越來越多的soho,企業以後還需要辦公室嗎大綱
Do entrepreneurs need an office? Increasingly the view seems to be no.
企業家需要辦公室嗎？答案似乎越來越傾向於不需要。
A nifty new book called Out of Office by Chris Ward, is a manifesto in favour of roaming around using temporary hotspots to work. It was hard for me to resist this freelancer's manual: the inside cover features a picture of one of my Gail's bakeries.
克里斯•沃德(Chris Ward)在其精彩的新書《不在辦公室工作》(Out of Office)中，提倡利用臨時的無線熱點網絡工作。我很難抵制這本“自由職業者操作手冊”的誘惑：封二有一幅我的Gail's麪包店的圖片。
The author explains how President Barack Obama's first inauguration speech was written by 27-year-old Jon Favreau sitting in Starbucks; how Richard Tait, creator of Cranium, started the board game in a coffee shop; how Michael Acton Smith invented the children's virtual world Moshi Monsters in his local Caffè Nero; and how JK Rowling, the novelist behind Harry Potter, believes a café is the best place to write.
作者描述了美國總統巴拉克·奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的首次就職演講如何由27歲的喬恩•法夫羅(Jon Favreau)坐在星巴克(Starbucks)裏寫就；《腦力大作戰》(Cranium)創作者理查德•泰特(Richard Tait)如何在一家咖啡館裏開始創作這個棋盤遊戲；邁克爾•阿克頓•史密斯(Michael Acton Smith)如何在當地的Caffè Nero咖啡館發明兒童的虛擬世界Moshi Monsters；以及《哈利•波特》(Harry Potter)的作者J•K•羅琳(JK Rowling)如何相信咖啡館是寫作的最佳場所。
It is a convincing narrative, and for basic start-ups it makes much more sense to work from home and public spaces such as cafés than committing to an expensive office lease. Offices are hard to find, costly to fit out and involve much tedious administration. Moreover, by staying independent you avoid the misery of a daily commute, which for many is the worst part of a job.
這種觀點令人信服。對基本的初創企業來說，在家和咖啡館等公共場所工作比租用昂貴的辦公場所更划算。且不說很難找到合適的辦公室，而且裝修也得花不少錢，同時還涉及繁瑣的行政管理工作。此外，保持獨立讓你免受天天上下班之苦——對許多人來說，通勤是工作中最糟糕的一環。
Thanks to mobile communications, ubiquitous WiFi and cloud storage, together with the increasing irrelevance of heavy-duty equipment such as photocopiers, fax machines and desktop PCs, the traditional office is becoming redundant for many sorts of organisations and workers. Of course, factory managers, surgeons, chefs and industrial chemists are still tied to specialist locations. But many of us – from software engineers and copywriters to architects and fashion designers – can operate almost anywhere. That freedom, and a willingness to adapt, can make one's career more enjoyable and, sometimes, more efficient.
得益於移動通信、無處不在的WiFi無線網絡和雲存儲，以及複印機、傳真機和臺式電腦等重型設備變得越來越無關緊要，傳統辦公室對許多組織和員工來說日益顯得多餘。當然，工廠經理、外科醫生、廚師和工業化學家仍然得在專門場所工作。但我們許多人——從軟件工程師和撰稿人，到建築師和時裝設計師——幾乎可以在任何地方工作。這種自由，再加上主動適應的意願，能夠使人們的職業更有樂趣，有時效率也會更高。
Some oppose flexible working. Notoriously, a few months ago Yahoo sent round a memo stating that all employees must work “physically together” – essentially banning working from home. The company worried that falling productivity was caused by remote staff, who cannot respond to issues as quickly, while missing impromptu meetings that can make an important contribution to an organisation's output.
有些人反對靈活工作方式。一個出名的例子是，幾個月前，雅虎(Yahoo)在發給員工的備忘錄裏聲稱，所有員工必須“集中在一起”辦公——實質上禁止員工在家工作。該公司擔心，遠程辦公的員工們導致生產率下降，因爲他們不能迅速回應問題，還無法參加對企業產出可能有重要貢獻的臨時會議。
Unquestionably, real collaboration and interaction are much harder using digital devices instead of face-to-face contact. A discussion using Skype is not as good as being in the same room, just as an email exchange is never as good as a conversation on the phone.
毫無疑問，使用數字設備而不是面對面交流來進行真正的協作和互動要難得多。使用Skype進行討論不如坐在同一間辦公室裏討論有效果，正如電子郵件交流永遠趕不上電話交流一樣。
But this is an age when fixed costs must be kept to a minimum. If founders or employees prefer the informal method of distributed working, then you can save money and have a happier workforce if they labour from home, car or a cool espresso bar.
但這是一個必須儘可能削減固定成本的時代。如果創始人或僱員喜歡非正式的分散工作方式，那麼你就可以讓員工在家、汽車或者酷的咖啡館工作，既節省資金，又讓他們更快樂。There are alternatives to relying totally on ad hoc spaces. New clubs are springing up that permit their members to hire smart board rooms by the hour for important meetings when you have to impress clients. In London, these include the likes of Adam Street, One Alfred Place, and The Clubhouse. Then there are co-working spaces, rather more basic resources with hot desking and a sharing ethos. And there are serviced office providers such as Regus, MWB and Workspace. They offer a much more structured solution to the problem of where you locate your business.
企業也可以不用完全依賴臨時場所。現在新的俱樂部大量涌現，當俱樂部會員需要給客戶留下深刻印象時，就可以按鐘點租用智能會議室來舉辦重要會議。在倫敦，這些俱樂部包括Adam Street、One Alfred Place和The Clubhouse之類。還有就是共享工作場所，提供比較基本的資源，包括輪流使用的辦公桌和共享氛圍。雷格斯(Regus)、MWB和Workspace等企業提供有服務的辦公室。它們針對你的企業地點問題，提供更加結構化的解決方案。
I tried working from my study at home briefly and hated it. I needed to separate my domestic and work lives physically: thanks to always-on mobile devices this is hard to achieve anyhow. So I make the daily pilgrimage to a specific place of work, because I enjoy the sociability, and because when companies reach a certain scale they struggle to be taken seriously if the only meeting room is a coffee shop. Other challenges include a lack of confidentiality and the inability to tap nearby support.
我曾嘗試在家裏的書房工作，但我不喜歡這種工作方式。我需要將我的家庭生活與工作分開：由於永遠在線的移動設備，現在本來就很難做到這一點。因此我每日朝聖似地前往辦公地點，因爲我享受這種社會性，而且當公司達到一定規模時，如果它只能在咖啡館開會，人們就很難把它當回事。其他問題還包括缺乏保密性，以及無法就近獲得支持。
But I like businesses with small headquarters – they are better placed to minimise bureaucracy and office politics. In industries I know well, such as retailing and hospitality, it is assumed staff are on the road most of the time and hence they are able to share offices. This saves costs and keeps management close to customers and the action.
但我喜歡總部規模較小的企業，它們在儘可能地減少官僚體制和辦公室政治方面更有優勢。在零售和酒店業這些我熟悉的行業裏，可以假定員工大部分時間都在外面，因此他們可以共用辦公室。企業因此可以節省成本，同時管理層也可以接近客戶和經營第一線。
Overall, the anti-office movement is probably a good thing for the morale of your people, your cost base and the productivity of your teams.
總的來說，對員工士氣、成本基礎和團隊生產率來說，反辦公室運動可能是一件好事。
