Virtual Office: A Distant Reality

How much space does one man need? Let’s assume a typical family of four members i.e., a husband, a wife, and two kids. They probably live in a house with at least three rooms, a kitchen, a hall, and two bathrooms. The husband and wife probably work in different offices and hence the family has at least two cars. That would mean they also have a garage which houses one car and the other is parked in the driveway. Alternatively, they could own two parking spots if they live in an apartment building. In their respective offices, they each have at least a cubicle and share conference rooms and bathrooms with their coworkers. The kids each occupy a seat in their respective schools and share other facilities such as the cafeteria, gym, playgrounds, and bathrooms.

What I have described seems to be an ideal scenario which every family in the world hopes to have at the minimum. But with increasing population, growth of income per capita in developing nations, and limited overall real estate space this seems to be a highly unsustainable living model in the long run.

Do we realize that while we occupy one piece of real estate the other piece lies vacant? While you are in your office, your room at home is unoccupied. Do we realize that we need two of many things that we use every day (desks, chairs, coffee machines)? We commute to and fro from our homes and offices through heavy traffic just so that we can use the duplicates of real estate, furniture, and appliances. This seems like a broken system to me. We are trying to achieve productivity by working together at the cost of almost doubling the resources that we require to get us through the day. While we can afford to do this today, I am thinking of a time where this will no longer be possible.

Scarcity of resources will increase the costs, and businesses will be forced to consider the option of completely doing away with the concept of an office and adopting the concept of working from home. Instead of an office space, an employee will have a wall-sized screen in this room that will be his virtual office where he can do his work and also interact with his teammates. All operations will be paperless and all data will be stored on the cloud. He will also be facilitated by a virtual assistant similar to J.A.R.V.I.S from the Ironman movie series. We already have the facility of ordering products online amd getting delivery at our doorsteps. That means we don’t need to step out for everyday tasks such as grocery shopping. One can imagine that private vehicles will be replaced by delivery trucks. But if delivery drones (as suggested by Amazon recently) become a reality, even the trucks might become redundant.  

This may seem unreal or impracticable and one might argue that humans are social animals and they must physically interact with other humans to remain sane. Yes our generation needs that but I believe our species is evolving towards increasing isolation and virtual communities. We can already see the signs. Youngsters who have grown up with smartphone technology prefer to be online on their phones even when they are all sitting at the same table. They seem to be perfectly fine with it. Their lives seem to be more interesting on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat to them and they dedicate their attention accordingly.

Virtual offices and working at home has its benefits too. This will free up all the commercial space that is currently being occupied by offices that I believe will become redundant in the times to come. These spaces can be used to accommodate additional residences and much-needed parks and green spaces. We would need narrower roads. But broadband must become equivalent to electricity in terms of service. We could all spend more time with our family and friends because they would be in the next room.    

  

The idea is both scary and exciting. The concept of virtual offices opens up a multitude of possibilities for those who love technology. But will we ever agree to live in such physical isolation. If we continue to use the resources the way we do, we might not be given a choice.