Tell us something we don’t know

The new issue (October, 2008) of Wired has a piece, Home Sweet Office by Brendan I. Koerner that takes a look at the state of telecommuting. At first, the article is a yawn-fest if you’re tuned into coworking — Koerner trots out facts a lot of us have been hearing for months or even years now about the percentage of folks who work at home at least some of the time and why big companies are (and are not) inclined to allow this.

But then, the essayist kicks it into high gear and suggests, “companies shouldn’t just be doing all they can to expand telecommuting — they should be scrapping their offices entirely.” That’s right, Koerner says we need to be kissing the cubicle goodbye forever, and sending the concept over to that pile in the corner with pull-tabs, eight-track tapes, and carbon paper.

He then returns to the argument coworkers have already visited on numerous occasions — how working outside of a traditional office does not, as some fear, lay the foundation for less engaged employees. Citing a Penn State analysis of 46 studies on telecommuting that covered 20 years and 13,000 workers, Koerner reports that the effects of flexible working are, in fact, favorable across the board including, “… perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress.”

On the other hand, he calls the traditional office a “black hole of interruptions, procrastination, and soul-crushing politics.” And he points to one study that suggests in-office workers switch tasks every three minutes—not exactly the amount of time one might dedicate to really thorough attention paying and task completing.

We’re in Koerner’s corner over here. And, though he never uses the word “coworking” in his piece, he is clearly in ours. Because he does say, “Instead of leasing traditional offices — currently averaging around $21.25 per square foot annually, and a quarter of that is typically either vacant or underutilized — companies could join meeting-room cooperatives, which allow firms to assemble when necessary.”

If it looks like coworking and smells like coworking…