Vision of a Future Workplace

I recently had a vision, I'm not too sure what triggered it but the vision was clear... the workplace of the future and what It may be like.

Today was another busy day in the office, a growing and never ending list of things to do. The office is a bustling place, especially the technology area, where the hustle and bustle ensures a continuous background buzz of ideas and conversation.

Great isn't it? But Darth Vader lurks in every shadow. Have you ever tried to get things done in a busy open plan office? I'm not sure what the productivity rates are or even how they can be measured but its not great I'm certain of that. I see developers sitting with headphones the size of dinner plates engulfing their ears hoping and praying that they will not be disrupted and loose that train of thought. A derailment of thought might just kill that attempt to meet the ever important deadline or disrupt that life changing idea. Disruption is a plague in an open plan office!

Over at my teams desks work comes in thick and fast from every direction but still we press on with our day to day work - always making time for a bit of banter to relieve the pressures of the daily grind. We love our jobs and the pressure keeps us on our toes but being as productive as we would like to be is extremely difficult.

In my vision the "office" as we know it had faded away and due to the heavy prevalence of an array of mobile devices that stood out in my vision I suspect it will be largely due to the effect of BYOD and cloud computing. Lets start with BYOD (bring your own device), some businesses now expect us to pay for and bring our own devices to the office so that we can use it for our day to day work. Will they pay our phone bills or hardware support? - only if you are lucky I dare say.

Along with BYOD comes "Corporate Security". Now we are using our own devices to work with company information, the company is likely to want to monitor and secure our devices to the max and perhaps understandably so. We will have to sign a document that will allow our employers to monitor our internet usage, wipe our treasured personal data at the touch of a button at their discretion and God knows what else!

At this point we will need to ask ourselves what are we actually gaining out of this? Not much at this stage I have to say except for the luxury of being able to use our own device of choice (although its only devices that we can afford) - the straw seems short! We will want and need something in return for sure. I see this want manifesting itself in a a drive for flexible working - a bit of give and take. Yes, we will be prepared to buy and use our own devices and reluctantly let you monitor it and wipe it as we will have little choice but we can demand to work more flexible hours cant we and also demand to work from our location of choice?

We will have our mobile devices with fancy new cloud collaboration apps installed at the touch of a button which will allow for quick and easy face to face meetings live over our super fast home internet. We will be able to engage in quick chats with anyone listed in our corporate on-line business directory without having to rely on old fashioned email and interact with on-line meetings form anywhere in the world... wonderful.

Now I am starting to realize the real benefits of this effect. I can become more of a family man or woman, more of a homely man or woman and have a bigger part in my child's upbringing by being able to work more from home without having to give up the ability to communicate, collaborate and work effectively. This is just one life advantage bit I'm sure there are many more just as favorable. Of course it will take a little getting used to and it will most certainly be led by the younger generation and the oldies will be forced to follow.

So if you enjoy your current working environment, cherish it as it wont be long before you will be forced to work from home from your own device while being closely monitored by your company security team, whether you like it or not. Be prepared it will come to a business near you soon (time scales unknown but nay guesses are welcome).

Think of how companies and corporates gain to benefit from this change- they will reduce their office rent costs, reduce their hardware costs and you will become more productive by working for them from home (away form that distracting open plan office) with occasional trips into the office only when necessary. Its a win win opportunity for business and its just a matter of time before the business benefits are realised by the Exec board.

And finally, please don't fool yourself into thinking that you will be able to get away with doing less work on the move or from home - no doubt your manager will be assessing your progress and impact frequently from the cloud and beyond!