The Coolest Offices in ….!

You could see advertised the new and “the best / cool” offices built. Yes, they could be the greatest but let’s face it, there are cracks in that shiny mirror. As long as the vast majority of employers demand full presence at the desk, they cool offices imply the overwhelming need of:

a.       people to travel there (at the “cool office” location),

b.       or people to live nearby (to avoid waste of resources on commute),

c.       assume that at least 50% the people will use bicycles or some kind of electric vehicles suitable for short commute distances,

d.       those electric vehicles for short commute, will imply storage / parking and charging ports / facilities,

e.       those electric vehicles (suitable for small distance commute) are not that green as is advertised,

f.        people nearby imply decent housing (to assume that people are happy there),

g.       but decent housing imply decent developments nearby (houses and flats with a lot of green, parks, etc.),

h.       people living nearby imply also all other amenities must be developed in the area.

So, while there are plenty of commercials shouting how great are the cool offices, the implications are vastly bigger.

Solutions / suggestions:

·         One assumption could be that in order to fill those new cool offices, professionals should swap houses with those live in the vicinity... yeah right… how realistic is that?!

·         If not, people living nearby should become experts to fill the needs of that company renting that cool office. Really?!

·         Plan the office 20 years in advance, to allow local workforce to grow and fill ne needs… I’m losing it, isn’t it?

The above assumptions were made to avoid the obvious increasing pressure in housing costs for the targeted areas. Increased housing costs are not adding value of the end product of that cool office, but definitely are detrimental to the wellbeing of the people forced to pay them.

What I want to say is that as long

Now honestly, 90% of the existing offices are the same once you cover the basics. The commute costs are direct proportional with the home/estate desired by 90% of specialists. By specialists I’m referring to employees with at least 10 years of experience.

We must acknowledge that the idea of think tank is no longer linked to the physical office. Second, the idea of we have the best people is no longer realistic or even honest. Currently, in any given office, the employees are people that live nearby (geographically). Even making abstraction of what I personally know, I think that is safe to assume that there are brilliant professionals outside the geographic area covered by any particular office. Some are unknown to the headhunters and others who declined the job offers that implied relocation.

Disclaimer: please excuse the inherent mistakes in the text (grammar and/or typing error), as my focus is on expressing the ideas.