One presenter at the conference I recently attended said that her company is adopting flexible workspaces. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

No family photos on your desk. No drawers full of catsup packets, used plastic forks, performance evaluations from 5 years ago, and crumbs (or droppings?) of indeterminate origin. No sticky notes affixed to monitors. No scented candle which you probably weren’t supposed to have anyway due to the “open flame” policy imposed by the safety committee. No stacks of magazines that you haven’t gotten around to reading but hate to throw away because you imagine you might. None of your daughter’s artwork on the wall. No Dilbert calendar (or in the case of one coworker, no Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders calendar). No mouse with the left and right buttons reversed to spare tendon damage. No diplomas framed and hung conspicuously to reinforce your credibility. No collection of travel coffee mugs from every conference you attended, lined up on your bookshelves like Hummel figurines.

In short, you go to work with your own IP phone under your arm. Check out an office, plug in your phone, and voila: office in a box. If something other than standard computer equipment is needed, check that out too. If you normally work in Toronto, you can visit San Jose and your clients are none-the-wiser.

While this all seems cold and impersonal to me, I can see how it *could* be beneficial for certain types of workers...mainly consultants or salespeople who are highly mobile anyway. Yet, with this sort of get-up, I could finally lay to rest one of my most persistent fears: that I will be struck by a bus on the way to work and one of my coworkers will have to clean out my desk. That’s not a job I’d wish on anyone.