Google, Facebook and the new paradigm of the Work Space

Larry Page, Google’s CEO, has recently mentioned that the current society doesn’t need to work frenetically in order to guaranty people’s needs, admitting the 40 hours work week may have its days numbered. Companies such as Google and other multinationals are adopting flexible work models as a way, not only to rationalize costs, but also to increase productivity and satisfaction of its collaborators, through a higher balance between personal and professional life, allowing them to work wherever they feel better. The work models follow the society’s evolution and the latest studies predict that 40% of the United States workforce will be composed by freelancers in 2020, that is, more than 60 million people.

This new paradigm came to create a new concept of “Office”: in reality the Office is where we are at a certain moment: at home, in the coffee shop, in a traditional office or in a shared work space (Coworking).

We have no doubts that the physical space will always exist and the face-to-face contact will keep on being important in the professional relationships: the distance working, when done intensively and in isolated places, such as our home, does not generate that energy which is fundamental for the discussion of ideas, strategies and experiences sharing.

Facebook, for example, had several collaborators in Boston working from the Workbar, a coworking space network of this city – the strategy passed through allow a higher labour flexibility and a freedom in the choice of the work space, resulting in productivity gains, time saving in displacements between home, clients and office, and in a significant reduction of real estate costs on the part of that American multinational.

 There are several examples that can illustrate this reality and in the coming years there will be a true revolution in this “admirable new world” of work models. The new generations of professionals and the companies of the new economy have already understood the advantages and are leading this changing process.

Carlos Gonçalves
Avila Business Centers’CEO / Avila Coworking
Co-author of the book “Out of the Office”