Forecasting for the Workplace of 2040

If you’re not fully focused on precisely what your facilities needs are, your company may be headed for extinction. A recent study by Johnson Controls says that, within 25 years, a workspace revolution will have completely obliterated the office as we know it today.

The study, according to benefitspro.com, predicts that such practices as hoteling and hot desking will be deeply ingrained in facilities management strategies and will forecast within a tight range how much space a company needs to accommodate its workforce. In fact, space will be so commoditized that there will be no “this is our floor” “this is our building” “this is my office” thinking. Instead, practices like space partnerships, joint management of space and other forthcoming practices will link employers in ways they never dreamed imaginable.

Among the highlights of the report:

“Adaptive white noise technology makes it possible to have a first rate telepresence session in an open environment,” thus eliminating concerns about what's going on around the flexible worker;
Consumers “are literally building their own products, bought through their smartphones using mobile web applications, and printed on demand;”
Commuting comes under pressure not only because of the time and energy consumed, and restrictions on driving and parking, but because flexible workspace concepts render it unnecessary in most cases;
New leaps forward in applying technology to work that eliminate many of the accepted concepts of when, where and how work is accomplished.

This rapidly approaching future is being driven by management’s desire to save on facilities costs and employees’ growing desire to work from anywhere, any time. Once the bosses finally realize how powerful saying “yes” to flexibility is, the tipping point will have been reached.