Office is not a place, is an “Activity”
Remote working is rapidly growing after Covid-19. The dramatic change caught people off guard. But after a few months’ adjustments, we are mostly got used to it. When a remote working trend is no turning back, the “office” we go to every day become unnecessary anymore?
If remote working is going well, why do I need to spend 2 hours or more on commuting every day, and stay at the office for more than 8 hours for work?
No, I don’t need it.
The old speaking, office is a place which provides an environment and tools for “working”. A place where I can have a suitable environment to work or to have good office supplies. To say it negatively, the office is a place to ensure employee’s productivity.
If only talk about working style, I don’t think that physical office is that necessary. Technology can always improve to satisfy human needs or desires. In my opinion, productivity, working style, efficiency, environment, or finance all are NOT the main considerations of “office”. I think “office” is an “activity”. An activity that people can get together by “non-purpose”. For example, forgoing the office that I take to take a train, this is purposeful. But I might saw some stories happening on train, and this activity is “non-purpose”, is unpredictable, is an accident, is unplanned. The same story that when I in office. I go office with purpose, but besides what I plan to do, many other things are happening around. I believe that the “unpredictable activity” is the main factor to arouse emotion/thinking/behavior/logic difference.
I think that a “physical place” is not that important, but a physical place which can provide the “activity” is important. I also think virtual work will be real soon, and it will create another culture/workstyle/lifestyle/value. Is like when social media just launched, people are all addicted to it. People might also crazy about remote work, virtual work, distribute work from now, but I think, an activity that can gather people physically together will be precious.
If there is a place where can meet up with your charming/interesting/brilliant/talkative/shy/sleepy/energetic/silently coworkers without an appointment or assignment or even an accident, such exciting, huh? The place is not for working, is for gathering stunning Colleagues.