A generation's new workplace

Subject: A generation's new workplace Sat Jun 04, 2011 1:39 am

JASON SINER buys a lot of coffee. It's one of the Los Angeles-based talent consultant's few overheads when he works in Sydney.

''With what I do, it would be a bit slimey meeting 18-year-old actresses in my hotel room, so I just move between cafes and everyone feels comfortable,'' says Mr Siner, pushing aside his Macbook and iPad to make room for another delivery of coffee at Glebe's Well Connected Cafe.

Mr Siner calls himself a talent scout. HR types call him a ''remote worker'', operating within an increasingly ''agile working environment''.

As the final dribs and drabs of Generation Y make the transition from university to employment, and with Generation Z following hot on their tail, the workplace of the future is looking decidedly mobile.

At the current pace of technology, the traditional office will become largely redundant within the decade, visiting workspace expert Filippo Sarti predicts.

A recent global survey which quizzed 600 executives of large corporations found that 60 per cent predicted their office space would shrink rather than grow within the decade, with more than half believing the office would become ''only a place of occasional use''.

This does not necessarily mean we will all be sitting around in our pyjamas, working from home, however. The survey found that only 12 per cent of people wanted the work-from-home option. The biggest shift was in the idea of a third place of work, be it a cafe, a library or a generic suburban hub where businesses rent space close to their employees' homes.

As chief operating officer for Regus, it is in Mr Sarti's interests to promote such a future. The company, which also conducted the survey, is the largest provider of flexible office space in the world. It has spent the past few years opening more than 1000 business lounges that cater for remote workers. With the swipe of a card, which costs about $50 a month, mobile workers gain access to the same level of facilities as an airport's frequent flyer business lounge. A single card gives the holder access to networked business facilities in more than 500 cities, from Sydney to San Francisco.

As companies grapple with the rising cost of CBD real estate, prohibitive energy costs associated with heating, cooling and lighting office spaces and the extended commute workers will have to endure as our cities continue to sprawl, the concept of a business lounge hub in every suburb of every big city is not that far-fetched, Mr Sarti claims. And it will be a model embraced by Generation Z.

''It will be totally natural to my children to expect to work wherever they happen to be,'' he says. ''For everyone to travel to the one place for work will be seen as so old school. We're seeing with Generation Y even now, they already largely have that expectation that they'll be measured by their output, not by the number of hours they spend in the manager's line of sight.''

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A generation's new workplace

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