The History of the Office …and the Future of Work

Excerpts from my guest column for Unevenly Distributed, a publication from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

“Through the last couple of decades, the TV show “The Office” (the US and the predecessor British show) has been surreal. You see cubicles, water coolers and fax machines and you wonder which real-life office remains so frozen in time. The reality, of course, is the workplace – where, when, how we work – has seen dramatic shifts. We outline below 10 ways the “office” has morphed.”

I then go into the 10 office “mutations” which are influencing how we are and will be working in the future:

• The time elastic office
• The place elastic office
• The office of “Things”
• The home as office
• The truck as office
• The commute as office
• The airport hotel as office
• The Green office
• The Toystore as office
• The great outdoors as office

Enjoy the full version of my column, and many other thought provoking perspectives on the Future of Work on the Unevenly Distributed site.