One of enduring legacies of the first industrial revolution is the advent of the office. The office has become so much entrenched in mainstream culture that “going to office” has become synonymous with “going to work”. To maximise labour economies of scale, industrial revolution capitalists established offices, wherein, for a specified daily duration, they would encamp all their workers into clustered workstations proverbially known as cubicles. Fitted with a desk, chair, and essential work tools, the size of which depended on seniority, the cubicle was to become the worker’s abode for the next two centuries.
The cubicle arrangement worked since it afforded the business owner the opportunity to superintend over his charges and ensure that he was getting his end of the deal—that the employees were putting in the required shift. On their part, the employees were willing to trade-off their physical freedom for the assurance of a pre-agreed monthly stipend in exchange for their time. Fair deal—at least not until one party, more often the employer, decides to exploit their partner.
Trust human ingenuity. Toward the end of the 20th century, a novel invention that was to offer unlimited possibilities in terms of work location came into our midst—the internet. The internet made it possible for two people without physical proximity to share documents in an instant. By the beginning of the 21th century, internet based innovations like e-mail had become indispensable elements of mainstream business culture. This challenged the viability of that daily commute to a cubicle to do work that can be done from anywhere in the world with internet access.
However, man is a creature of habit and is wont not to fix what is not broken. Despite the obvious benefits of working remotely, employers were reluctant to dispense with the tried and tested method of working in collective onsite workstations. Barring a few early adopters, like the disruption centric Silicon Valley, majority of employers continued to cage up their employees in cubicles, and tossed remote working arrangements to the ambivalent future.
Boom, the COVID-19 pandemic strikes! Remember economics of space optimisation had compelled employers to cram employees into closely packed cubicles. This renders the traditional office spaces non-amenable to the social distancing guidelines prescribed by healthcare professionals. To preserve humanity from extinction, governments have no option but to impose stringent lockdown restrictions and confine employees to their homes.
In a vain attempt to keep their conveyor belts running, employers scamper to adopt what had all along been mooted as a more efficacious mode of working—remote working—only that they did not care less to pay heed. Alas, time is not on their side. Given the abrupt nature of the pandemic, employers can not immediately migrate their physical offices to the internet—a culture that has been ingrained for two centuries cannot be adjusted in hours. Consequently, whole economies shut down.
The current predicament could have been avoided at very minimal cost. Many are shocked to belatedly learn that Zoom, the internet application that enables meetings to be conducted remotely, only requires internet connectivity to use—same with Skype. How come we did not know all along?
Every cloud has a silver lining. The COVID-19 experience should force us to rethink whether we still need cubicles in the 21st century. Why does society force hordes of workers to endure tortuous commutes to and from work when they can work from the comfort of their living rooms? Why should companies take out expensive real estate leases to accommodate staff who would be happy to work from their own accommodation?
Do we still need to work from cubicles in the 21st century?
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Arsenal Zealot 