Flexible office locations and teleworking reduce the need for as many square feet per employee, according to a real estate broker that specializes in flexible work space. Broadband is also changing the workforce in other ways, by altering the definition of work and ideas about how productive an employee could be, according to Your Office Agent, a real-estate consultancy that helps businesses find space for remote workers and flexible offices.

As a broadband lover and remote worker, I’m intrigued with how broadband changes the way people work, so a blog post on the company site yesterday caught my eye. It said:

Companies have traditionally strived to have between 100 and 200 square feet per employee but, by employing alternative workplace strategies such as teleworking, smart working and outsourcing, this can be brought down to as low as 50 square foot per employee. Yes, we are talking about serious savings here.

At GigaOM, about two-thirds of the editorial staff are remote, with most of us working from home or from co-working spaces. Our home office is also devoid of real cubicles, and I would guess that our overall square footage per employee is on the low end when all of that is taken into account. The down side of this flexibility is that it can leave employees without an “office” and feeling distant from colleagues. Another issue is who pays when the employee doesn’t have a home office and wants to work from a co-working venture or a traditional office space?

For example, if someone doesn’t want to work by themselves at home, does a company that is willing to hire them have to suddenly invest in office space? I’ve seen it happen both ways, where a company made the investment and actually saw the business grow and where a company decided not to hire the employee. That’s pretty binary, which is why I think Your Office Agent or companies like LiquidSpace, which is like an AirBnB for office space are so interesting. If you’re interested in these kinds of questions too, we have an entire conference on how broadband is changing work in December called Net:Work.

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According to a study from the Light Right Consortium, “People who are more satisfied with their lighting rate the space as more attractive, are happier, and are more comfortable and satisfied with their environment and work.” As far as home office improvements go, investing your time on proper lighting seems like it’s worth it.

Here are some pointers to get started on a well-lit office:

Increase amounts of natural light. The best way to light a home office is through natural light, not only because it’s brighter and more even than artificial lighting, but also because it’s free. I’m glad that my home office seems to do well in this area, because one wall is a glass sliding door to an open veranda, while another wall has a large window.

If you don’t have the benefit of natural light in your office, it seems like common sense to compensate for it by using bulbs that replicate daylight (full-spectrum bulbs). But research shows that such bulbs only make a difference if you’re performing tasks that require fine discrimination of color (if you do print design work, for example).

Opt for indirect lighting. Don’t imitate corporate cubicle farms by installing direct, parabolic lighting. Professors at Cornell University conducted a study (pictures here) that showed the negative effects of these lights in an office. These lights were bothersome and made the subjects’ eyes tire and lose focus more easily. Apparently, direct parabolic lights also lessens productivity (as self-reported by employees). For the effect on your eyes alone, it’s better to opt for lensed indirect lighting for your ceiling fixtures.

Plan your furniture layout well. The first thing you have to consider when rearranging furniture is preventing reflected glare on your monitor.

I mentioned above that I have a lot of natural light flowing into my office. This presents a disadvantage, too, because too much direct natural light produces reflected glare on the screen. This lessens my options for monitor placement. My solution to this is to place translucent blinds on the windows to diffuse the sunlight a bit.

Here are other things you need to consider for your layout:

• If you have other glossy or shiny surfaces in the office, make sure that any reflected glare they have is out of your line of sight.
• Use large furniture such as shelves and dividers to maximize or block bright sources of light, depending on your needs.
• For offices that are openly connected to other rooms (no wall), include the lighting in the other room in your plans since it affects the lighting quality in your office.
• Paint your walls in bright colors. Just make sure that they’re not too bright or glossy, producing glare.

Properly space your light fixtures. When planning your fixtures, remember that your entire office should be uniformly lit. Watch out for areas that might be too dark or too bright. Avoid placing fixtures within your usual line of sight, and don’t install them within three inches of a wall (they’ll create sharp areas of shadow and light).

Have as much control as you can. If you can afford it, install dimmers and other methods to control brightness. When used properly, these devices can conserve energy and allow you to adjust your lighting as natural light changes throughout the day. Also, if you’ll be using desk lamps, make sure that you can adjust them on three planes.

Although improving lighting quality in the home office sounds like a lot of work, it’s much better than having a building’s existing lights forced on you. I hope the points I’ve raised above have been — pardon the pun — enlightening.

How well did you plan for the lighting in your home office? What effect does it have on your work?

Image by CraigPJ from sxc.hu

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I shouldn’t have been surprised — I’d told her earlier in the week that we might become more productive if we work near each other. At that time it was merely a suggestion. I didn’t think that one day I would just wake up and find it a reality.

“Oh well, there’s nothing wrong with that,” I thought to myself. It’s not like we didn’t discuss it. What’s the worst that could happen? In fact, I believed we were going to be more motivated and productive.

A few days later, I realized that every benefit of coworking with my partner came paired with a disadvantage.

Inspiration vs. Distraction

As Darrell suggested in a previous post, you should pick a coworking partner that you respect and admire. I knew I could learn from my partner’s work ethic and her ability to make connections. I find her inspiring, but having her around is distracting too. Every time she moved or made a sound, I would shoot involuntary glances to her side of the room. To be fair, she told me that although she’s motivated by my passion for work she got annoyed at how loud I type.

