Why Would You Need An Office?
January 9th, 2008 - Jarkko
The history of offices dates back all the way to ancient Rome. It was a time before laptops, wireless Internet connections and mobile phones. In fact, it was a time when all writing had to be done by hand. In that context gathering people in one place to do their work made sense – they couldn’t have worked together without physically being in the same space.
Today the tools have changed, and we can work together no matter where we are staying.
But the office building remains.
Photo by mstorz.
Photo by ideath: “And this is. The place i work.
I feel kinda like i’m playing a grownup -
get on the bus, take the train into downtown,
go into the office building and up the elevator.
Like the first couple of scenes of a movie. “
Is that what an office is for us: a place to go to play a grownup?
A status symbol of a sort.
This is my question today: why do you want to work in an office? What benefits do you get to compensate with traveling 2 hours per day to work and back, eating in expensive downtown cafeterias, working with set hours in an office space that you didn’t decorate yourself?
Leave your thoughts in the comments, I really want to know.
Why?
Because the alternative seems so good to me that I don’t understand why most of us are still ignoring it completely:
Working at home. Photo by rocketlass.
Working on the beach. Photo by Jim Callender.
Or in a coffee shop. Photo by ddesilvi.
That’s a whole new generation of Location Independent Professionals, neo nomads, nuNomads. People who have decided to put the technology work for them and leave the office environment.
And that’s my second question: which one would you pick? This, or the office? Why?
A Book Recommendation
If you got excited in the idea of becoming location independent, there is an e-book I can recommend: X Marks The Spot by Lea Woodward. It’s an inspiring book written by an original location independent professional that tells you how you can leave the office world behind and live free and wild. If that’s what you’re looking for, this is the perfect opportunity to learn.
And now, time to chat.
I’ve recently started working from home as opposed to working in an office. After going back and forth between to the two (I usually show up at the office about once a week for a few hours), I find that my preference is very volatile. When I’m at the office, there are people around I can talk to about my programming, ask questions about my projects to my boss, and have a quieter work environment.
At home, I have access to more technical resources (I have lots of computers there, versus the 0 my company provided me.), a larger desk, and better internet access. I just dislike that the social aspect of programming and work is almost completely cut out. I can get on gmail and ask one of my co-workers a question, but it really doesn’t have the same effect as standing in his doorway forcing him to answer questions. It is also a lot harder to plan inter-office activities (say, cookouts, or whatever else) when everyone is at disparate locations.
Working at home has also incurred some extra expenses. I have to pay for a printer, extra monitors, all of my supplies, and anything else I need. I suppose this differs per company (I’m half self-employed). Spending less on gas is nice, but it’s kind of rough when I roll out of bed into my office chair and never leave the house for the day. Then again, sometimes the best thing in the world is to wake up around 3pm, grab a beer, and start coding.
The social aspect David Sokol mentioned is also the one I miss when working from home. However, I welcome not getting interrupted all the time and not having evil ergonomics. I have mild plans to start meeting regularly with entrepreneurs in Helsinki area in order to feel more connected with my peers.
The daylight hours are in short supply in the Finnish winter, and as I choose my own hours I try to get some sunlight and fresh air every day. It’s a luxury most of the office workers don’t really get.
I work from home and it is definitely preferable for me, though the home office can get rather distracting at times (I have a 2 year old and an 8 month old), but I would never trade that for an office. I would like a laptop, though so I could move around a bit more.
You might want to take a look at my dream office, this inventor has it made! http://money.cnn.tv/galleries/2007/fsb/0710/gallery.scott_jones.fsb/2.html This is such a cool way to work and work out.
I took another angle at this, I got an office closer to home. I actually moved from my country’s capital (Iceland’s) to a small town, got an office there with other companies and work remotely – the office is close to home only 5 minutes walk. I can go home for lunch and also drink coffee with officemates so both commute time is practically zero and the social needs are satisfied. I’d like to call this the best of both worlds.
Having set up the remote work access and culture I practically can do my job anywhere I like so some days I can stay home or finish of few hours in the evenings at home if I quit early in the day.
