Perhaps the most pervasive and enduring myth about the office is that it is somehow dying off. It’s a blast of guff originally farted out at the dawn of the technological revolution in the early 1990s, which has somehow lingered and been stinking the place out ever since. The essential premise behind the idea of the death of the office is that mobile technology makes it possible for us to work from ‘anywhere’ and so that must mean ‘somewhere’ is no longer needed. It’s an alluring idea, partly because it seems reasonable enough so is especially attractive if you’re looking to make some bold statement about office design based on very little evidence or if you have a vested interest in getting more people to buy into the idea that it’s a goner. That is why you’ll hear it most from PR people, journalists who haven’t the time or inclination to look into the subject properly – and technology and telecoms companies.
The office will always live on because nothing propinks like propinquity