Virtual Offices
Inc. Magazine Offers Results of Virtual Office Trial
Published March 30th, 2010 by Jennifer LeClaire
Earlier this year, I wrote about Inc. magazine’s quest to explore the benefits of telecommuting. The staff has completed its virtual workplace experiment and the New York Times has taken interest in the results – and so have we at aBetterOffice.com.
Just to review: Editors were working from home, co-working spaces, hotels and cafes. The magazine had consulted with experts in the field of organizational behavior, as well as entrepreneurs who believe in virtual work, before launching the experiment.
Now that the experiment is over, it looks like at least some of Inc.’s staff prefers working in a traditional office space rather than virtual offices. The staff developed an entire issue of the magazine using technologies like Skype and instant messaging to communicate. That issue will hit newsstands on April 6 with a cover story entitled, “The Office Is Dead. Long Live the Office.”
The conclusion, as New York Times writer Joseph Plambeck explains it: “Away from the office, some staff members struggled to adjust…as minor technical hiccups arose and parents working at home had to find ways to separate their work from their children. But in the end, most employees discovered that they could and should work out of the office more often — though they did not want to eliminate the office entirely.”
We’ll check in again with Inc. magazine when the April edition rolls out, which promises a more in-depth look at the pros and cons of the virtual office. But like I said before, when the article comes out it will bring more attention to virtual workers – and that’s ultimately good thing for our industry.
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Elizabeth Sanchez March 30th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Wow. Nice follow up work, Jennifer. I can’t wait to see the article in Inc. magazine. I think they’ll do a fair job of presenting the pros and cons of virtual offices. Maybe they’ll touch on co-working space as well as some of the other options. It will be very interesting to see their final conclusions. Bottom line is everyone is different. Some people like to work alone and others have to have the interaction.
Bill Brookshire March 30th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
This is a great experiment. I am glad they did it. I bet Skype will be glad that Inc. used their technology for its virtual office experiment. That’s like free advertising for whatever technologies they used. In any case, I agree with you that even if they decided that the office is not dead, it still bodes well for the virtual office because it brings greater awareness of the concept.