The Officeless Office
According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, corporate America is warming up to the idea of the “officeless office”. Most companies, large and small, are looking for new ways to cut costs and increase efficiency, and many have been able to do that by moving some of their more mobile workers out of dedicated offices or cubicles and into unassigned workspaces or “non-territorial offices”.
According to a survey of 950 companies, the International Facility Management Association found 60 % had some unassigned workspaces in their offices and about half said the number of employees using the unassigned space had increased the past two years.
Shared workspace allows organizations to shrink the amount of square footage they need while reducing the costs for both real estate and business equipment such as furniture. Furniture manufacturers have seen this trend coming for several years now and have rolled out innovative new products to support these areas. Work tables allow employees to “bench” while personal files and tables with casters (small wheels) give workers more flexibility and control over their space.
Another unexpected benefit to the shared workspace is that many workers report feeling more connected to their colleagues. That might be reason enough to consider the officeless office.