What is the Future of Office Spaces? (weforum.org) 151
An anonymous reader shares a World Economic Forum report: A lot of us spend long stretches in the office, but outdated design could be damaging our wellbeing and mental health. What's more, it's killing our productivity. One study found that office workers spend more time sitting than pensioners, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and even cancer.
That's why forward-looking designers are finding ways to build spaces that heal rather than hurt us. Going beyond the already ubiquitous standing desks and social "breakout sofas," the office of the future is healthy, harmonious and happy. Here's how it's beginning to take shape.
That's why forward-looking designers are finding ways to build spaces that heal rather than hurt us. Going beyond the already ubiquitous standing desks and social "breakout sofas," the office of the future is healthy, harmonious and happy. Here's how it's beginning to take shape.
2 chicks at the same time (Score:2, Funny)
we need to talk about your TPS reports! (Score:3)
we need to talk about your TPS reports!
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Maybe we can move managers to the cloud?
Re:we need to talk about your TPS reports! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep, get rid of the office completely, let everyone work from home....no driving, wake up and walk across the hall to your computer and work.
Less distractions from overly chatty co-workers.
No more #MeToo suits as that no one will be together for passes to be made, and no troublesome office romances.
Cheaper for the company too, no needing to rent/build large office complexes with all the $$$ maintenance on those ongoing....
Yep, work from home the BEST office there is!!
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Rather than move then to the cloud....move offices into everyone's' HOME!!
Be careful what you wish for. If your job can be done from your home, it can also be done from the home of someone in Mumbai.
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Be careful what you wish for. If your job can be done from your home, it can also be done from the home of someone in Mumbai.
Without spending more than half of the conversation waiting for the six-second lag between here and there? And when you do hear them you have to go "I'm sorry, can you say again?"
Without having to go over everything Mumbai did with a fine-tooth comb and having to redo 3/4ths of it?
Some things are best kept local.
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Be careful what you wish for. If your job can be done from your home, it can also be done from the home of someone in Mumbai.
Without spending more than half of the conversation waiting for the six-second lag between here and there? And when you do hear them you have to go "I'm sorry, can you say again?"
Without having to go over everything Mumbai did with a fine-tooth comb and having to redo 3/4ths of it?
Some things are best kept local.
Yet, they are not.
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You think it matters if they are in Mumbai or Billings? You think that packet delay is caused by the fiber under the Pacific Ocean?
You think the Zulu can't learn to write code? And teach Appalachia? Not that they would, they get it...
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People in Mumbai aren't as awesome as him.
Re:we need to talk about your TPS reports! (Score:5, Informative)
Working from home is/was harder for me. Too many other distractions, video games, a book, the kid. Not to mention it is difficult to support hardware and build systems remotely. I would end up having to go into work on many occasions because someone in the lab would move a network cable or need to swap a drive, or a fscking power supply would fail even with redundant stuff you can't leave a server up minus 1 power supply because another failure would actually trigger a down machine, or a cluster would fail over and as good as they are someone still has to be there to supervise a FCA switch back. We utilize a lot of satellite/shared office spaces for Customer support engineers these days. You work from the customer site in a cubicle or a neutral site that has a generic office with network access, and a physical address so I can take part deliveries at any time of day or night.
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Ditto, ditto, ditto.
And the corporate VPN, necessary to preserve confidentiality, not being an improvement on network performance.
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Working from home requires a certain amount of commitment and a certain degree of self-control. I have done it for 5 years (more if you include the flex working arrangement I had with my previous position) and found that the best way to work is to first set up a dedicated working space... a desk with a GOOD quality chair... not a $50 special from Office Depot (I got my current set from a place that specializes in liquidated office furniture for pennies on the dollar; still not cheap but built to last in a c
Re: we need to talk about your TPS reports! (Score:2)
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No more #MeToo suits as that no one will be together for passes to be made, and no troublesome office romances.
Anthony Weiner famously sent dick pics to women. We truly live in amazing times when you can sexually harass people in the comfort of your own home. And by comfort I mean without pants.
