We think of the office as where we work. Yet if you really want to focus on crucial tasks, heading to our desks during regular business hours is a terrible idea.

That’s the premise of a recent opinion piece on CNN.com, Why the office is the worst place to work. The full article, by entrepreneur and speaker Jason Fried, includes gems such as the following:

When you’re in the office you’re lucky to have 30 minutes to yourself. Usually you get in, there’s a meeting, then there’s a call, then someone calls you over to their desk, or your manager comes over to see what you’re doing. These interruptions chunk your day into smaller and smaller bits. Fifteen minutes here, 30 minutes there, another 15 minutes before lunch, then an afternoon meeting, etc. When are you supposed to get work done if you don’t have any time to work?

In fact, Fried has summarized his entire thesis in two simple, profound sentences:

The modern office has become an interruption factory. You can’t get work done at work anymore.

There are all kinds of suggestions in the article for making the workplace somewhere you can actually be productive. Fried promotes everything from skipping meetings to having days where no one is allowed to talk to each other. These might sound like radical ideas, but the problem is so profound that crazy might just be needed. Work is, in fact, a place where you can’t get much work accomplished!

Here at The Methodology Blog, we’ve covered the irony of workspaces many times before. If you want more productivity, give employees more freedom over the manner, place and time they conduct their work. Some will abuse the privilege, but most will take to the skies.

Learn more about how workspaces impact efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Contact Slaughter Development today!

Thanks to reader Eric Marasco of Proforma Distinctive Marketing for the idea for this post.

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