Thats an eerie coincidence. I found her site on stumbleupon yesterday for the first time.
Oh and genesis – though the office is a great idea, it just looks too much like some torture device. I always did tell my high school teacher that if they had a stationary bike rather than a desk I might have listened more, but the roar of my body was too loud to hear what they were saying.
I have been officeless since 2001 and frankly would have a terrible time ever going back. Mostly because I am a piss poor office mate. Ask Peter – I am pretty much a total distraction. I can’t sit still and I like to talk things out.
Anyways – catch up with you later my friend.
I’m writing from my laptop in bed…
Shane and I don’t really have offices. We have spare rooms with printers and papers. But no real offices.
But to David and Lynoure’s point about social spaces, we do find that we have to fabricate social spaces. The nice thing is we control them. We decide when to do the social thing explicitly.
This year, we are organizing a trip to El Salvador with our team. Hows that for water cooler office talking? :)
I have been thinking about company which has very minimal HQ office and talented developers working for it where ever they want. But then I started to wonder how to organize payroll world wide and how to meet customers… but if open source projects can do it voluntary basis it then why would not it work for a company?
I work from home. I have a “virtual office” where I get mail and packages delivered. I also have use of a conference room to meet with clients. It is the perfect set up.
Hello from Senegal. Nice to hear of you again and again. See you soon. Hello from Aadama also.
At my current job, the office is the place to work. With all the people working on our platform, there’s lots of code written by other people, and it’s just easier to have them come over to your desk and look at something to help you out.
Honestly, though, we could do with having a separate office for us and the sales guys…
Ideally, though, I’ll be working for (and probably by) myself in the future, and working from home will be perfect.
I m a pastor to be but my office is every where else.
at home
at the church.
in the rouad
…..
it is for where you cant receve persons.
thanks
Great thoughts, everyone.
From what I read, the common thing that most of you value in an office is the social aspect. You get to spend time with your workmates and do some natural team building.
Good point, but I don’t want to let go of my own thoughts so easily so I’m continuing with more questions: Mainly, my question is why would team building require being physically on the same location?
There are many open source projects (for example) that function completely over the internet using e-mail, IRC chats and such, and through working together like that, the team grows closer – just like in a regular office. Don’t you think that could work for you too, and if not, why?
And some specific questions for each of you:
@David: You say something interesting: that it’s easier for you to concentrate at the office. My experience is almost the contrary, because at the office there are always people close to my desk discussing projects and other issues vaguely related to what I’m doing, so I can’t help but listen to them… What’s your trick? Your own office and a door, maybe?
@Lynoure: Have you heard of the concept of coworking. It sounds like an interesting option for freelancers and solo entrepreneurs who want to work in an office setting for a while every now and then…
And I found this link that claims that Jaiku is inviting people to come and work at their premises occasionally. I wonder how much room they have reserved for this. http://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingHelsinki
@Genesis: Thanks for the link. Just like Shane, I wouldn’t like to work (out) in that office, but I loved the sketching wall the guy had for drawing his ideas.
And I promised a question for everyone, so here’s yours: What are you doing to get your dream office? (this bike thing?)
@Sveinn: I think you did a great choice. If you can get the best of both, I guess then you really do have both.
How did you do it? I would guess that you are a contractor / freelancer / entrepreneur, or then you have an extremely flexible boss and good selling skills? Which one is it? ;)
@Shane: How does your officeless life work in practice? I mean, do you and Peter work together at the same location (your home / his home / some place else) or do you both work wherever you like?
And what kind of systems do you use for communication and keeping track on how everyone is doing?
@Peter: The trip to El Salvador is something not every company would do: amazing! Definitely more of a team building thing than sitting in the same room and coding.
How long are you going to stay there, and how do you plan to split the time between work and fun?
@Pepez: Those are good questions, but I believe they can all be handled if you just talk with good lawyers and accountants. It’s pretty much a question about taking the leap, right?
