What does the future of the workspace look like? The normal cubical/office job won’t endure as the coming generations are looking for atypical work environments conducive to collaboration and socialization. To get an idea of what direction we’re heading towards, let’s look at a few companies taking the lead.
The guinea pig of such a change is Station F in France. It is virtually a giant warehouse that was converted into a thinkspace in June 2017, for startups and entrepreneurs to hopefully find success in their work. It has an extremely open floor plan with over 3,000 desks and it promotes collaboration.
Station F seems most appealing to young entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship thrives off of ingenuity. In order for thoughts to incubate they must be in the right environment. Station F is set up so communication and brainstorming occurs frequently. Entrepreneurs don’t want the norms nor the basics, because that’s precisely what they’re trying to break through.
The work environment created in Station F is representative of the future. Currently, most workplaces in the U.S. are rather bland with a basic office setup, accompanied with individual cubicles. The place that breaks the grain is BuzzFeed—and trust me, they’re anything but conventional, hence their success. Admittedly so, I cave into BuzzFeed videos every now and then (who hasn’t?), and after watching a few videos it is pretty easy to get a feel for the company culture. Similar to Station F, there is a ton of open space, and the typical setup looks like 10-or-so desks put together to form one huge table and each worker is sitting at a desk completing their own work. BuzzFeed also has an abundance of studios, cafes and cafeterias where workers commonly collaborate. Also, if anyone has ever browsed the plethora of BuzzFeed videos, the bulk of them require quite a bit of “off-the-grain” thought processes.
Virtually all of the conglomerates in the U.S. are taking up a similar scene as Station F, another prominent company known for their amazing work atmosphere is Google. They literally have slides in the workplace, and there are daycares for the workers children and much more. It’s the future—work and life are no longer being accepted as two separate entities; spaces like Station F, Google and Buzzfeed are trying to make it where people feel like they never work a day in their life, and that sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
Successful companies no longer solely rely upon a good product and good benefits, much more of a preface is being placed on the social aspect and the work/life satisfaction.
