Get rid of your office

Posted on 02. Oct, 2009 by Jaan Orvet in Collaboration Biz, Features

There are those who claim that salaries are the biggest expense in running a business. I disagree. You get a return on that particular investment.

Offices on the other hand drain your bank account. Sure it provides a place to work. But so does your home, a coffee shop, a co-working space, or a trillion other places.

In many knowledge centric industries very few businesses, not to mention freelancers, actually need an office. Need as in my-business-goes-under-if-I-don’t-have-an-office sort of way. Client meets? If a coffee shop won’t do, then rent a space for a few hours. It’ll be cheaper than the rent, utilities and maintenance of a traditional office.

And if you have an office? Get rid of it.

The funny thing is that people often communicate better when they have to make an effort. As in having a focused chat on Skype, or meeting for 30 minutes to run through the coming weeks big topics.

People in offices communicate too, and the general social banter is nice, but is milling around the hallways effective? Does it make people love their jobs more, and thus serve the clients better? Nope.

While having an office space is usually down to three things (preference, client expectations and practicalities) at least it is easier to cut costs in tough times by working out of a spare room or your local coffee shop.

But, yes, dragging the 24″ screen to Starbucks in the morning is a bit of a hassle.

More about Jaan

jaan_orvet_sharpenr_dot_net Web Strategist Jaan Orvet has a passion for good user experiences and improving the way people collaborate.

He believes the way we work and the tools we use all affect our final deliverables. He wants to cut out complexity, do away with ‘extras’ and turn a blind eye to ‘feature rich’ in favour of clarity and simplicity.

Tags: Collaboration, office, team collaboration, working remotely

3 Responses to “Get rid of your office”

Julian North

02. Oct, 2009

You appear to have completely missed the point of being a human being. We are social creatures. Together we thrive, we create, we blossom. Alone we wither.

The suggestion that Skype and occasional meetings can take the place of a shared environment is simply wrong. Those who lack social skills may find working this way is practical. For the majority this is not the case. Increased isolation directly detracts those same social skills by reducing self-confidence, feelings of self-worth and tolerance.

My wife is in the process of setting up an independent studio in Soho with another 5 animators after working primarily at home for the last 18 months simply to be in an environment where creativity can spark and shared experiences can be had.

Presumably as a ‘web strategist’ your role in life is to sit in starbucks (or some web 2.0 analogue) drinking frappa-trendy-mocha-goatee-chinos, surfing the web and spouting rubbish such as this. Collaboration and communication tools aid and enhance the social fabric that helps form the core of a functional team, they don’t replace it.
Ryan

02. Oct, 2009

I think people are still stuck on offices just so that they can say they have an office. It has a certain air of authority to it. But yes, I agree with you completely. Business leaders need to dispel that notion.
Jaan Orvet

05. Oct, 2009

@Julian – Thank you for your passionate comment!

An office and being social do not necessarily go hand in hand. They often do, but far from always. But that’s not the point of the post even though I’ll get back to that in a moment.

The post challenges the notion that one “must” have an office. That is simply not the case for a very large number of people who would do just as well or better working in a less traditional setting. And your are correct, we live in a society where those who are less comfortable in social interactions can work in a way that fits them. I think that’s a great thing.

I don’t agree that social interaction only happens in an office. Co-working spaces, and yes coffee shops where freelancers meet, work and exchange ideas are at least equally social and thriving environments.

@Ryan – Very true. I have seen businesses struggle, hamper their growth and in some cases go under because their leaders poor money in to such “musts” as posh office space.