Dec 06, 2010 Why The Office Is The Worst Place To Work
(CNN) — Companies spend billions on rent, offices, and office equipment so their employees will have a great place to work.
However, when you ask people where they go when they really need to get something done, you’ll rarely hear them say it’s the office.
If you ask, you’ll usually get one of three kinds of responses: A place, a moving object, or a time.
They’ll say their house, their back porch, an extra bedroom they’ve converted into a home office, a library, the coffee shop down the street, the basement. Or they’ll say their car, or a train, or a plane — basically, during their commute. Or they’ll say really early in the morning, really late at night, or on the weekend. In other words, when no one else is around to bother them.
I don’t blame people for not wanting to be at the office. I blame the office. The modern office has become an interruption factory. You can’t get work done at work anymore.
When people walk into the office, they trade their work day in for a series of work moments. It’s like the front door is a “time Cuisinart” — shredding it all into little bits.
When you’re in the office you’re lucky to have 30 minutes to yourself. Usually you get in, there’s a meeting, then there’s a call, then someone calls you over to their desk, or your manager comes over to see what you’re doing. These interruptions chunk your day into smaller and smaller bits. Fifteen minutes here, 30 minutes there, another 15 minutes before lunch, then an afternoon meeting, etc. When are you supposed to get work done if you don’t have any time to work? (Full Story)