Not that long ago, segregating work from home life was accepted as a best practice, rooted in the desire to help employees maintain a healthy balance between the two. In this, it was assumed that we could reconcile the separate demands of each and any crossover would be minimized or eliminated altogether.
In the interim, the cross-winds of technological, cultural, and demographic change continue to accelerate. Our aspirations for work-life segregation, while naive in retrospect, turned out to be in stark contrast to our current state. Rather than achieving balance through separation, the two worlds are, in fact, merging.
The balance vs. integration dichotomy has been recognized for some time, but broad adoption of new workplace models to address the need is just now emerging. Taking the form of workplace policies and spaces, these models recognize the ability of people to be productive in non-traditional work settings.