This meant that we needed some physical barriers so that we could block out distracting movements and sounds. At the same time, we didn’t want to completely separate our workspaces. Our solution was to keep our desks six feet apart, rather than side-by-side, and place a small shelf of books in between. From where I’m sitting I can see her monitor, keyboard and hands without being distracted with the other movements she makes. Also, she can barely hear me type.

Common Ground vs. Conflicts

Having similar goals and habits can work for you, but there will always be  conflict no matter how compatible you think you are. For example, we agree on the color of the walls (orange), the position of the furniture and having a small garden behind the sliding door. Things we disagree on: everything else.

The workaround to this issue is to know your priorities as a team and as individuals. Do you need a completely silent work environment or can you adjust to soft ambient music? Is your need for a large shelf as important as her need for more leg room? There will always be compromises. Knowing your priorities can identify the compromises that will least affect you.

If you must argue, pick your battles well. An argument over who makes the coffee is not as important as a constructive discussion on how the other person’s habits interfere with your work.

Collaboration vs. Independence

It’s hard to create privacy when you’re working in one room. This can be a good thing, since you can help each other out of time sinks as well as share ideas. Too much collaboration, on the other hand, can be suffocating.

Facilitating collaboration was easy. The whiteboard in the office allowed us to write our to-do lists for the day and the rest of the week. If I need help with something, I just write it on the box labeled “Requests.” She then responds in a way that was most convenient for both of us whether it’s through email, a conversation, or Twitter.

Even then, we’d often think of a question that needed a quick reply. Asking out loud worked at first, but during peak productive moments we’d rather work uninterrupted. How would she know if it was okay to disturb me (and vice versa)?

Here’s the solution we came up with: a simple “DND” under my name in the whiteboard shows that I can’t be bothered until the “DND” has come off. The same goes for her. Now, it’s almost a reflex to look at the whiteboard and check for the “DND” before I speak.

Coworking with my partner was much harder than I expected. The good news is that with continued effort, we’re slowly getting to the point where the arrangement is making us stronger — both as a couple and as teleworkers.

Have you ever tried sharing a home office with your spouse or partner? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Image by nyuszika from sxc.hu

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Not all teleworkers are lucky enough to have a large house. This means that designated office space will be limited. In fact, many teleworkers I know work from a partitioned corner of their kitchen or living room. If you’re in a similar situation, planning your home office can be a challenge. What can you do to have an efficient workspace in a small area?

Spend time planning your space. It’s best to make a visual plan so that each square foot is accounted for. Doing this saves more time and effort over moving furniture around on the spot.

Avoid large furniture. The smaller the space you have to work with, the leaner your furniture should be. I made the mistake of buying a large drafting table with a lightbox. It takes up half the room, but I only use a third of its surface. A more practical choice would’ve been a smaller desk and a separate lightbox that I can tuck away when I’m not using it. At least the table is foldable, so I can rest it against the wall when I need more floor space.

Which brings me to the next point — have folding or stacking furniture, if you can. This is especially important for pieces you don’t use often, such as extra chairs or tables. I’m not saying that you have to go out and buy new furniture. Just be selective about which existing pieces go into your office.

Go multifunctional. As much as possible, use multifunctional furniture. For example, a cabinet of the right height can also be used as a standing workstation. You can also have a small bench, ottoman, or side table with storage compartments. If you’re using a laptop, a cabinet with a foldout desk can be a good choice as your work desk if the height and size is comfortable enough for you.

One of the things I did was to modify an old computer chair so that it can serve as a stool when a visitor needs to look at the computer with me, and also function as an ottoman when I recline my own chair to relax.

Take advantage of vertical space. For extra storage space, install overhead shelves in your office. This allows you to increase the functional surface area that you can work with. You can make these shelves easier to reach by having a small stepladder nearby.

Purge ruthlessly. I used to keep the boxes that came with new software and equipment. By storing these boxes, I was essentially storing air. When I eventually recycled the boxes, I found myself with almost a full cabinet of free space. In case you’ll need some boxes in the future, don’t store them as they are. Instead, fold them up so that you can pile several boxes neatly in a cabinet or under a bed.

Here’s another thing that eats up office space: old or broken computer peripherals and parts. If some of them are still working, donate or sell them. If not, throw them away or recycle them.

Look for inspiration. Browse the web for examples of small rooms and see what makes them work. Here are some sites that can help:

• Small Space Style
• HGTV has a small space section
• Inspiring workplaces Flickr Pool
• Shedworking — Technically, this blog is about using sheds as living or working space. Many of the sheds are small, so they might give you some ideas.

Having a small home office shouldn’t be a big disadvantage if you know how to work around it. with some careful planning and creativity, the worth of your small office won’t be measured in square feet.

Do you have a small home office? How do you work around space constraints?

Image by jadey919 from sxc.hu

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Here are a few things you can try:

Add a plant or two. It can be refreshing to see some green plants your office. They can provide the necessary contrast, especially if you too many gadgets lying around. Some particular types of plants, such as heartleaf philodendron and English ivy, can also improve the air quality in your office. Just make sure to place them near a window.