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Not everyone has a big enough home to have a comfortable working space.
study...FTFY (Score:5, Funny)
One study found that office workers spend more time WORKING than pensioners, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and even cancer.
Re:study...FTFY (Score:4, Insightful)
Working in an open office space is hell on Earth. Add HR walking the halls Tok, Tok, Toking their heels on the polished concrete floors and everyone's fucking dog in the office BARKing for no reason at the most random time completely killing your train of thought, just as you got it into the mode again.
Then here comes HR with stupid drinking games to play a couple hours before everyone is going to be driving home for their weekend.
Sorry, I rant.
Lets fix all this new progressive BS that's been shoved down our throat and do some real science based healing spaces.
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Lets fix all this new progressive BS that's been shoved down our throat and do some real science based healing spaces.
Oh, but they already do! Modern facility research is all about creating healing spaces and providing justification for the same (if by "healing spaces" you mean "minimal bottom lines" and by "justification" you mean "rationalization").
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I came to the conclusion years ago that open plan offices aren't about work; it's gotta be some kinda sociological experiment to see how far one can push people into the depth of unreasonable before they figure out it's just an experiment.
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I also need to spay for rats in the storage room.
Based on historical trends (Score:5, Funny)
Based on the history of "work place revolutions", the new hotness will be standing workstations on airport tarmacs. Because "collaboration!" and "synergy!".
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Satrap beating large drum and periodically whipping sla^h^h^hvalued workers greatly increases productivity.
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The latest study says standing desks are no better for you than sitting desks.
I'm currently sitting on a floor with 50 other people. all with adjustable height desks. Only one guy is standing.
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Maybe his desk is broken and stuck in the "standing" position.
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Has he tried turning it off and on again?
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The latest study says standing desks are no better for you than sitting desks.
I'm currently sitting on a floor with 50 other people. all with adjustable height desks. Only one guy is standing.
The next step is to embrace the green revolution and have desks with treadmills and stationary bikes to both give employees exercise and to help power workstations. It'll reduce both employee healthcare and power costs, and larger companies will no longer need to provide gyms on site.
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I'd be lying if that weren't exciting to me.
Re:Based on historical trends (Score:4, Informative)
The next step is to embrace the green revolution and have desks with treadmills
Desks with treadmills [amazon.com]
and stationary bikes
Desk with stationary bike [amazon.com]
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From the not working perspective, when ever I am feeling a bit stagnant, I simply get up and go for a walk. Often within the home, just quietly pleasantly, around and around and around, sipping on some hot cocoa and listening to music. In fact more physically active than when I was at work all day at a desk.
Perhaps more breaks are in order, a person should have more opportunity to go for a little stroll every hour or so, a wander to get some air, use the leg muscle to promote circulation and interstitial f
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As one of the few smokers left at work I joke that I am healthier than many of my desk bound coworkers. I walk an extra mile and a half per day, perhaps more depending on where I actually parked my car at. Could keep the smokes on me and only walk a hundred yards extra, but I figure as long as I'm smoking I may as well get a little benefit from it, so smokes stay in the car and I get a nice walk first thing on the way in to work, then mid morning, at lunch time, and sometimes mid afternoon.
A few non-smoke
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And the cost benefit of building treadmill generators to power.. oh, wait, you know this already. Sorry.
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The Green Revolution will not be televised, because it was already a movie. As usual, screenwriters were well ahead of reality. Soylent Green (1973) had two guys living in a squalid apartment with (as I recall) a light bulb and radio powered by a stationary bike generator.
Re:Based on historical trends (Score:5, Insightful)
So I see they already stopped buying chairs.
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Yeah, that was very bizarre.
Problem: "People are being sedentary sitting at their desks too much"
Answer: "We'll have them be sedentary while standing, which ultimately is just worse on the joints and no better for exercise"
The inconvenient yet obvious "people need to move around" part that doesn't align with productivity was somehow missed.
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Based on the history of "work place revolutions", the new hotness will be standing workstations on airport tarmacs. Because "collaboration!" and "synergy!".
