The Flexible Office

Be it due to hefty office rental, or companies trying to work smarter, initiatives such as ‘Hot Desking’ and/or working from home have been in vouge for some time…however reports now suggest there is a new flexible work space looming!

In HR parlance it’s referred to as being a ‘remote worker’ where people seek to work in an ‘agile working environment.’  The purists may say this will never work as you need to have all your people together so you can support and monitor them! 
 

We see that ‘Gen Y’ is now transitioning from University to the Workforce (and ‘Gen X’ is closely following), it seems the workplace of the future is decidedly mobile and therefore not constricted by the traditional office space. 

Reports suggest that the current pace of technological growth, the traditional office will become largely redundant within the next decade or so.... 
 

A recent survey of some 600 executives of Global Organisations found that approx 60% predicted that their office space would shrink rather than grow within the next 10 years…half of which believed that the office would become only a place of occasional use.
 

From the survey, it was identified that only 12% of respondents would want to work from home with the biggest shift being that work would be conducted from a third place of work…i.e. a café, library or a local hub. 
 

I recall in a former life sitting in a café near the offices of a large Telco and logging into the ‘unsecured’ wireless network and happily working away…similarly in places like the airline lounges and in ever increasing numbers, cafés I, along with other business people, have been able to work ‘remotely’ without too much trouble.

We will possibly see that with the ever increasing cost of CBD Real Estate, combined with energy costs and the ‘extended’ commute to and from work as a result of the urban sprawl, the concept of a remote workplace can become an attractive option for some. 
 

However it is important to consider practices such as meetings and the like, which may not be so successful if conducted in the middle of a busy café! 
 

Notwithstanding, this model may well be adopted by the next generation (Gen Z) who may feel that it would be more appropriate to work wherever they happen to be. 
 

Suffice to say the notion of travelling to one place to conduct your duties will probably be considered ‘Old School’ especially as this generation will feel they’re more likely to be measured on what they produce, rather than the number of hours they’re in the office!