The Serendipity of Shared Workspaces
Interestingly, remote work not only contributes to the potential decline of offices but also highlights the need for them. While remote work is beneficial for focused tasks, it can be detrimental for communication-based tasks. Working from home does not significantly reduce productivity when producing individual work, but it does hinder efficiency when multiple people need to exchange opinions, brainstorm new ideas, or review outcomes.
When people gather to share ideas, communication is not limited to verbal expressions. Nonverbal cues like curiosity, attentiveness, eye contact, agreement or disagreement, and even applause or cheers fill our meeting rooms. However, remote collaboration tools like cameras, chat, and shared screens fail to convey these cues effectively. As a result, we expend more energy trying to understand one another's intentions and require additional explanations to express our thoughts.
Work is not solely about individual tasks; we all work independently and collaboratively. As long as we work with colleagues, it is impossible for every company to adopt 100% remote work. Of course, some professions have a higher proportion of solo work and can maintain productivity with a higher percentage of remote work, like software developers. When examining the percentage of remote work introduced by industry, the top three sectors were all IT-related: telecommunications, e-commerce, and gaming. However, it is premature to conclude that all offices will disappear simply because some industries and positions actively utilize remote work.
The fundamental issue is that home environments do not perfectly support individual workspaces. Spaces embody context, and we assign identities to spaces to achieve maximum immersion. A multipurpose space that can handle every task is, in reality, a vague space that excels at nothing. Transforming a comfortable home into an intensely focused work environment is challenging. While designating a work-only space within the home can partially address this issue, the separation is not complete. The moment a door opens, work and home life become intermingled.
Offices might eventually become obsolete, but not yet. For now, the only space where colleagues can engage in spontaneous discussions and meetings to unearth brilliant ideas is the office. A space that offers a strong contextual identity for employees to fully immerse themselves in work is still only provided by offices. Thus, until communication technology that perfectly conveys nonverbal cues is invented, offices will remain a space for serendipitous encounters and creative sparks. And even when such technology is perfected, we will still gather in offices to enjoy the valuable experience of human connection.