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What is the Future of Office Spaces? (weforum.org)
An anonymous reader shares a World Economic Forum report: A lot of us spend long stretches in the office, but outdated design could be damaging our wellbeing and mental health.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.
clearly
we need to talk about your TPS reports!
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.
And coming in on Saturday.. and, ummmm.. Sunday.
Based on the history of "work place revolutions", the new hotness will be standing workstations on airport tarmacs. Because "collaboration!" and "synergy!".
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Ever notice only hipsters use standing desks?
The link to how it's taking shape links back to homepage
"No corners in this office! Nope!"
"Chairs are bad for your back!"
"Sun lamps for everyone!"
A regular office with a window and a door that closes, like I've had for decades since Apple II Pascal was a thing.
The hipsters can have an office that is some type of olympic event.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Now we know that at least the World Economic Forum also has a slashvertizement function.
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.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
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.
I used to want an office. Then I regretted that I lost my cubicle. Now I just want enough space at the shared-desk that I don't have to smell the person next to me.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The company put in an area of standing desks and sofas and squat balls (or whatever you call them) and let our large newly-no-walled floor pick which we preferred. All the intelligent working-for-a-living Individuals chose their current cubes/pods and all the new college kids gravitated to the sofas and standers.
WE like it that they're all out of our way now, in a corner of the open area, dirtying-up their own fridge/microwave/sink/carpet - seriously, one of the major things they didn't learn at their schools was cleanliness - and We can productively associate and work like we used to.
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 getting sick went up and in general I have noticed that people now often just aren’t at the office as much. God only knows where they are hiding.
The noise levels are unbearable.
I swear to god if these idiots come up with another version of the open office plan I will kick them right in the groan!
You know what is great? Putting a whole bunch of introverts together like f***ing sardines! Surely that will not hinder their productivity as their collective thought patterns are obliterated by constant Interruptions/Distractions
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.
With walls, furniture and a door. Like a normal person.
I am not an animal.
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.
They'll come to a quick and violent end when Milton finally snaps and burns down the building.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Is wired to the hilt with covert surveillance hardware.
of people to space is too big.
The robots are all coming for our jobs anyway so does it matter? We're just gonna be an electrical energy source for them once their AI get sentient. Our office space will just be rows of pods with a feeding tube - wait a minute I saw this movie already
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.
IMHO, having a private office is absolutely better than ANY kind of open office plan!!!
If that is not possible, because of space availability, then a cubicle could be acceptable too!
IMHO, all these supposedly better "future office" ideas are actually hidden ads, made by people who never actually worked in a similar job to any real IT worker & they are just trying to find customers for their new office/furniture designs!!!
I envision a dynamic environment where pro-active solution-seekers dynamically interact with ergonomically conformant hot-work spaces in an activity-encouraging smart-space of things! Whatever that means!!!
(also: what's with the circular reference in the summary? Was I the only one pro-active enough to actually click link two?)
IMHO, IT/office workers everywhere, should be okay w/ their company management changing their office plans, only if the same change(s) also will be applied to all management people, also!!!
So, let's say your company has private offices/cubicles & they someday want to change it to an open office plan.
Then, tell them, if employees must switch, then all managers must switch, also!!!
If the managers say "but we need private offices" then the employees should tell them "so are we"!!!
Virtual Offices should be an option for trustworthy people. How do you become trustworthy? Maybe it involves time at the company, productivity, references, a monitoring period, work-time cameras, etc.
I'd be more happy with more or less anything other then so called open plan 'offices'. Literally anything..
When I got to the bit in TFA about sitting near a window to boost vitamin D, I kind of stopped reading. Glass absorbs UVB, so no vitamin D for you.
or just end capitalism so we don't have to spend hours looking busy doing crappy jobs to serve capital and do nothing to advance us as individuals and a species
I thought we were all going to be working shorter weeks? That'd probably sort the problem!
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.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
you need to have that piece of fair on
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.]
Hell no. Carpet is essential to reduce noise levels. Concrete is also cold and unpleasant to walk on.
SiTtInG dOwN gIvEs YoU cAnCeR
How about building your own office in your house, or close to your house ?
... so "make" your own office in such a way that will prevent you being distracted.
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 opposite another programmer, but opposite sales and marketing and other people that generate noise, walk around, etc..
So many options. Why open space ? That's the worst...
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!
Office buildings as they are now are,at least for now, obsolete technology. The way we work is evolving away from the office building and into homes and the field. I find it sad from a purely humanitarian point of view, but I work from my home and am feeling the effects of it.
The article neglects to mention what would be the #1: nap space!
After working many hours straight - up late working the night before, etc. - my mind turns to mush in the afternoon after lunch. A quick nap (almost always less than an hour) is enough to have me feeling fresh and clear again. Sometimes I pull off a nap beneath the desk in my cubicle, but it would be nice to have some kind of "nap pod".