I'm not sure why this is marked "Funny". I guess it's not "Insightful", but we've known about a bunch of bad things to do for DECADES, and right now the leading trend in Silicon Valley is to do EXACTLY those bad things - having companies composed of hotelling spaces at the airport isn't even a joke, it's the script for a tech-oriented "dramedy". We're collaborating so hard we can't stand each other.
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I'm never sure if I'm making a joke or giving someone a really bad idea.
If it happens, I'm so sorry!
Hipsters (Score:4, Funny)
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If you're much closer to the end of your career than the beginning, a desk with a nice comfortable chair works great.
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And the frequent "get up and move around" activity does wonders for your mental and physical health.. news at 11.
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If it's a disposable cup you can save yourself a trip.
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If it's a disposable cup you can save yourself a trip.
Umm, gross!
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I said it was disposable!
I should write a book on how to get fired from an office job. Or maybe a few real "war stories" from silicon valley of the weird ass shit that people did at work. It's amazing how some people don't even get fired immediately for some really twisted and unprofessional behavior at work.
Everything from fist fights between engineers in a director's office, to locking the office door in order to sit at his computer naked at the same time every day, to triggering clauses in employee promi
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"Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?"
Over the years I find that it's only people with bad legs are using standing desks.
In fact there was also a study published not too long ago showing that standing desks weren't any better, and in some cases worse, than normal desks. Apparently standing for 8-10 hours a day is just as bad for you, just in different ways.
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Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?
I never knew I was a hipster!
I use a standing desk and alternate between sitting on an exercise ball, sitting on a nice office chair and standing. Being able to change position every hour or two keeps me more awake and leaves me feeling better at the end of the day. Taking a couple of breaks per day for some exercise, whether going for a bike ride, working out on the weights / rowing machine or just going for a walk is really important, too.
I find this is getting more and more important as I get older
Re:Hipsters (Score:5, Funny)
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Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?
I never knew I was a hipster!
Well now you know. You are welcome.
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Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?
I never knew I was a hipster!
Well now you know. You are welcome.
Is it really possible to be a 50 year-old hipster?
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There have been hipsters of every age for as long as I've been alive. While the term was popularized in the early 2000's, it originated in the 1940's and never actually fell out of use... just not in common parlance. And the personality of people who are identified as hipsters are really no different from the hipsters from any other previous decade. The fashions themselves change, the people really don't.
And as a more direct answer; go to any hip coffee bar during a weekday to see plenty of retired hipsters
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Hate to break it to you but you are either a Hipster or have zero self awareness. I am going with Hipster.
Not for the desk or the exercise ball. The reason you are a hipster is because you are **claiming** to be surprised that these two things MIGHT get you labeled as a hipster. The hallmark of a hipster is to pretend like "this is totally just what I do naturally, I am not following some hip trend".
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"I use a standing desk and alternate between sitting on an "
Oh, so you sort of use a standing desk. To sit at occasionally.
It's certainly better than windshield time.
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I have one of those conventional 'sitting desks'; however, the environment that I work in allows me to move whenever I feel like it. If I encounter a problem with my code, or something else I'm working on, the *absolute first* thing that I do is walk away. This is doubly so with code. Before I make a hasty change, I'll stand up and walk outside while my mind is racing. By the time I make it back to my desk (all of this usually in less than 5 minutes), I'll have thought through many of the processes and
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Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?
Nope. Mostly I see older doctors and IT people using them, but then again, that's who I work with. They can demand the desk they get and opt for adjustable desks because they get a choice of what they get. Mostly for comfort, but now as one doctor has stated "Sitting is the new smoking" since the study showing that long term sitting was bad for you.
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I work with some older guys who use standing desks because of back or knee problems. A few hours a day standing seems to help them a lot.
link doesn't work (Score:1)
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Is that the correct term for a link that links right back to itself?
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Oh great, here comes the feel good BS for the 20s (Score:1)
"No corners in this office! Nope!"
"Chairs are bad for your back!"
"Sun lamps for everyone!"
How about this! (Score:5, Insightful)
The hipsters can have an office that is some type of olympic event.
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A door i can close would be a big help in cutting down on distractions. I'm lucky if i get over an hour without interruption. It's hard to get a lot done like that.
