It’s everywhere, “like this post if you rather working from home, laugh if you want split and angry if you want the office” and the results are surprisingly swung in favour of split or working from home. But why? I think it’s mostly in part to how awful offices can be. So often, much like my last jobs, it’s desks back to back, rows and rows of people answering phones and looking like the window is a nicer option…
From bed to bed?
When, and I say when because, let’s be real, we’re all less productive when working from home and what company likes that, we return to our offices, things need to change. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of being in an office after countless months of working from a desk in my bedroom. Our homes aren’t designed for work – that’s not what they were ever designed for!
It was bliss being back in an office. Being around people, leaning over the desk to ask a question rather than waiting an hour for a one word response on Slack. Taking a quick wander to the coffee machine, picking up some fruit on the way back, gazing at the large spacious meeting rooms, looking out the window on the third floor and gawping at the city passing by. Even heading out to the shop to grab something for lunch was so refreshing
An office, but different
But, am I not just describing a stereotypical office that I literally said in the title is s**t? No. You see, my current employers office feels more open, spacious, warm, welcoming, relaxed, comforting and bright than the last office I worked in. We’ve got monkeys holding onto lamps, a pool table in the canteen area, we (when covid wasn’t a thing before I joined the company :sadpanda:) have drinks on a Friday on the balcony
This is your stereotypical office but with a human touch, someone put time and thought into designing it and making it like a second home, because that’s exactly what it is. If you spend 8 hours sleeping a day, work 8.45 to 5.30 and commute an hour each way, in a Monday to Friday period you spend around 30 hours actually doing stuff at home whereas you spend anywhere upwards of 45 hours.
It’s not just the office I’m at either that knows bucking the trend is the way forward, take a look at the American office of the $50 billion Australian company Atlassian
| Inside The Atlassian San Francisco Office | Built In San Francisco Here are some highlights of our tour of the Atlassian San Francisco office. |
A gym, a bar, a balcony, a cool af canteen and Atlassian president Jay Simons casually sitting working alongside everyone else. And why the hell should it not have all these things!? Coming to work should be fun, it shouldn’t be something we hate – If you hate it, try your best to leave it, or, try to influence change.
So what can we do?
At this point you may be asking yourself, Alex, where is this post going? We get it, some offices are cool, but what does this have to do with working from home?
Well, the poll. That is what this has to do about working from home. Why would so many people choose to work from home, a place far from optimal to work in, an unproductive, noisy, distraction laden, traveless location (How much do you actually leave home during the day when you work from home? How much sun and fresh air are we suddenly missing out on?)?
It’s time to kill the traditional office style, where we sit in a cramped, dark room, have a dingy boring canteen and start having fun, open, enjoyable offices.