If we were starting this whole office thing today, it’s inconceivable we’d pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show ‘the Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique.
When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.
The gain in speed, productivity and happiness is massive. What’s missing is #7… someplace to go. Once someone figures that part out, the office is dead.
— Seth Godin, Goodbye to the Office
Sadly, declaring the office ‘dead’ doesn’t magically liberate those of us still working in traditional corporate America. While there have certainly been major strides towards less of a cubicle farm atmosphere, there is still a long way to go before we see offices become “quaint antiques.”
Co-working spaces and home offices are great for freelancers or people who own small businesses with just themselves or a few employees, who don’t need to meet regularly. But the truth is that being required to come into an office forces you to focus on the task at hand. Yes, some of us can manage the self-discipline to maintain a work attitude even when working from home, but I don’t think it’s safe to say that anywhere near the majority of the workforce can pull that off.
So, it’s great wishful thinking, and I’d love to be allowed to work entirely from home (or wherever I deem my “not-at-the-office” office to be), but declaring something dead doesn’t make it so. Even if you’re Seth Godin.
Offices may be sickly or aging, but death is a long way off.
Update: Great comment from @jennaddenda:
I think there’s a great deal of difference between “flexible” and “non-existent”.
YES. Exactly. Some offices are moving towards a flexible work-from-wherever policy, but very few have gotten anywhere near a true ROWE situation yet.
What people say they appreciate *most* about being able to work at Bucketworks instead of their home is the presence of other people working–not just socializing. The dishes don’t need doing, the house doesn’t need fixing, and the TV doesn’t need watching. I think the time it takes to travel to work is also a part of the mental transition between “work” and “not working” that helps freelancers and even corporate office workers engage with focus.
Great point about the mental transition inherent in commuting. Even if you have a room in your home dedicated to being “the office,” it’s still home. There’s a huge difference between driving to work and walking from your bedroom to “the office room.”
That’s where I think places like Bucketworks come in and provide that kind of much-needed service – it’s more of an office environment without being an actual office like those of us in cubicle land spend the majority of our days in.