Three years ago, the headquarters of Harbour Insurance was full on Monday mornings. Twelve hundred desks, a canteen with a queue and a lift that never stopped. Today, on a normal Tuesday, only 140 desks are used. The rest of the building is silent, and the plants on the ninth floor look healthier than ever.
The company still pays two million euros a year to heat, light and clean the space. The finance director calls it "a very expensive memory". The staff, however, are not asking to return. In a survey, 70 percent said they work better at home, and many said they save two hours a day without a commute.
But the empty office has a hidden cost. Young employees, especially, say they miss learning by watching. "At home, I can finish a task," said one analyst, "but I can't hear how an expert talks to an angry client."
Harbour's answer is not to force everyone back. Instead, the company will reduce its space by half and rent three floors to small local start-ups. Employees will have two "anchor days" a week, when teams meet in person, and the canteen will become a shared café open to the public.
Critics say the plan is too cautious. Others fear that start-ups will bring more noise than ideas. Still, the experiment raises a bigger question: if work can be done anywhere, why do we still travel to the same building?
The answer may be simple. The office is not dying. It is changing its job, from a place where people work to a place where people meet.
Fiction note: All people, places and events in this text are fictional.