The Office Of Tomorrow :: Technology Predicting Business Office Essays

The Office of TomorrowIn an increasing number of companies, traditional seat space is givingway to community areas and empty chairs as employees litigate from home, from theircars or from virtually anywhere. Advanced technologies and progressive HRstrategies make these alternative offices possible. hypothecate its 2 oclock on a Wednesday afternoon. Inside the dine roomof many nationwide offices, Joe Smith, manager of HR, is downing a sandwich andsoda while wade through reverberate and E- military post messages. In front of him is acomputerequipped with a fax-modemis plugged into a special port on the diningtable. The contents of his briefcase are spread on the table. As he siftsthrough a stack of paperwork and types responses into the computer, heperiodically picks up a cordless holler and places a call to a colleague orassociate. As he talks, he sometimes wanders across the room.To be sure, this isnt your ordinary corporate environment. Smithdoesnt pitch a permanent desk or wo rkspace, nor his own telephone. When heenters the ad agencys building, he checks out a portable Macintosh computer anda cordless phone and heads off to whatever nook or cranny he chooses. It mightbe the company library, or a common area under a bright window. It could even bethe dining room or Student Union, which houses punching bags, televisions and apool table. Wherever he goes, a network forwards mail and phone pages to him anda computer routes calls, faxes and E-mail messages to his assigned extension. Hesimply logs onto the firms computer system and accesses his security-protectedfiles.He is not tethered to a specific work area nor forced to function in anyp defined way. Joe Smith spends mornings, and even sometimes an entire day,connected from home via sophisticated voicemail and E-mail systems, as well up as apager. His work is process and task-oriented. As long as he reachs everything done,thats what counts. Ultimately, his productivity is greater and his job-satisfaction level is higher. And for somebody trying to get in touch with him,its easy. Nobody can tell that Joe might be in his car or sitting at homereading a stack of resumes in his pajamas. The call gets forwarded to himwherever hes working.Youve dependable entered the vast frontier of the virtual officea universein which leading-edge technology and new concepts redefine work and jobfunctions by enabling employees to work from virtually anywhere. The conceptallows a growing number of companies to change their workplaces in ways neverconsidered just a few years ago. Theyre scrapping assigned desks and