Today, with the world wide web at your fingertips, you could be at home, exploring
opportunities and career options, planning your future, attending conferences in virtual
meeting rooms – all this while snuggling on the couch with your furry friend! So what would
make you, the new gen, want to come to work?

A 9-to-5 desk job no longer attracts the younger members of the workforce – they require
connection, collaboration, solitude, engagement, interaction, meditation – and who needs
desktop computers? Creating multi-functional spaces that can be transformed as per the
varying needs of the user is what makes a perfect office for the new gen.

Millenials today prefer transparency, flexibility and team activities when it comes to work.
They are confident of their skill-set, knowledge and goals, and seek an environment where
they get the opportunity to grow through change and feedback, where they work on being
solution focused – and where they can take ownership! The hierarchy of a traditional
corporate structure does not resonate well with them, nor do they require that piece of real
estate to call their own. The “corner office” is a thing of the past!

The older generation disagrees with this work ethic – according to them the young want to
work less and not differently. For them the hierarchy does exist, as do the perks – their own
office space, access to the Director’s Toilets, and the EA!
But the millennial’s are the largest percentage of the workforce today and as they move up
the ladder or laterally to more influential positions – the people they hire will be different
and so are the offices we see today.

Transformation of the “job” is happening as I write and you read, and I’m wondering what
this office of today and tomorrow is going to look like, and feel like. Most times, as with the
open office, someone decided it was the best way to work – and it was adapted across the
world. But did anyone ask the users? No!
So at this juncture, when everything is in flux, and before we make the same design mistake
made by designers in the ‘80’s, we want to know how you, our future leaders, would like
your offices to look, to feel and to function.

Please do leave your inputs here – and help us design better!

I would like to end with what Bob Dylan said – “You better start swimming or you’ll sink like
a stone, coz the times they are a-changing!”