Thursday, May 13th, 2021
How Your Office Might Look In The Future
“The best way to enjoy your job is to imagine yourself without one.” – Oscar Wilde
So many CPA firms have been planning how to return their employees to the office. The, not once long ago, open office layout that was so popular is now a thing of the past. Accounting firms don’t have to worry about that, they never made the switch to an open office anyway. Private offices have always been the dream of up-and-comers in accounting firms.
Private offices for everyone doesn’t seem to be a very workable plan either. Think futuristic and maybe follow some of the ideas Google is implementing. Google’s first office was a cluttered garage (like many tech start-ups).
Here are some of the things Google is doing:
- Encourage (but not mandate) that employees be vaccinated before returning to the office.
- Over the next year, they will try out new office designs.
- They are designing “Team Pods.”
- Meeting room concepts like Campfire where virtual employees will be joined with in-person employees (check out the article to see a picture).
- In some areas, around the world, Google is building outdoor work areas.
- Employees can return to their permanent desks on a rotation schedule to ensure that no one is there on the same day as their immediate desk neighbors.
- There’s more! Read the full article here and see all the pictures. Be sure to watch the video of the balloon wall! I simply can’t visualize that in a CPA firm.
What is your plan? Don’t feel like you have to make a sweeping change all at once. Like Google, experiment with various options over the next six months or so. Keep your team informed and involved in the experiments. Be creative (and caring).
And, never forget you cannot please everyone.
- "If you take care of your immediate surroundings, the universe will take care of itself."
