The Workplace: Is Its Time Up?

A conversation at work today brought something to my attention that I hadn't really considered before now. There is not a real big reason for folks to come to work anymore.

With the internet and all of the other forms of technology that have been developed, anyone can telecommute from just about anywhere. The concept of office settings was the natural result of needing a team of employees, working separate aspects of projects, to come together in order to communicate needs or offer support to one another. Now, we have phones, PDAs, the BlackBerry, computers, etc. Many of my co-workers and others spend so much time outside of the office anyhow. But, whether on travel or taking time off, they manage to keep in touch and things, for the most part, remain on track. It seems, on the surface at least, that a new organizational set up such as more working from home wouldn't create that much of a change. Think about the ramifications of this who trend: commercial real estate, office supplies and furniture industry, mass transit. They would all experience huge changes.

So, I ask, what is the value add of the office setting this day in age? Can we safely say that it's at the beginnings of being phased out?