Jonathan Olivares – “The Outdoor Office” Exhibition
Working outdoors is hardly a new concept. If you ever had a “hip” English teacher in high school or college, I’m sure you’ve experienced a few classes held outdoors on a nice spring day. The world of academia aside, as companies try to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and new definitions of “workplace”, corporate America is having more serious conversations about the realities of working outdoors.
Oh Captain, My Captain
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- Slacking off, or the next breakthrough?
Today we have more options than ever for where we can actually get stuff done. While the majority of workplace strategy focus has been with internal mobility, the reality is that many of us are already working away from the office (at home, airports, coffee shops, etc.), so why not outside? Supporting precedent examples include sustainability and wellbeing initiatives. Companies are starting to look to the outdoors for how to support their employees; access to daylight, walking trails, and outdoor break areas are just a few of the ways we are seeing the nine-to-five workday trying to break down the proverbial walls. Many contract furniture manufacturers are also seeing the upward trend and are now offering a variety of outdoor furniture.
Of course, we’re probably not quite to the point where we can close up our offices, run around in the grass, and work outdoors full time. And while some detractors will argue that working outdoors is impractical, here are a few tangible examples for how you can pack up a few mobile tools and take your work outdoors:
Turn off your email for a few hours in the office in the morning (you know, to actually get other work done) and then head outside for a little while to reply to a dozen or so emails.
Have a few hours of internet research to do for a project or report you’re working on? Take it outside.
Need to spend the day “heads down” in Excel doing data analysis? Take it outside.
Have back-to-back conference calls for a few hours? Take it outside.
Weekly staff meeting? Take it outside.
Jonathan Olivares – “The Outdoor Office” Exhibition
Sounds great, right? So what’s holding us back? A few practical obstacles include:
Ability to regulate temperature, wind, rain
Ability to regulate lighting and glare on screens
Ability to regulate surrounding noise
Ability to integrate technology
Will people actually be motivated, engaged, and productive?
As we get more serious about allowing people to truly work ANYWHERE, it only makes sense that proper time and resources will be put towards designing truly useful and productive outdoor working environments. And I know a lot of people who can’t wait.