I've never had my own office. Last job was an open floor plan. I hate those. Now I've got cubes to deal with. They don't help a lot with noise.
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Yep... if you're doing something that requires concentration nothing beats a door. Working from home doesn't solve the problem either, since you *do* benefit from being able to drop in on a collaborator (if their door is open) for those quick discussions. And NO, Slack/IRC/etc. are NOT a substitute for in-person discussion.
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Yes, its a remarkable technology. You can close the door and avoid distractions. ... or.... I know this is a leap.... open the door and collaborate. You can do *both*.
I've never understood why companies pay workers a ton of money, then put them in situations where they can't work efficiently. Then Apple goes and builds a zillion-dollar headquarters that STILL doesn't provide efficient working spaces.
I'd like to believe that high level managers are just clueless an think that if a bunch of smart enginee
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What's left? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's see...
In The Beginning, there were open offices. These were bad. The workers were all lumped in an open space, the managers ensconced away in offices.
Then came the Cubicle, which promised some modicum of privacy and noise isolation. Didn't work all that well.
Now we're back to Open, and once again the workers are finding nothing's worse than Open, so... ....back to Cubicles we go. I, for one, will take the Cube over the open office, fashionista, trendsetters and influencers be damned.
Whatever "New, Improved" scam is coming, I hope it meets a skeptical mind.
Tell ya what. Just let me work from home. Please.
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Remote work sounds good in theory. But a grueling 10 minute commute to a real office is better.
I've had it both ways. If I'm going to drive, I want at least 15 minutes door to door to get the car up to temps. otherwise it's not worth it.
I still prefer home. I have an office set up just for work.
But this really wasn't entirely about remote vs. office.. it is about what kind of office, and so far cubicles seems to be the soul-crushing winner.. because the open floorplan is just fail. I don't care how they spin it, everyone being noisy and boisterous and bugging everyone else is not conducive to bei
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The trends now are unassigned seating, and Bleacher Seating [dezeen.com]
Never mind that a lot of these trends that exist in "hip tech companies": (open office, unassigned seating, bleachers) are also in areas with really expensive realestate, so everything has to be done to increase density, and it isn't really applicable to flyover states with lots of cheap realestate. There's a cargo cult of "Must follow teh Googles, teh Facebook, and teh Apple"
Work-from-home, telecommute? (Score:3)
Work-from-home and telecommute. Probably not in real life though, b-school flunkie types are too concerned with productivity metrics, "team play" and the like for this to work.
Standing desks? Fuck that. Standing stationary is just as unhealthy (in different ways) as sitting down. And it's actually torture some people with joint problems and fibromyalgia. Give people the choice to sit or stand and sure as hell don't judge them for it.
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Most standing desks I've seen are adjustable...the good ones are motorized.
All I want (Score:2)
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Be careful what you wish for [juliepagano.com].
Big open spaces suck (Score:1)
We were located in an old building with small offices with 4 people in each.
But the new boss wanted big open spaces. He imagined one big room with 200+ people in it. Thankfully that didn’t happen but we still moved into a new space with 26 people in each room, open hallway where everyone need to pass in order to get to toilets, meeting rooms and lunch.
Productivity went down, a lot. In operations that is clear by the lower amount of incidents solved by 30% more people.
For us in development, people gett
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Um, no janitorial service?
I do understand the need to pick up after others before you leave, but that's a generational marker. I suffer from it also...
The future? (Score:3)
I predict open floor-plan office trends will drive a large percentage of workers to work from home whenever possible. That, in turn, will help solve the problem of sitting for too long a time -- as you're more likely to get up and move around when you're at home. You can do things like throw a load of clothes in the wash, etc. while you work.
That has to be one of the worst ideas ever, except for one segment of employees .... creative types who benefit greatly from constant collaboration and bouncing ideas off of those around them.
Even for those people, we've started having issues where I work where they can't have any privacy while making or taking phone calls. Therefore, they've stopped using their desk phones and are now pushing us to get rid of them completely. They just want all their calls forwarded to their cellphones, so they can step out to take most of them. Seems a bit crazy, since desk phones are supposed to be there to ensure you get clear calls as often as possible, vs all the call interruptions and dropped calls you can run into on a cell.
