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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An anonymous reader shares a World Economic Forum report: A lot of us spend long stretches in the office, but outdated design could be damaging our wellbeing and mental health.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.
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.
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.
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!!
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
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.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?