Virtual Office Can Work

After reading your article “Heartbreak Hotel: Virtual Office ‘Hoteling’ Strategy Didn’t Work at TBWA/Chiat Day” (Aug. 25), I concluded that you didn’t say what you thought you said. You resoundingly affirmed portions of the alternative work environment while highlighting the failure of the hoteling portion of it.

Hoteling as a concept is but one of many tools available for adapting to a changing work environment. Your article actually illustrated more successes than failures in Chiat/Day’s bold move computer filing, off-site records retention, telecommuting, connectivity (pagers, mobile phones), and e-faxes. It seems that much of the virtual office has actually worked fairly successfully.

As you stated, a business case can certainly be made for reducing real estate costs, but those are not the only costs to be considered. Establishing a hoteling concept is the initiation of significant change within the workplace environment. The issue is organizational culture, and there needs to be room for it to evolve; hoteling continues to evolve.

While the term may fade or acquire new meaning, the idea behind hoteling providing choices for workers to establish new, better or more effective work patterns continues to grow and evolve. There is now the “office” office, the home office, the “roam” office (or “moteling,” where the office is the automobile), and the plane office. Technology is increasing the connectivity and mobility of each of us on a daily basis.

And these choices continue to reach beyond the office perimeter. I would expect some of this forward thinking will be incorporated into Chiat/Day’s new facility (“Chiat/Day to Abandon Binoculars Building,” Sept. 8).

I applaud corporations like Chiat/Day for implementing new organizational patterns and workplaces. As in any risk, there is potential for failure. But, while the particulars of hoteling may not have worked in this configuration, Chiat/Day’s commitment to incorporating technology and emerging worker patterns into the alternative work environment still seems to be out in front of the wave.

S. KENT HOLIDAY, AIA

Planning Consultant

HLW International LLP