Kill the Office

Companies use office real estate as a means of maintaining a sort of social order. It doesn’t take an advanced degree in deductive logic to observe this sacred, yet often unspoken ritual. Look around, when was the last time you saw a CEO sporting a tricked out cubical?

Now the social order goes something like this.

The Executive
The Executive is typically reserved for your upper crust of the corporate elite, your “C-Levels” and on occasions your senior vice presidents, we just call them SVPs in the industry. The Executive is typically a large and spacious office with views of nature or a sprawling city skyline.

The Mover & Shaker
The Mover & Shaker is custom made for the VP types. Slightly smaller than The Executive, the view is nice but they aren’t as sweeping as you would find in The Executive. They are typically pimped out in the finest leather furniture and a rich mahogany desk which is usually adorned with some sort of a kitschy gadget.

The Middle Manager
The Middle Manager has the same square footage as The Mover & Shaker but the view is of an alley way or parking structure. The office is usually a mess of papers and filing cabinets as the occupant engages in a vain attempt to impress the uppers.

The Team Lead
The Team Lead is an office by definition only. Its square and has walls and a door and may or may not have a window. The Team Lead is an unused closet that has been transformed into an office to keep its occupant un-disgruntled for a short period of time.

In my simple view of the world, why not just kill the office. Do we really need them? Lets transform all that worthless office space into work areas that any employee can make use of if the occasion so arises. The work area is akin to the library I made use of in college when I needed to get away from my drunken roommates who were flinging the neighbor girls panties across the room, I would pack up my books and head to the library for some focused study time.

The work area holds a similar promise. Employees when in need of some private time or just some time to be totally focused on a project can simply walk into a work area, shut the door, and get to work.

It should be clear that these work areas are not land to be conquered or claimed as part of an individuals attempt at empire building. They are, as the name so implies, an area in which one can work undisturbed for a determined period of time.

Join the revolution. Make a stand. Kill the office.

Jason Thompson

Jason is the Sr. Director of Community Solutions at Keystone Solutions. If you are interested in partnering with Jason at Keystone, in need of analytics & optimization consulting, or looking for employment/internship possibilities, please feel free to email ‘jason [at] keystonesolutions [dot] com’

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