Future of the Facilities Management profession

The focus of facility managers used to be mostly about buildings and services. In this new post-Covid world, facility managers play an important role related to people and services. As organizations make significant transitions to hybrid and remote work, facilities management can ensure by its behalf that employees have productive and fulfilling relationships with their co-workers, their organizations, and their workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to identify short-, medium- and long-term professional challenges to facilities management profession caused by an increase in multilocational work. The short-term challenges may be temporary by nature, and they are based on the explorations of multilocational work. The medium-term challenges are based on a more permanent and stable situation. Long-term challenges are more fundamental by nature reflecting the constant transformation of people, processes, and buildings. The qualitative data were gathered from focus group discussions with Facilities Management professionals from five different continents. The data were organized in three different analyses. The short-term, medium-term, and long-term challenges were identified. The findings indicate that the role of a facility manager is becoming more prominent, and the facility manager should perceive this crisis as an opportunity to step up and support the organisation in its strategic policy. Facilities managers should position themselves as the liaison between the physical and the digital worlds so that they are valuable stakeholders in this emerging virtual space. The results of this study contribute to the development of facilities management training and professional development and shed light on future research needs for the profession.

The effects of mindfulness on mother–child relationships and maternal well-being during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Israel

Research indicates associations of mindfulness with better relationships and well-being because it promotes decentering and relationship-related capacities. This study examined the effects of mindfulness on mothers' relationships with their children and well-being in a challenging time – the first COVID-19 lockdown. We hypothesized that mothers' relationships and well-being would deteriorate during the lockdown, but a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) would mitigate this process because of its effect on mothers' mindfulness and decentering. We surveyed 109 mothers caring for their children (mean age 8.61) during the first lockdown in Israel. First, they completed online questionnaires assessing their interpersonal mindfulness, decentering, relationships with their children and well-being (including positive and negative affect and life satisfaction). Then, they were randomly assigned to a group: MBI, relaxing music intervention or no intervention. Participants completed the questionnaires again after 2 weeks of daily interventions. Unexpectedly, mothers in all groups improved their relationships with their children and well-being (their satisfaction with life increased and negative affect decreased) with no significant group differences. Furthermore, the increase in relationship quality was associated with increases in mindfulness and decentering. The findings suggest that crises initially perceived as a threat to mother–child relationships may also present a beneficial opportunity in certain circumstances. © 2023 The Authors. Child & Family Social Work published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.