Slashdot Mirror
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An anonymous reader shares a World Economic Forum report: A lot of us spend long stretches in the office, but outdated design could be damaging our wellbeing and mental health.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.
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?
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.
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 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.
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.
Be careful what you wish for.
Have gnu, will travel.
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.]