You wake up tomorrow and your office is...
... one giant empty room and one big "I don't know what to do now" question. Wherever you work, there are days you'd wished you have never had to wake up and go there. On the other hand, some free days at home are missed instead of doing some creative job. However you turn it, a human being is never satisfied.
According to some findings, "socializing with your co-workers is essential for your career". Team work has always proven better than working alone. Offices are places where people share ideas and meet their social needs. In that way, your career will go upwards if you choose to work with people in a shared space. Just a few years ago, many companies insisted on strict rules when it comes to business. Now, your office is your "home away from home". We've finally reached for the freedom at work and changed the look & feel of modern offices; but is that the end?
Image 1: Google's Office Interior
Another very popular way to work is remote working. With stable Internet connection, many of us working in the IT or online industry (online products and services) can work from anywhere. Literally. Remote working has become a great way to connect your passion for travelling with your profession. Moreover, the multicultural environment is essential for building relationships with your business prospects and future customers. This is especially important for the young people - they are the new C-level guys, entrepreneurs without ties and briefcases. Formality is so passé.
In addition to remote working, we have the opportunity to work in a shared office. These offices are called co-working spaces and they are becoming popular worldwide. I am very happy that my hometown already has two great co-working places (Tilda.rs and Deli.rs). If you ask me, just a few years ago, the most popular non-formal places were civil society organizations (i.e. NGOs). Now, these are real companies that behave the same as non-profit entities, but are real profit generators. Co-workings are also places where people can learn a lot, acquire new skills and gain extreme knowledge.
Image 2: Open air co-working space
Now every home is a micro-working community. The revolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) has made the connectivity process ridiculous. We are now connected not only to the world, but also to almost every part of our nearest environment. There will be time when we won't have to leave our homes. Everything will be available in a click. Brick-and-mortars will die; online shops will satisfy our needs for consumerism vs. working hard from home. Offices would not exist. We will hang out with our appliances rather than our colleagues. But who cares, sky is the limit.
The freedom of choice will determine the future of our "nine-to-five" lives. We cannot predict if classic offices will exist in the next 10 or 20 years, but all the big things will become a lot of smaller things. The world will still go round, it's just that we will have to accommodate to some new rules, new behaviours and new hierarchies. Is it the better future, who knows... For all of us, it's a new lesson to learn. Changes are happening slowly, but the results are visible immediately - especially in the Internet era.
In order to finish the waking up process, there is an excellent closing point from the music industry that never dies:
Empty spaces, what are we living for
Abandon places, I guess we know the score
(QUEEN, "Show must go on")
Image sources: Google image search
Associate Business Analyst at UnitedHealth Group
9 年First, I know this is not what the article is about. But for most of the last year, I have been the only person in the office. Due to contract requirements, WFH/work from home, is not possible and I do understand and agree with the security reasons for this restriction. However, when anyone has left, our office has not back-filled any position so the office keeps shrinking to the point that during the day. So I was the only person in the office, until the Graveyard L2 was moved to a new day-shift position outside of the L2 team.
Wild Card - draw me for a winning hand | Creative Problem Solver in Many Roles | Manual Software QA | Project Management | Business Analysis | Auditing | Accounting |
9 年"You wake up tomorrow and your office is...... one giant empty room" Because the layoffs hit hard. Last person to leave, please turn off the lights. "There will be time when we won't have to leave our homes. " This assumes one has a home. With working high-speed internet access. With a working cell phone. With a "Musical Chairs Game" job market, these assumptions do not always fit reality. "Brick-and-mortars will die" And that means more layoffs, more people out of work. And even more reason those assumptions don't fit reality. Remember, just because people can work from anywhere, does not mean that anywhere people will be working. Mass layoffs will happen as higher priced labor is replaced by cheaper labor. Yes, this article is about working from home. But if you can work from a remote location, so can Mr/Ms.. $5/hour or less in a third world country, and guess who will get the job?
Using my proven knowledge/expertise in Administration to the advantage of a Great Employer. Unfluencer??
9 年The idea of working from home sounds great but there are times when you need people around you to bounce things off, discuss, or find out what is happening without others finding out. Offices will always be needed because supervision needs to be properly carried out and things may change and a group environment works better in that way.
Ne kreiramo ve? merimo rejtinge? Direktor Plum Mark agencije za marketin?ka istra?ivanja
9 年Jo? jedan odli?an i inspirativan tekst!