Was hoping for more inspired thoughts... (Score:5, Interesting)
Lot of hipster bashing in the comments (damnit, i have and like my standing desk!), but not much real insight for the article. I was expecting some insight into coworking space or at least some trends that aren’t adecade old.
To me, the interesting trend is in trying to actually look at job functions to define office needs, rather than just rank. Better workstation design for huge, multiple monitor setups are on my wish list. Nice acoustical solutions, space flexibility, better accommodation of paperless workflows are all important too.
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Sort the workers who are needed and who have skills. The people hired on merit.
Find a city and state that is clean, low crime, good quality housing, and that has low energy cost. Must have fast internet and competitive ISP.
The kind of state that allows an employee cafeteria.
Move the "brand" to that city and state.
Invest in an office building with office space for each productive worker.
Each worker gets their own office. Thats real flexibility. A productive person in
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Heh... I worked in the building that prompted the anti-cafeterias legislation in San Francisco (working for previous owner/tenant). Some people like to eat in the office and some find it to be extremely depressing, even if you enjoy hanging out with your co-workers. The food was fine, but I only ate there a handful of times in the four years I worked there.
But, not everyone works well in a private office. Great for introverts, miserable for extroverts. Great for experienced people, hard for people that nee
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I am surprised there hasn't been more analysis as well, but it is important to categorize by specific job function and nature of work and nature of interaction with co-workers, along with individual personalities. There are so many different variables that it is quite a challenge.
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Agree on "stupid amenities;” wanted to hit my partner for buying a cliche ping pong table and fousball... but I held back.
The problem is even people that think they have a very good idea of what they need can rarely communicate it, which gets exasperated by corporate standards on how big an office should be. While I currently have a 10x17' office, I would prefer to have something closer to 8x8', which is the size of most of our employee cubicles.
And... even when you (think) you know what you want, nee
Their days are numbered (Score:2)
They'll come to a quick and violent end when Milton finally snaps and burns down the building.
Collaboration, Communication and Concentration. (Score:2)
Sometimes I need a space for Collaboration and Communication. And sometimes I need to be on the phone. A small break-out conference room is usually good for collaboration and communication. Having enough spaces like that so you don't have to book a week in advance is the trick and keeping them from becoming de facto offices seems nearly impossible. And then sometimes I need to just sit (or stand) and do some typing without distraction, so either use one of those break-out rooms or work from home.
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40 hour weeks? (Score:2)
Depends on the pensioners (Score:2)
My grandparents were walking a few miles even in their 90s. I'm looking forward to winning ultra-marathons in Greece and Spain in my 90s, personally.
Management will decide because they can. (Score:3)
Research doesn't contribute to design of most current workspaces, why should research contribute to the design of future workspaces?
These articles are a thin veneer of journalism shilling for the facilities teams at places like Google. Don't tell me about all the amazing point-in-space experiments they are doing with bamboo healing walls and shit - tell me what the average worker actually experiences in an average hour of their day. A green wall is better than a concrete wall, but if there's a single 20-foot length of green wall in a 100,000 sq ft office building filled with desks placed so closely that you can touch your neighbor's shoulder without leaning over, that isn't going to magically fix the problems you're causing.
[In the time I worked at Google, watching them ratchet your personal space down by a half foot or so every year while signing "synergy!" was one of the most demoralizing things. Don't get me wrong, I liked almost everyone I worked with, I just didn't want to be continuously sharing their personal space.]
Concrete floors? (Score:2)
Hell no. Carpet is essential to reduce noise levels. Concrete is also cold and unpleasant to walk on.
Build your own. (Score:2)
The biggest drawback for people working from home is distraction
Maybe even rent an space couple kilometers away from your house ?
If not possible, then the next thing would be having multiple offices that "house" people with same jobs, instead of one huge working space... with or without cubicles.
Programmers usually don't mind sitting opposit
Stupid (Score:1)
Why do I need to pack my laptop and drive an hour in traffic to work on it in a stupid office? Save the Earth, cut down on pollution by stopping this insanity!