balance, intentionality, and choice. The future workplace is not one singular environment. It is an ecosystem of experiences designed to support different types of cognitive, creative, and social needs.”
The Cognitive Workplace Audit
One of the most valuable exercises organizations can begin today is auditing their workplace through the lens of cognitive load.
Not simply asking:
“How many people are using the space?”
Though instead:
“How effectively does this environment support the way people actually think and work?”
Leaders should consider:
- Where are employees experiencing constant interruption?
- Where can people truly focus?
- Where does overstimulation occur?
- Are there spaces for restoration and reset?
- How does the environment support different sensory and cognitive needs?
- Where might proximity bias unintentionally emerge within workplace culture and visibility expectations?
The good news is that meaningful change does not always require large-scale renovation.
Small interventions can have significant impact:
- introducing greater visual privacy
- creating quieter focus zones
- reducing sensory clutter
- diversifying work settings
- studying behavioral patterns
- engaging employees in conversations around cognitive wellbeing and performance
“As work continues to evolve, the organizations that succeed will be those that recognize attention as a strategic resource. Because in the Attention Era, the most effective workplaces will not simply bring people together. They will help people think better once they arrive.”
If your organization is beginning to rethink how space can better support focus, wellbeing, and performance, or if you are not sure where to start, I’d love to continue the conversation.
Many thanks,
Jess
