Achieving Functional Flexibility in the Workplace: Welcome to the Modern Office

By the DynaSis Team

I read an interesting article in Forbes online recently, about “the death of the office.” In it, contributor Jeanne Meister postulated about what the office of the future will look like. One comment struck me as especially worthy of further consideration:

“As work becomes more flexible and communication more mobile, the office is turning into an increasingly complex and even abstract concept. As we look to the future, we have to ask: Will the workplace be on-site at our employer’s property, or on-demand at a collaborative space? Or will work simply be a mindset independent of place or time of day?”

That last concept―work as a mindset that has no bearing on place or time of day, is a notion that seems increasingly likely. Already numerous studies report that the newest generation of workers, the Millennials, does not want to be tied to a specific place or time to work. (DynaSis is putting the final touches on a white paper about these workers. To request a copy when it’s ready, fill out our inquiry form, putting “Millennials White Paper” in the comments section.)

Realistically, who among us doesn’t like the idea of being freed from the constraints of time and space that a physical office places upon us? Certainly, there are people who crave the social nature of an office environment, and team collaboration and brainstorming on some projects seems to work best when the group works together physically, rather than virtually.

However, for at least some of our office tasks, having the freedom to do them whenever and wherever is highly beneficial for both employer and employee. And that, many experts predict, is what the office is becoming―a place where cloud and mobile technologies enable workers to perform some, if not all, of their work, wherever they are and whenever it suits them.

Think about it: for corporations, the savings in energy and office space alone could be substantial. In the area of employee health and productivity, the “insomnia” that plagues so many people might disappear. Workers who lie awake at night, worrying about a project, could instead get up and work on it until they were tired, and then go back to bed. This would be possible because they could also sleep late, rather than getting out of bed, groggy, to be in the office by 8 or 9am.

In 2011, Live Science published an article that postulates waking during the night for a few hours before returning to sleep (called biphasic sleeping) is natural behavior for humans. The anywhere, anytime office would enable employees to embrace this behavioral predisposition rather than fight it.

When we view the “Mobile Office” in this context, it’s evident that it’s about more than mobility. It’s about achieving functional flexibility that not only drives productivity for businesses, but also helps employees mold their jobs to suit their preferences―and possibly their innate natures. It’s about providing easy, non-technical solutions that are secure, seamless and always available, no matter where workers need them.

We’ve been testing some new technologies here at DynaSis, and we’ll be telling you more about them, soon. We’re calling our initiative Modern Office, and we think you’ll love it. Stay tuned…