The End of Office Space?
Fifty-eight percent of UK workers believe that offices will be redundant in ten years time as technology further facilitates mobile working.
Virgin Media Business commissioned a survey of 1,000 office workers to mark the 10th anniversary of Ricky Gervais’ and Stephen Merchant’s ‘The Office’ which first screened in the UK on 9th July 2001.
Technological changes of the last decade are viewed broadly positively by UK office workers. Eighty-three percent of employees say they are more productive today than they were in 2001. Thirty-two percent believe they are happier than they were a decade ago.
Most expect further dramatic changes in the next ten years. Over half (56%) expect a marked reduction in time spent travelling between home and work and meetings. The same amount believe there will be complete convergence between business and consumer technologies.
Said Mark Heraghty, MD, Virgin Media Business, “Just like the dinosaurs, the office may soon be resigned to the history books, with six in ten workers predicting that they won’t exist by 2021. This is a trend that we’re already starting to see across the UK, with mobile working tripling in the last year alone. As employers search for more agile and effective ways of running their businesses, we’re increasingly finding that firms are swapping expensive office spaces in favour of a virtual workplace, where all activities can be conducted remotely. "With most businesses already benefiting from the rollout of super-fast connectivity, we expect to see the move towards remote working continue as advances in technology mean staff can work from anywhere with an internet or Wi-Fi connection. As innovations, such as cloud computing become mainstream over the next 10 years, we’ll see employees enjoying much greater flexibility. With the right communication and collaboration tools in place to ensure that the office culture is not lost, this will lead to a happier, more productive and efficient workforce; the holy grail for management.”
A 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey contained similar findings.
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