Eliminate Offices to Save Money, Work Better

With the economy in a negative downturn and precious resources ( food, gas, shelter) going for record prices, people and businesses are looking for anyway to get ahead (or just stay afloat). Wired suggests one way to conserve resources that creates a winning situation for everyone – why not just get rid of offices? The overhead costs to maintain a physical office eat away at the bottom line, and many studies have concluded that telecommuters actually get more work done while spending time away from the distraction laden office.

Wired explains:

Telecommuting’s foes couldn’t be more misguided. When gasoline costs $4 a gallon, companies shouldn’t just be doing all they can to expand telecommuting — they should be scrapping their offices entirely. No, not turning them into toy-filled communal spaces, as advertising titan Chiat/Day infamously did in the early-’90s, but abandoning them outright.

That might sound a bit radical to those who swear by the office’s supposed benefits, like camaraderie and face-to-face collaboration. But time and again, studies have shown that telecommuters are every bit as engaged as their cubicle-bound brethren — and happier and more productive to boot. Last year, researchers from Penn State analyzed 46 studies of telecommuting conducted over two decades and covering almost 13,000 employees. Their sweeping inquiry concluded that working from home has “favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress.” The only demonstrable drawback is a slight fraying of the relationships between telecommuters and their colleagues back at headquarters — largely because of jealousy on the part of the latter group. That’s the first problem you solve when you kill your office.

Wired: “Home Sweet Office: Telecommute Good for Business, Employees, and Planet”