New social infrastructure for the Future of Work, post-office

Co-Designing the Post-Office Spaces

The traditional concept of work is undergoing a profound transformation. While a global pandemic made us reevaluate and restructure our lives, it also made distributed work available to the masses, changing the physical and social ergonomics of work forever. 

So many of us don’t want to go back to the old ways of working and living– the hamster wheel of busyness, living for the weekend. On the other hand, we haven’t quite figured out what new ways of working really look like, and are faced with new challenges: While flexibility and autonomy boost job satisfaction and well-being, the rituals (or lack thereof) of WFH can quickly devolve into isolation and a lack of novelty by limiting the range of experiences that people have access to on a daily basis. 

As Zeus Jones highlighted: “In our increasingly digital world, the digital tools that enable remote work are the anchors keeping us stuck in a repetitive rut of sameness.” Which leaves us with a profound longing for connection and novel experiences to punctuate the mundane rhythms of the day-to-day.

In order to solve these problems, we can’t just look at symptoms like worker burnout, or surface-level bandaids like free lunch Fridays. We need to re-imagine the way we work, as well as the social infrastructures that work used to provide us.

With Out of Office we always have been (and will continue to be) about imagination. We’re reimagining how we work and live in a modern world, and we believe imagination is key. New narratives and stories are essential because they shape our perception of the world. They expand what we think is possible. Some of our efforts include sharing inspiring stories of people approaching work/life with a sense of possibility, helping people see new paths, and a collective publication (Reimagining the Nature of Work 2023) together with some brilliant thought partners.

But over the past years, I found the lived experience still felt quite disconnected from the world we envision.

One of the biggest “on the ground” challenges we observed over the past years is the lack of purpose, permission and structure for people to leave the comfort of their lonely home offices – and simply talk to one another.

The OOO Uniform is the first tool we launched, where we’re exploring how we can make a generation of modern workers feel more connected and inspired. For the past two months, we co-designed the uniform together with more than 50 OOO’ers, and we’re currently testing it in a highly curated cohort in 4 different cities in the US before launching it publicly in May!

As an evolution of that, we’re also looking for what people need nearer to where they live. How can we bridge belonging to a global network while engaging locally? What are people looking for? To answer these questions, we’re going beyond the body and into the surrounding space, exploring the need for coffee shops, communal workspaces, and other „post-Office spaces“ that may need a little guidance to make them fit for co-working and connection.  

Fun side-note: The name “Out of Office” came to me at an exhibition about the evolution of our workspaces at A/D/O Space, a work/studio space for creatives, artists and technologists in Brooklyn (RIP).

So why “Social infrastructure”?
Per the definition of Gehl, social infrastructure is the network of physical and social structures that build relationships and foster thriving communities. What we’re currently seeing is a lack of/difficulty in finding infrastructure that is designed for the needs of the modern worker – to come together, linger, co-work and build social connections. 

While offices used to serve as social hubs for connection and gathering for the workers of the 21st century, the future of work is not bound to the office space anymore. When we talk about the future of work, we now need to think about how and where we engage in our local neighborhoods – working and not working – and design the infrastructure that builds relationships and fosters thriving communities.

What’s next:
From this exploration, we’re hoping to 

• Learn what the needs for new “third spaces” and social infrastructures beyond the home and office look like – to make them fit for the modern worker. 

• Explore how remote workers might become active participants and investors in their neighborhoods for the activities that suit their work and lifestyles, and how we can invest (either through corporate, grant funding or reward mechanisms) in places that aren’t currently ideal for co-working and connection. 

You could say we have big aspirations.

Of course, we certainly won’t be accomplishing all of this alone ;) Even if we could, we wouldn’t want to do it alone! We want your help. We want you at the table. Connecting with the wider OOO community has been one of the most gratifying and inspiring aspects of this whole journey, and we want to meet you, come together with purpose, learn and grow with each other, and keep being the change we so wish to see in the world. 

With all that we do, we’re aiming to build a community of like-minded people who are energized around the subject of reimagining work & life in a modern world, and build a sense of hope and possibility. With the launch of the uniform, we’ll also test a new program, with everything we do and charge for, a part goes into a Collective Fund. With this fund, we’re planning to fund new ideas, tools and ventures to pave the way to a new way of working and living. 

We’re excited for what's to come and can’t wait to see where this is gonna bring us! 

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GET INVOLVED!

🌐 Join our next co-creation session: Designing the Post-Office Spaces
🕵️ Become part of our scout network and scout out an OOO Neighborhood Fave
📍Join our next Field Trip in Toronto (Zine-making!) or express interest in attending or hosting a Creative Field Trip near you
🌿 Join us for our Creative Residencies – online (May) or IRL in Italy (Sept)