Houses are now built with dedicated office spaces – soundproofing, connectivity, 3D printers... the works.
Think back 5 years. It's 9:00 AM. You’re working from home. You're not one of the lucky ones with a home office space, so you're in the dining room. Your better half is also working, but they lost the rock-scissors-paper fight for the table, so they’re perched on the sofa with their laptop. Office documents and notes are spread all over your respective working areas. Your children – whose school is shut until further notice – are doing everything they can to distract you. (If you have toddlers at home, may the force be with you.) You’re busy trying to stop their fights and put out fires at work. What joy. Your partner and you have divided things up – work, cooking, children and household chores. You glance up at the clock. 9:07 AM. It’s going to be a long day …
Not too long ago, working from home was a privilege for few, but when COVID-19 hit, it suddenly became a necessity for everyone. As with anything in life, #WFH worked for some, and for others, fuggedaboutit. The sudden shift caught many of us by surprise. Trying to work productively became more than just having an office laptop and internet connectivity. It represented more than carving out a place in the kitchen, living room or bedroom. It became a fight for survival – for the future of your work.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the builder trade boomed. Homes were built – or retrofitted – with dedicated home office spaces: routers in the right place, soundproofing, separate voice-driven entrances, Gorilla Glass wall screens. Homes became castles in which podcast booths and 3-D printers replaced stone walls and moats. Home became the place where we’re empowered with networks and platforms to connect, create and accomplish – become smarter and work smarter. It’s a place where we can self-isolate (and concentrate) and still stay connected with the entire world.
The shift toward the home office accelerated the wirearchy movement (a term coined by consultant and author Jon Husband): a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority, based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology. The key to home-office success became the ability to build and nurture deep, trust-based connections with peers, clients, partners and anyone in the connected world to get the work done. On LinkedIn, those in-the-know promoted themselves as “home office wirearchists.”
Soon, realtor advertisements began carrying descriptions like "3BHK apartment with separate state-of-the-art home office." At the high end of the market, customers preferred work to flow smoothly into their non-work lives. Architects, builders, interior designers and tech companies who could help people seamlessly blend their home with work became the new rockstars.
Offices did not die out completely. But the notion of spending 40, 50, 70 hours there a week did. The office was a product of the Third Industrial Revolution. The fourth one, floundering in its infancy pre-COVID-19, really took off as the virus bit – and the office was another casualty.
With #WFH now firmly established, it would be foolhardy to assume we’ll ever go back to the old ways of working. Changes made and opportunities taken have forever changed how we behave, in both our professional and personal lives. But if we’ve done nothing else as a result of the dark days of the pandemic, we’ve redefined the forever truth: there really is no place like home.