In a sense you traveling around the world working in different countries sounds like the first step. How did you get the courage to leave Finland in the first place?
@cindy: Sounds good! Is your conference room at home too?
@isukki: Hi, dad! Nice that you stopped by on your holiday. It’s great to hear that things are going well in Senegal – and thanks for getting me in touch with Adama again!
@Paul: Do you think technology could help you in doing the same things away from the office. For example using some screen capture tool to show what’s on your screen and Skype for talking over the internet? Or does it get too complicated?
@Adama: Great to hear from you, my friend! It’s been a while! I guess in your line of work, your office really is where you are. What do you carry with you when you go to work?
Taking the leap after figuring out the idea for the business :-)
Going abroad to work is nothing that exciting after all. Just needs time, preparation and right opportunity. Some people call that luck.
> @Sveinn: I think you did a great choice.
>If you can get the best of both, I guess
>then you really do have both.
> How did you do it? I would
> guess that you are a contractor
> / freelancer / entrepreneur, or
> then you have an extremely
> flexible boss and good selling
> skills? Which one is it? ;)
I am actually a software developer for a government agency, so no freelance thing. I’ve got a flexible boss and managed to sell him the idea of moving jobs (by moving the staff) to the country side would be a politically strong point. Here in Iceland well over 50% of the people live in or very close to the capital area and it has been government policy to support the other areas -> high tech government jobs are valuable for small communities on the country side.
i love working from home, but i also like working from the office. why? peace and quiet, i have two kids 2 yrs old and 7 month old. it’s hard to turn work off when you can’t leave that place, i am always working at home. my dad told me that only lazy people work from home, i don’t want to be a lazy person.
A related link: http://www.anywired.com/15-reasons-to-get-connected-and-work-online/8/
And one more thought for the sake of discussion: what do you think about other alternatives than working at the office or at home? Libraries, bookstores, airports, parks? Coffee shops seem to be rather popular too…
@Jarkko
I suppose technology could help to make it work. VNC/Remote Desktop + Skype might actually do the trick for two people to work together.
Another interesting program is Gobby (http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/), which allows you to collaboratively edit files with any number of people, with a chat at the bottom of the editor.
Unfortunately I’ve never been able to sucessfully get it running between Windows and Linux, so I’ve never been able to use it in a real work environment.
It could be great for remote pair-programming, though. Perhaps with Skype as well for times when just typing to eachother takes too long.
Oh yea, I blogged about this over year ago and I used Art&Logic as an example of such company with distributed office: http://www.artlogic.com/company/about.php
Definitely an interesting company despite its stuff is located only in USA.
There are many benefits to working from home, namely flexibility and often affordability. However, there are plenty of challenges as well.
My partner and I consult to women business owners, most of who work from their homes. After years of hearing the same complaints about working from home (– isolation; lack of colleagues and community; small, cramped, unprofessional office spaces; contending with home distractions such as children, partners, laundry, etc…) we decided to change the direction of our business in hopes of providing a solution to these very common challenges and problems.
So, last fall we launched In Good Company WorkPlaces (www.ingoodcompanyworkplaces.com), a community work space that offers flexible and part-time work space and community solutions for women business owners.
Women can join at different levels of membership based on their business needs. This membership structure is designed to complement working at home and provides an appealing alternative to renting a full-time office space.
Our members are able to meet with clients in the small meeting rooms, hold large meetings, workshops, or seminars in the large conference room, or use the individual workspaces for up to 20 hours per week. Additionally, the community provides the opportunity for members to meet and connect with peers, attend business related learning events, and advertise to a larger community.
No one solution works for everyone. Hopefully more intermediate options will appear so that entrepreneurs don’t feel they have to exclusive work from home or exclusively work from an office.
Adelaide Fives
@Jarkko: Office with a door. I work for a very very small company, we lease three offices out of the local university; i’m on a dead end hallway away from everything. I also live with three other people: if I walk out my door (say, to the bathroom), I’m crossing three college students watching TV, playing games, and generally being distracting. It kills productivity. The office is where I can get away and not be disturbed.