COMMENT

The office has had its day

Erin Stewart

The office is an irrational, calcified relic. It's a lasting symbol of the bygone Protestant ethic that our lives must be hard in order to be worthy.

Even getting to work is unnecessarily hard. In the dead of winter, waking in the dark to a bowl of uninspiring cereal and the disturbingly perky tones of breakfast television only to get into your frosted car and see an endless display of brake lights and grey clouds is a form of suffering. Australians spend, on average, 4.4 hours a week commuting to and from work according to a 2011 University of Canberra and AMP report. Aside from the fundamental dreariness of this arrangement, it's also a waste of fuel.

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Then there's the office itself. I've liked my colleagues but not the circumstances under which we've interacted. The lack of privacy, the hum of words and the smell of tuna inherent in open-plan arrangements renders the enterprise inefficient. People need space to work well. According to a 2013 survey by Gensler, office work increasingly involves individual, focused tasks rather than group work. Water cooler conversations, extended morning teas to celebrate the milestones of near strangers, and dull meetings accomplish nothing.

Offices are also bad for you, according to a recent study in The Lancet. Sitting in the same place all day increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Some offices are also prone to "sick building syndrome" where workers are constantly exposed to dirty air produced by poor ventilation, ozone-emitting equipment, and industrial-scale climate control. Germs circulate where fresh air doesn't. There's perennially some virus doing the rounds and when someone gets sick everyone else is soon to follow suit.

I now work from home. And to answer some frequently asked questions, no, I don't get lonely (I have friends I choose to be around); and no, I don't have super-human discipline (just the will to get paid). I work quicker without others milling around, and I break up intense computer work with errands, changes of scenery, and walks.

Anyone can adapt to a lifestyle of no commute, no brittle mornings, no cringey small talk. It's no less natural than sitting under flickering fluorescent lights in a maze of desks.

With existing technology, most jobs can be done remotely. After all, doctors can even conduct telesurgery these days. While colleagues would ideally meet in-person sometimes, managers of a decentralised workforce would need better justifications for meetings than "we're all here, so why not?"

You can spend more time with family, accomplish more tasks, and divide up your day with healthy breaks without the hideous commute and the constant disruptions. You don't have to suffer to be good at your job. The need for the office has passed.

Erin Stewart is a regular contributor.