The Rise of the ‘Office-Savior’​

‘I’m not against remote work’ they say

• ‘But what about the people who can’t work from home’
• ‘Not everyone can afford an extra room for an office’
• ‘There are people who miss the human interaction’

Variants of the same argument are currently being blasted on social media. It’s never the person writing that suffers these things, but they’re trying to look out for other people.

The office is a critical element of living it seems in the minds of many. A second-family. The quality of face-to-face interaction is so much higher than it is virtually. The risk to the business if you can’t mistakenly solve problems informally in spill out areas or round the water cooler. The gossip. Politics. The instantaneous gratification of having others available to help ensure the day passes as quickly as possible with as little done as possible.

The way that the office has been painted a type of sanctuary misleads the reason why this has occurred. The notion of a second family, the expansion of services, all conveniently achieve one thing: to elongate the time people spend there away from home,

The office is great for certain people at specific stages in their lives. Older men in particular bristle at the thought of the death of the…