Is the Traditional Office the Least Productive Place to Work?

Last summer we did a lot of interviews (over 60) with members of U.S. coworking facilities.  One message we consistently heard was coworkers felt they were more productive at a coworking facility than they were working from home or from coffee shops.

We heard this so consistently, we included several folks explaining why in our Voices of Coworking video.

Office Nomads, a coworking facility in Seattle, discusses the same topic in their blog post Negotiating Your Coworking Membership With Your Boss.  Key quote:

The most important and positive element that people gain from their time at coworking spaces though, is the productivity.

What makes this really interesting is the amount of research saying most people who work from home are more productive than they are at their offices.  For example, the Costs and Benefits of Telecommuting are nicely described by the smart folks over at the Telework Research Network.  A major benefit of telecommuting from home, backed up by numerous examples, is increased productivity.

So let's see here.  Working from home is more productive than working in a traditional office.  Working in a coworking facility is more productive than working from home.  

This suggests that the least productive place to work is a traditional office.  

Comments

[Tenedero Jerome]

The best thing that you should to have a productive office is setting up good office furniture and supply.

Get an Office technology at http://www.a2boffice.co.uk/

[makati office space]

Whether we like it or not practices do change, even the most established ones. Let's take Google for example, they have an unusual office setup, how well are they doing again?

[Timberry]

Thanks for this one Steve, I think it's also a good example of how surveys can end up being professionally done but having misleading conclusions because people tell surveys what they want to believe or see themselves saying rather than the truth.

And I'm not sure we -- most of us -- really recognize the truth about productivity for ourselves. We think we're most productive where we most like being, but ... well I guess that's a long debate.

Anyhow I like the logical chain here, nicely done. Tim

[Ecommerce]

For me, it is. The net connection is way to slow on my workplace. In my experience it is far the worst.