I love the TV series Mad Men. Based in the 1960’s and is about an advertising agency on Madison Avenue NY. There’s the typing pool ladies, who work from 9-5, the quirky art department standing around the water cooler gossiping, lower management politics and upper management who sip scotch and smoke copious cigarettes in the middle of the day while staring out the window of their corner office. The plot is all about the people who work at ‘Sterling Cooper Draper & Pryce ’ and how they go about securing a client. There’s no mobile phone, computer, Smart 3D TV, Skype or Internet – just pens, paper, typewriters, telegrams, hard work and the vivid imagination of some clever people.
Fast forward 50 years and how times have changed! We still have some of the foundations of the typical office but technology has enabled us to work smarter than in our parents and grandparents era.
Many employers used to believe that a command-and-control structure was needed to get the job done. Today we are starting to relax that theory and enable our people to work remotely as we are now living in the information and computing age, where much of our work lives in the Cloud and business projects are outsourced to telecommuters and project based workers. Technology is redefining the borders of the space we work in. Most of us have 4 or 5 devices we can’t live without on a daily basis – smart phones, computers, tablets, and MP3 players. I’m writing this article on my iMac, while using my iPhone and iPad for research, and listening to my iPod. The point is that all these devices have become standard in our lives.
We have 2 choices –
- Embrace it and get on the technology train
OR
- Stick your head in the sand and detach from the new world of the future and get left behind.
All the information we need is in an APP that functions on a smart device anywhere, anytime. We all have the same 24hrs in a day so the idea is to work smarter not necessarily harder. Meetings can be efficiently run via Skype or Video conference, emails and data folders stored in the Cloud where we can share them with clients and coworkers all over the world. So, we don’t necessarily need the traditional office to connect with colleagues to be productive.
Technology has enabled many workers, unhappy with the confines of the traditional office, to break free and branch out on their own, some of who now project contract to the same company.
We can’t rely on big corporations for job security anymore. Technology is changing on a daily basis, which puts many of the big corporations in trouble themselves. More and more people, especially the Millennials are preferring to be in control of their own future and work for themselves. Independents, freelance for several clients all over the globe. Technology has amplified worker performance and location is no longer a restriction. The ease of connectivity and Cloud based data storage means independents and employees can work from anywhere at anytime.
With the increased understanding of the Cloud people will begin to realize the integral role it will play in the future creativity, innovation and connectivity within business.
This is where Coworking plays a huge part. The flexibility of Coworking spaces is the perfect place for such people – software developers, architects, web & mobile device developers, writers, graphic designers, advertising & marketing, lawyers, sales consultants, telecommuters, the list goes on. Coworking supports flexibility and collaboration.
I believe Coworking spaces will become common place in the years to come. People are striving for Work Life Balance in their lives. Coworking offers you your own office space when YOU want it.
