offices

The End of Work as We Know It

CEOs call it a revolution in efficiency. The workers powering it call it a "new era in forced labor." I spoke to the people on the front lines of the AI takeover.

The AI Ghost in the Machine Fired Him. Then It Gave Him a New Life

After an algorithm ended his career, Mark Quinn, 45, hired it to start a new one.

This Is One Silly Way to Fix the Biggest Annoyance About Open Offices

Open offices kind of suck. Sure, they might look like a fancy coffee shop, but when it comes to getting work done, free snacks and lots of mid-century modern furniture only go so far. Not having any walls means you hear everything going around you, while not having a dedicated desk means anyone can come…

Man Hilariously Reviews the Annoying Water Machine at His Office

It’s nice to have a job, and it’s nice to work in an office. Yet, as average guy Frank May expresses in a new YouTube video, the workplace comes with frustrations, too. In May’s case, it’s a too-fancy water machine that costs his company $1,000 a year and does nothing right. The machine in question…

Every Office Should Have Slot Cars Racing Across All the Desks

Think your office is cool and progressive because there’s a ping pong table in the corner? You’ll still be stuck at your soul-sucking cubicle desk most of the day, which is why these engineers created a giant slot car track that races across everyone’s desk, letting you compete while still getting some work done. (Theoretically.…

You Can Stash This Folding Under-Desk Heater in a Filing Cabinet Until You Get Cold

It doesn’t matter how fancy the office you work in is, it’s an unwritten rule that when winter arrives, you’re going to be cold at work. Even the pool tables and catered lunches in your dot-com wonderland can’t keep you warm, but this folding under desk heater from Panasonic certainly will. Many offices don’t allow…

The Forgotten Offices That Shaped Apple, Facebook, and Google

Online, Apple, Facebook, and Google are competing to control the future of technology. Offline, they are competing to build the future of corporate architecture—small cities nestled in the Silicon Valley suburbs that are designed by some of the most famous architects alive today. It’s a space race. Literally. These buildings are powerful marketing tools. They’re…

Inside the Design of the New Gawker Media (and Gizmodo) Offices

Gizmodo—and Gawker Media—are moving. We’re packing up our cozy little SoHo walkup and heading to a big new office in Union Square. And according to the architects who are designing it, it’s going to be very, very cool. After news broke about Gawker’s relocation today, we talked the two architects leading the project: Kirsten Murray…

Inside the 13 Coolest Offices of the Year

Bonkers offices tend to spring up like so many expensive mushrooms during boom time, especially in the tech world. But it turns out that average companies are investing in great design too—at least according to the shortlist of great offices chosen by the World Festival of Interiors this year. The Festival is an annual awards…

The home office of the future, as imagined in the 1967 short film, 1999 A.D.

This Giant Superdesk Is Bigger Than Your Average Suburban Home

When it was time for the NYC ad agency, Barbarian Group, to design a new office, they wanted to do something different. The agency wanted something more open, less inhibiting. So architect Clive Wilkinson built them an “endless table.” An endless table is exactly what it sounds like: One giant, continuous superdesk that wraps itself…

Where Are You Working From Today?

It’s December 23, and it’s almost certainly National Work From Anywhere But The Office Day. I’m currently dispatching from my parents’ kitchen. Where are you? God knows you’re definitely not in the office. Chances are over the weekend, you flew off to whatever locale you’ll be spending the impending holiday, and you’re posted up wherever…

Here’s How Google Installed a Monorail in Its Australian Offices

Do you ever joke around with your coworkers about how cool it would be to build desks out of old cars or have meetings on a houseboat? Maybe not, but if you work at Google, you might want to start—because they might actually make your weird office dreams a reality. That’s exactly what Google did…

9 Adorable Cartoons That Illustrate the Most Productive Types of Space

“Going to work” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but for most of us? Welp, it probably involves lots of sedentary hours sitting with pretty poor posture at a desk that’s not quite the right height, staring and staring and staring at a screen. But! The times, they are…

Inside Google Japan’s Lovely, Bizarre, Hair-Covered Offices

Google’s company policy requires that each office reflect some of the local color of the city around it: Google Zurich has ski gondolas, Google Pittsburgh has steel mill photos, and so on. That policy results in designs that sometimes border on twee (see: Google London’s gratuitous Union Jacks), but sometimes, it ends up being brilliant…

Google’s Offices Have Awesome Secret Rooms Hidden By Swiveling Bookshelves

Google’s New York City office has something that every office in America needs: secret rooms hidden by swiveling bookshelves. If you’re not in the know, you wouldn’t know it existed. But if you do have Batman access at Google, you can pull the correct book and expose a whole ‘nother world. Or something like that.…

With This Swing Table in the Office, Work Becomes Play

It’s hard to get excited about another drawn-out business meeting. Stiff chairs. A circle of equally bored faces. Maybe your leg falls asleep from all that sitting, and then what? You jiggle it silently in your seat and stumble gracelessly on your way out the door. Listen up, bosses and interior designers: It doesn’t have…

Take Note: 5 Social Media Mistakes Not to Make at Work

Forbes, this morning, has a very on-point list of the top 5 social media mistakes to stop making at work. The author, Kelly Clay, supports her points with help from John Pirc, security researcher and Director of Product Management for HP TippingPoint and co-author of Cybercrime and Espionage. Here are our reasons for why you…

The Private Rocker Is a Perfect Place to Escape the Office

Anyone who works in an open office, one without cubicles or private spaces of any sort, knows that having a place to escape to, if even for a few minutes, is invaluable. But bathroom stalls aren’t exactly tranquil, and faking a phone call is more work than it’s worth. The Private Rocker, designed by Cranbrook…

Designer Sheds Make For Less Depressing Cubicles

Working in a shed doesn’t sound like an upgrade from a depressing cubicle. But the spired roof of this Tetra-Shed will make it feel like you work in a private alpine lodge, even without a fireplace or comfy bearskin rug. The angular and stealthy looking Tetra-Shed was created by David Ajasa-Adekunle, an architect who runs…