Modern Office
Work in Progress
What constitutes an office has never been more up for grabs. Thanks to the laptop and smartphone, most “desk jobs” can now be done from almost any location. Where (or whether) we should sit for max productivity is debatable. The cubicle and corner office endure, but open plans full of homey furniture and over-the-top amenities are on the rise. And the very idea that a company needs its own space has been blown to bits by incubators and coworking collectives. To help employees, bosses, and designers figure out what’s going on, we conducted an informal survey, asking our followers about three common office scenarios— traditional, coworking, and home. More than 2,000 people answered back.
1 Traditional Office
Picture the classic corporate office. Fluorescent lights, nylon carpet, sea of cubicles, burbling water cooler, busted copier, right? Not so fast. While the survey confirmed certain Office Space-esque tropes (the thermostat wars are real), the single-company workspace—where the large majority of respondents (62%) go each day— must offer something people like. Only about one in ten traditional
