4 Possible Surprises From the Offices of the Future

Of course, no one knows for sure what the future will bring, but that hasn’t stopped humans from trying to predict what’s to come for centuries. These days, it’s especially difficult to speculate about the future because things are changing so quickly. Who knows what will come along next? Still, it’s fun to think about. Also, there are also some current workplace trends than can help our guesses veer toward the more educated variety. When thinking about the offices of the future, here are a few wild to semi-wild possibilities to keep on your radar.

(Photo Credit: IrDA in Action/Flickr)

1. The office has an urban farm attached to it.

Sean Cassidy and Joe Wilson, winners of the Workplace of the Future 2.0 Design Competition in 2015, shared their vision for the offices of the future. Their design included an urban farm that attached to the side of an office building. Walls of vegetables several stories high were complimented by workstations, on each floor, that surrounded employees with even more plants. Technology also offered workers health tips throughout the day via futuristic contact lenses that provide information about the food growing around their wearer.

“We wanted to really provoke new thoughts and debates on how to make the workplace a destination, and a place that can react to each individual and stimulate them in a positive manner,” Cassidy and Wilson told FastCoExist. “The user is constantly updated by the augmented content around them, such as the news feeds and health information linked to the user’s augmented contact lens which monitors their health and suggests food to eat.”

2. You work from home.

There are competing opinions about this, but there is also some strong evidence to suggest that a greater percentage of us will be working from home in the future. Some even say that as many as half of us will be freelancing by 2020. That’s only a few years away. Thanks to the internet, and technology in general, it’s so much easier for people to work from wherever they choose these days, and that trend is almost certainly going to persist. Maybe your office, 10 years from now, is actually your spare bedroom/future home office.

3. There’s a climbing wall.

While some office perks are starting to be debunked as unnecessary (maybe they don’t make us more creative or productive after all) others, like the office climbing wall, are starting to be backed by actual research. Climbing walls in the office could just be a current and passing trend, or maybe they’re the wave of the future.

“When you’re really in touch with your body physically, it affects every facet of your life,” said Jesse Levin who works at a co-working space/climbing gym in Somerville, Massachusetts.”I never quite understood why there was such a segregation between your career and working and going to the gym and community interaction. It made a lot of sense to me to bring it all together.”

4. You get to take naps.

More and more information has been coming out lately about the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. Hopefully, more employers will start to take note of this in the future and will begin providing us with nap rooms like some companies already have. After all, even if you don’t want to take a nap, why would you be opposed to having the option? If those rooms aren’t available at your future office though, there are other options to consider. Check out this awesome sleep hoodie. It could come in handy no matter what the future has in store for us.

Tell Us What You Think

What do you think the offices of the future might be like? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

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