Signpost 33
The workplace is also what it is not.
In a nutshell:
A workplace is not solely defined by its own characteristics but also by its contrast with other domains, such as leisure. A workplace must not only meet its own needs but also manage potential conflicts with other areas of life, like personal or family time. People have different strategies for integrating or separating work and life, whether working at a dining table or needing distinct spaces to maintain boundaries.
Key Chapter: 26
• 33.1 A list of what makes a workplace would be useful, but also incomplete because work is also defined by what it is not. For example, work is that which is not leisure. The workplace needs not only to satisfy its own list of requirements, it should also manage those of other domains it might be in conflict with. p.97
• 33.2 People have developed different ways to integrate, or segment, work and life domains by creating, managing, and crossing their border. While some might work happily on a laptop at the dining table, others might not have walls at home thick enough, physically or metaphorically, to create the segmentation they need. p.98
• 33.3 Designers have overlooked exploring the design implications of working from home. p.98
• 33.4 The workplace (the place where people work) doesn’t cease to exist when people stop going to the office and start working from home – if anything the workplace multiplies. p.98
• 33.5 An assumption about the workplace is equating it with the office. However, the office is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of work. An invention of sorts which came out of a complex economic, social and technology context which for the most part has ceased to be relevant. p.98