The Working Location for the Future

What happened 20 years ago

About twenty years ago, our company had just started up and sales were steadily increasing and we were on track to stabilize things. One day “Mr. M” came back to the office and found that his desk had “disappeared.” His friend who had taken his space joked, “You don’t really need an office, right? You’re doing great without one!”

While originally he had thought that an office space was a permanent thing, actually the quite opposite was true. He was actually a bit surprised to realize that he was more competent when he was not tied down. From that time onwards, he would go out, just as the wind blows and visit businesses all over during the day, and then return, not to the actual office but to his “office” which was a space in a cafe run by a friend. There he could sit in the corner and pound on his laptop to get whatever else he needed done. His former office held just a few personal belongings.

As people evolve, do they become free mentally and spatially as well?
These work events inspired me to ask myself that.

Remote Work started quite a long time ago

The second thing that surprised me happened about that eight years ago. An acquaintance in Kobe reported that he had been to Los Angeles for the first time in a while and was letting me know about the local office situation there. What he told me was that in the previous office layouts, the most scenic seat, usually by a window, was assigned to the boss or leader. Over the years though things have changed and the boss’s seat has disappeared from many offices. They are either working outside and many of them are actually working from home.

It’s the same as “Mr. M”. That was the first thing I thought when I heard this story. When work styles evolve, it does not evolve to stay in one place, but to escape from it. By 2013, I was impressed by the fact that remote work & teleworking had taken hold in many places on the west coast of the United States.

Working Locations with Freedom

Currently, I am writing this manuscript with my company located in Kobe, but my work partner, our employee, is at home working in Chiba. I submit a time card every day (digitally of course), and I also hold regular meetings online. To tell the truth though, there are some employees that I have not met in real life for the past 6 years (because I moved from Tokyo 6 years ago).　

“Mr. K”, who gave me the opportunity to move to Kobe, has a main office in the city of Kobe, but he also has another base in a rural area about 40 minutes by car. Sometimes he wakes up there and works from there for a while. With an office on the mountain about to be opened in the next few months, flexible workers will have a base option on the mountain, which is just a 30-minute drive from the city.　

Where to log in

ROKKONOMAD is slated to open at the end of March 2021. It is still in the middle of renovation, but there have been trial work-in-residence initiatives that allowed people to try out and work for a few days using the cottages there that can be operated. Three groups participated, and as a matter of course, all groups were able to hold online meetings with clients from the top of the mountain.

When one has a meeting on the internet while in the mountains, the trees are reflected in the background of the screen, so many people ask “Where are you?” In this day and age, where you are logged in online from may become a type of worker expression. It would be great if everyone who entered a meeting room on the Internet logged in from a place that was different and looked comfortable. “That place looks good too. I’m going to go there next time”. It is exciting to think about this type of conversation being exchanged.

If you are going to seclude yourself away, do so in a comfortable place

In some cities, a state of emergency has been reissued, and they are asking people to refrain from going out. One can easily imagine that this might be the de facto standard of everyday life for a bit. This can lead to becoming very depressed. Even if you cannot go out though, once way to lower stress and get as much relief as possible is to be in a place that is comfortable. So if you need to seclude yourself, why not do so in comfort, say by staying on the top of a mountain maybe?

(Text = Youhei Yasuda)