Everywhere, the presence of laptops, tablets, and smart phones means more work is getting done far from a cubicle.



The millennial generation, those young folks mostly in their 20s, get the credit or blame for a lot of changes in our workplaces today just as the baby boomers did in their day.
But the experts at Herman Miller, the legendary maker of office furniture based in western Michigan, offer a counter view: They say it's the nature of our daily tasks that has changed our office designs, not the age of the people sitting at the desk.
Ryan Anderson, the leader of Herman Miller's technology insight and exploration team, said sweeping changes in office design today reflect a more collaborative team approach to achieving work goals. No longer does a worker labor more or less in isolation at his or her high-walled cubicle. Rather, that same worker may be roaming about the office from small-group meeting to small-group meeting carrying a laptop or tablet as they go. Age doesn't really matter.
"For me, it’s really about changes in work versus changes in generations," Anderson said last week.
Gretta Peterson, a workplace consultant for Herman Miller, echoed that.

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"I think a lot of the differences between generations has been somewhat exaggerated," she said. "Most work has changed and most offices haven’t, so it’s become harder for people of all ages to thrive in the workplace."
Herman Miller, like Steelcase and other Michigan furniture makers, has been at the forefront of understanding changes in how we work and what it means for office design. One obvious point: Office design today calls for less space dedicated to an individual worker and more space dedicated to collaborative tasks.
Gone are the high-walled cubicles of the past. Today we see more flexible meeting spaces with easily adjustable furniture. White boards to scribble on during meetings are common throughout a workspace.
A case in point here at the Free Press: Last fall, the newspaper moved its offices from its traditional newspaper building at 615 W. Lafayette to the renovated Federal Reserve Building at 160 W. Fort owned by businessman Dan Gilbert. At the new location, there are fewer private offices than in the older building, and individual desk spaces are somewhat smaller. But there are many more meeting or "huddle" rooms of various sizes, equipped with power outlets and white boards to draw on.
Everywhere, the presence of laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and the wide availability of reliable Wi-Fi connections in so many places — means more work is getting done far from a cubicle.
"Companies should no longer assume that they’re employees do most of their work in one spot," Anderson said. "The fundamental premises for the way most offices were laid out 15 years ago are miles away from these kinds of realities."
In one way, millennials are promoting these changes because they expect the same sort flexible work arrangements they enjoyed on college campuses. There, they had the choice of working at the student union, the library, their dorm room, and several other places. "And they get in the office and they’re like, 'You want me to sit there? Where are the other five places I can choose from?' " Anderson said.
But boomers and generation X'ers are using flexible workspaces just as much as millennials, he added.
For furniture makers like Herman Miller, staying on top of the trend means designing products that fit this new flexible, collaborative model. Even 10 years ago, adjusting office cubicles meant calling in work crews on the weekend to rebuild the workspace.
More often now, Anderson said, office furniture is smaller, lighter, and flexible enough to adjust by hand.
It's all part of inventing the workplaces of today and tomorrow. And Michigan firms like Herman Miller, now as in past decades, are at the forefront of understanding and responding to those changes.
Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.