We've Seen the Future of Work and It Works, But Very Differently

After the tutorial, Hase sketched out a chart that she says captures the evolution of the two fields. On one side is the progression of learning in physics: molecular systems, molecules, atoms, energy, transition, new order. On the other side is the progression of working in the office: whole organization, departments, individuals, strategic change, chaos, new order. Quantum physics and quantum work both arrive at "new order."

As a second step, Hase designed a poster that portrays a cartoon tour of this century's work life. In a spiral of "progress," the poster advances from the agrarian farmer and village worker of 1900, where home life and work life were thoroughly integrated; to the 1930s and the factory, the efficiency expert, and "scientific management," where home and work life became separated; to the year 2000 and the emergence of the "nomad worker" -- where home and work once again are integrated.

Hase's poster captures the history of Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids calls itself "The Furniture Capital of the World," and its story is on display in a vivid city museum downtown on the west bank of the Grand River. Almost all of the museum's second floor is devoted to the evolution of the city's furniture business; you walk through the exhibit as if through a three-dimensional time line. Walking by 1890, you see an early version of the much-beloved in-box. In the 1920s, factories operated as just-in-time producers -- they made nothing that hadn't been ordered -- never suspecting that it was a revolutionary management technique. After World War II, the factory-look of the 1920s became the office-look of the modern corporation: well-ordered, open, efficient, desks lined up in long, even rows, the papers on the desk lined up as well.

What Hase's poster demonstrates and the museum displays is that each era gets the furniture it deserves. The rules of work and the furnishings of work have gone hand-in-hand. Only now the rules of work have changed -- and the furniture has yet to catch up. Hase herself makes the point. She has an office in her home near Detroit, another office at the Herman Miller showroom in Detroit, a third office at a Herman Miller building in Grand Rapids, and another office at her home in New Mexico. Her business card has three phone numbers on it -- it should have at least five. Hase moves her stuff from place to place in a trolley of her own creation that she calls a "work wagon": a red plastic bin on a little set of luggage wheels. The contraption is strapped together with bungee cords.

It's like trying to make a Model T fly. The physics of work has been turned inside-out - only the furniture remains the same. But not for long.

"People are so resistant to change," says Hase, "but we've always changed. Change is what we do."

All Work, All the Time

At Steelcase -- On the Road, Christine Albertini and Kathy Woronko are working to solve the mobility problem. Albertini is vice president and general manager of the Steelcase -- On the Road group, Woronko is her marketing communications manager. Their job is to figure out how to furnish the whole world so you can work in it, effortlessly, seamlessly, continuously.

"Kathy and I always say, 'We are our customers,'" says Albertini. "I'm a worker in the work world. I have children, day care, a husband, learning commitments. A cell-phone? Oh yeah. A laptop? Sure. I work in the car, home, office, airplane, hotel room, on the street corner."

Says Woronko, "I work at volleyball practice, hockey games, gymnastics."

Volleyball practice?

"Absolutely," says Woronko. "I took my laptop. I think I was working on a dealer letter about the status of some of our products. I had time in the car with my child on the way to practice and on the way back. As for volleyball practice, I didn't actually have to watch. It was something about me being there. So I sat in the gym stands and worked on the letter." "In Kathy's case," says Albertini, "it was a question of: Could she go to her daughter's practice and do some work there, or would she have to miss the practice entirely?"

That question captures the pivotal problem of work in the new economy. Tension doesn't come from what goes on at work or what goes on at home. It comes from the relationship between work and home. In most two-parent families, both parents work. People are fighting to keep work from taking over their lives -- and losing ground briskly.

Christine Albertini's advice: Relax. Don't fight it. Go with it.

Albertini is trained as an anthropologist; in college she studied culture contact and change -- what happens when two cultures come together. It was good preparation for her current role at Steelcase. Operating like cultural anthropologists observing a tribe's behavior, her group watches people as they try to work in hotels and airports. In one project, they mapped people's behavior in hotel rooms, then used the observations to define five "zones" in the typical hotel room: the unload zone, the hygiene zone, the working/dining zone, the entertainment/relax zone, the rest zone.