If you want to add more artistic flair to your office plants, you can use a terrarium instead. For inspiration, visit the terrarium pool at Flickr.

Have visual inspiration. I like having paintings, posters and other inspiring visuals in my office. These range from family photos to framed paintings from some artist friends. Having them around helps me regain my focus when I find that my eyes are randomly wandering around the room. If you don’t have the budget to buy art prints, you can always look for interesting images online and print them. The Dubberly Design Office has a wonderful concept map of the creative process, which you can download as a PDF file. Hugh MacLeod also has cartoons you can print out and use as “cube grenades.”

Evaluate your desk for ergonomics. Even a few inches can make a difference to your comfort. Ergotron.com has a handy workspace planner that allows you to find the right position for your workstation’s components.

Keep healthy snacks and drinks nearby. Many web workers I know love to keep a cup of tea or coffee at their desk. But instead of placing them on the same table as your computer, I suggest that you place them on a different table to prevent accidental spills.

I also find that planning healthy snacks beforehand and placing them in my office makes it easy for me to choose healthy food (such as fruits) compared to convenience foods I tend to find in the fridge or the kitchen. By making the healthier snacks easier to access, they’ll be the first thing I’ll reach for. It’s a good idea to keep a basket or tray of healthy snacks in your office.

Add a whiteboard. There are so many ways to use a whiteboard that I find it hard to imagine working without one. While I keep my daily task list on Google Calendar, the whiteboard gives me a quick overview of my commitments for the next three months.

Repaint your walls. The ambient color of your office can make a big difference to your working mood. Cool colors such as blue and green tend to be relaxing, while bright colors like orange and yellow are invigorating. Color psychology isn’t an exact science, so choose the paint color that reflects your working style.

Set up a relaxation corner. Sometimes my home office is the only quiet room in the house. Although I mostly do my work in this office, it also becomes my sanctuary when my housemates have people over. If you have a similar home environment, a small chair can be good for unwinding during your breaks.

Have you tried doing any of the above items? What other simple changes have you made to your home office?

Image by EdwinP from sxc.hu

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You can kiss your home office good-bye (hopefully temporarily). So now what?

There may be co-working spaces near you, but they’re not quite as ubiquitous as Starbucks yet… You can dig (and dig and dig) through craigslist and hope it’s your lucky day and that your dream workspace will appear in the first 10 listings (because looking at any more than that is mind numbing and hazardous to your health) and that the people with the perfect space for rent that miraculously appears in listing number seven actually respond to you when you do contact them. (I have a very low tolerance for classifieds sites, can you tell?)

You can go to Regus, the slick, corporate rent-a-workspace/meeting room/virtual office people, and deal with “a representative” who will probably try to sell you a plan or a package or something. (That’s just the impression I get from looking at their site and knowing how American businesses operate… I could be wrong.)

Or… You can check out ShareYourOffice.com, a new project with a whole lot of potential. It’s a free service for people who need office space, or those who have extra space they’d like to fill with a warm, rent-paying body.

Wait! Before you say, “Not interested” and stop reading, think of this: it’s a French startup. Parisian. Which means most of the office spaces (at the moment) are in Paris. Ever dreamed of living and working in France?

Why not get outta Dodge for a month or three and rent a workspace in some gorgeous, 19th-century (or older) building with hardwood floors and crown molding on the high ceilings, curlycue iron balconies embracing every giant window… And they have fancy espresso machines in their offices here, and teensy weensy cups (like in those annoying George Clooney Nespresso commercials). No donuts on Fridays, though. No donuts period. (Small price to pay, if you ask me.)

You can search for a space using multiple criteria (number of desks, physical space, amenities, price range), and you can see your search results on a Google map. You can create an alert so you’ll receive an e-mail if something that fits your criteria comes up. Those with space to offer can provide many details, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting. (Here’s a demo.)

The site began as bureauxapartager.com (offices to share), a project of FaberNovel, a management consulting company with their fingers in many pies. The company recently translated the site into English and kindly bought a domain name we anglophones could remember how to spell. The project came into being because the company had some extra office space and, being groovy techie webbie types, they decided to offer their space to stray geeks in need.

The idea has since grown into something very cool. They want to accumulate office space and focus on startups in need of incubator space, and plan to offer them space at a below-market rate. All in the spirit of cooperation and community that pervades the (generally) youthful and idealistic tech crowd. (I so dig all that warm fuzziness.) And, as we speak, they’re submitting a proposal to the City of Paris, which currently has plans to build 50,000 m2 of space for incubators in the city. (How sweet is that, by the way?) The bureauxapartager proposal urges the city to consider using existing space instead, by encouraging businesses to use their platform to rent their spare space to co-workers and startups.

I really like the idea of this project. I think we don’t really know what the economic storm that’s brewing will bring, and this platform could not only be a great service for web workers in need of a change of scenery, but it could also potentially help businesses pay their rent if they fall on hard times.

Help spread the word (and the grooviness)!

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