Today Seth Godin posted his thoughts on the state of the “traditional office.”
I hold the man in pretty high regard (he was listed as one of my examples of “really productive people”), and I even took part in this Monday’s Worldwide Linchpin Meetup Day. While not everyone will agree with his ideas, he puts them out there no matter what.
He raises some really great points, including how one can be more productive if they work from wherever they choose.
So, do you think the traditional office is dead? Do you think there’s a place for it in today’s society?
I’d love to believe that traditional offices are dead but in reality, not everyone has the mind set or desire to work from wherever they choose. For some people, having a ‘proper’ job means travelling to work, working under the direction of a designated person in charge, for a set number of hours in the day.
I agree with what Seth is getting at, the traditional office should be dead (dead, buried and forgotten!) but it will remain, choking the soul out of some and comforting and reassuring others. It is certainly not something I want for my children and one of my desires is to show them that Seth is right, that there is another way.
Well we could say that technology has made the office lose it’s importance, but I think it is still not redundant yet.
What about showrooms that need offices? For Example:
A car showroom, that has a office inside it. The sales people need to be there.
Work from home opportunities are increasing, there is no doubt about that.
Nevertheless, Seth has a interesting prediction. Only time will tell.
If the traditional office is dead how can the boss show that his desk is bigger than yours? That his computer his more powerful than yours? 🙂
If companies progress and evolve, traditional offices will die as these are part of a rusty system that’s yielded frustrated (and sometimes suicidal) workers. Otherwise things will just keep going down hill.
Completely agree with the idea (productive if they work from wherever they choose), i am actually living now what I call freedom in business and is exactly that way of working. Actually, I am successfully pushing my limits to another level without any supervision.