If you own a smartphone, chances are you are playing a part in the destruction of the office as we know it.

By simply hiring an Uber, ordering with Deliveroo or booking Airbnb, your actions are helping to entrench the gig economy and promote the end of the nine-to-five workplace.

 

 

An emergent workforce is increasingly resistant to clock-watching employers. For many, the idea of working is outcome focussed – not simply a way to fill in the daytime hours. From a financial point-of-view an investment in office space that is used for only one-third of the day isn’t particularly sound.

And it’s not just start-up and shared workspaces that are reflecting this trend. Large corporations with complex bureaucracies are also moving to provide this flexibility for their employees to mitigate the risk of talent moving to their competitors… or to other industries entirely.

 

The new KPMG offices in Barangaroo

 

From the point-of-view of Millennials, the workflow is simple. It might look like this:

1. Receive a task from the employer using an app similar to Basecamp
2. Get a visual/verbal briefing via Skype
3. Collaborate with team members across Slack and Dropbox
4. Daily updates through conference call via Hangouts
5. Meet deadline: $$$$
6. Move on to the next task or employer

Across the entire task, there may not be a single day in the office or any face-to-face meetings. The technology to execute this is contained within a laptop and a smartphone.

 

 

So, is the future of work simply an extension of the gig economy?

Creating an office space requires significant investment. By decentralising the workforce, it becomes easier to bring people in and out of the business. Efficient and talented contractors can establish their own value through the quality of their work, and choosing to work within the provided budget or wait for another opportunity.

This reality is not far away. Platforms such as Fiverr and Freelancer allow for this sort of work to be conducted through service providers across the globe. Technology is only a few generations away from truly delivering this reality.