If you are reading this article on the comfy sofa or kitchen table, you are probably one of seven out of ten knowledge workers that Gallup has found to still work remotely. In fact, the Gallup report shows that there are almost as many employees who have not returned to the office in 2020 as there are employees working from home. And the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon.

As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to rage, employers who say they will return employees to the office in stages by the fall are re-adjusting their plans. One thing becomes obvious: many people don't want to go back to the office. This is not just because of the love/hate relationship between most people and the open concept space, where most of the work has been done.

Most people (65%) surveyed by HeyJobs said they want to become full-time remote employees after the pandemic, and 31% are willing to work in mixed jobs. Overall, 96% of employees want to change where their work is done, at least part of the time. This radical change came quickly—especially when you think that the “office” originated in ancient times.

Scholars and architects are currently discussing the advantages of design and its impact on worker productivity and health and safety. From flexible floor plans to furniture, the office of the future may be a bit like its previous incarnation, but the way we work in it will undergo fundamental changes. Looking back at its long history may help reveal why some leaders still adhere to the "old way" way of working together while revealing how we got here in the first place.

Antiquity, Middle Ages and Renaissance: a secluded space for maximum concentration
As early as in ancient Rome, Tabularium was used to store public records and may also be used as an office building for workers. But the medieval monks were probably the first to use cubicles or writing booths when dealing with manuscripts. These writing rooms are also used by non-professional scribes and illuminators.

Botticelli's painting of Saint Augustine in the cell depicts a small three-walled alcove with curtains, further showing that such work in the Renaissance was done in a secluded space to maximize concentration. Coincidentally, this painting is hung in the Uffizi Gallery, which was originally the central administration building of the Medici Empire.

1600S-1800S: professional personal working space
The 1600s ushered in a new era in the workplace. Witold Rybczynski, the author of "Family: A Brief History of an Idea," revealed that lawyers, civil servants and other professionals started working in offices in London, Amsterdam and Paris. Many people used to work from home. For example, in London in 1726, the Old Admiralty Building was the first purpose-built office to store the Royal Navy's paperwork and had meeting spaces like the Admiralty Board Meeting Room, which are still in use today.

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The East India Company established its own headquarters soon after, and other companies also began construction during this period, which prompted Sir Charles Trevelyan, who served as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance from 1840 to 1859, to write:

For intellectual work, a separate room is needed so as not to disturb people working with the brain; but for more mechanical work, multiple clerks working in the same room under proper supervision are the appropriate way to satisfy it. ..

1900s: the birth of the open office
Back in time to the early 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright stepped in to design the Larkin Administration Building in 1906, which was the first modern office, and then in 1936 designed the first for SC Johnson Wax An open office building. The work philosophy is changing, and the office layout is designed to maximize productivity. This is the holy grail of "management experts" like Frederick Taylor, who advised companies in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

1960s: Distractions and the "Office of Action"
It wasn't until the 1960s that open offices really began to become a popular workplace design. Bürolandschaft was originally a German design method, meaning "office landscape", aimed at democratizing the workplace and creating more interaction between colleagues.

Robert Propst, President of Herman Miller Research Corp. wrote: "Today's office is a wasteland. It consumes vitality, hinders talent, and hinders achievement. This is the daily scenario of unfulfilled intentions and failed efforts."

The company's answer is the debut of Action Office, which can be said to be the first flexible cubicle space because it provides an alternative working environment with a certain degree of privacy while still not restricting movement.

As more women entered the workforce in the 1960s and 70s, the open office received some opposition. A 1968 article by a British observer detailed the problems (and some positive factors) of the new Boots open office. From the snippet:

Boots’ own chief architect, Ryan Mitchell, sits in a private office with a smoked glass wall. He can be seen clearly through the glass wall and said that he is visually disturbed. He had to turn his table sideways to avoid seeing the miniskirt.

Unsurprisingly, this brings a new design feature called the modest panel, which covers the front of the desk so that female workers can wear skirts inconspicuously. Another article in The Observer, this 1970 article, argued that “a woman’s legs are nothing to be ashamed of, and there is no reason to hide them behind obstacles that will tear the stockings and increase discomfort and inconvenience.” The designer interviewed for this work suggested that the middle drawer of the desk should be removed to make it easier for female workers to cross their legs.

As more and more companies accepted the mobile office idea and its modular flexibility, this concept evolved into the mass production of small cubicles as we now know it. For the designer Propst, this is not an excellent iteration. He declared: “Not all organizations are smart and progressive. Many are run by rude people who can make hell with the same equipment. They make The cubicle is filled with people. The barren mouse hole.” It’s too late, because many companies have invested in fabric-covered labyrinths.

Now: workplace welfare and the rise of remote work
Of course, before the pandemic, companies from small start-ups to large multinationals are racing to raise design stakes to keep their employees happy and productive. In the past ten years, we have seen the introduction of game spaces, sleeping cabins, plant walls, lounges, desks, etc.

At the same time, there has been such a rapid transformation that no one expected: the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the return of working from home—just like the Renaissance.