The future of the workplace and how employees can prepare for it

At the beach front of a resort in the coastal city of Mombasa, a young man sits in a relaxing chair. He is not interested in the cool breeze, wind or crashing waves that recede then return packed with new energy.

It’s not the high tide hour, though, but there are beach goers enjoying the midmorning swim. The young man is furiously typing on his phone, making calls, scribbling things on a notebook, and typing whatever he’d scribbled on the phone.

He has that busy look on his face. After like close to an hour, he relaxes, makes few phone calls, confirms everything is in order, hits the send button on his phone to email whatever it was he was typing, takes a deep breath, and leans backwards on the beach chair, reaches out for those Bluetooth headphones, puts on his black eyeglasses, and stares up the sky, perhaps winding down from whatever task he was engaged in.

It turns out the young man isn’t at the beachfront resort on holiday after all. He’s a procurement officer for a Nairobi-based company, and the calls he was making were to suppliers both locally and in China.

His “office” is wherever he happens to be, he works remotely, untethered to a traditional workplace. This is increasingly becoming the new norm. Let’s explore how the future of work is evolving, where physical presence is no longer a requirement.

During registration of a business, it’s mandatory for that business to give its physical address, but this could one day be a thing of the past.

In a conversation with this writer, the young man revealed that his company’s physical office in Nairobi consists of just three staff members working out of a single room, partitioned to serve as both reception and the manager’s office.

The logistics manager operates from a separate location in the Industrial Area, where clients’ imported goods are stored for delivery via courier and parcel services.

Interestingly, even as commercial buildings continue to spring up in towns across the country, many remain largely unoccupied, often with only the ground floor and perhaps one or two other levels in use.

While it’s clear that current policies may have contributed to driving businesses out of the traditional office spaces, one thing is certain: The rise of officeless businesses is a trend that can no longer be ignored.

No boardroom meetings.

Think of that business model with employees spread all over Kenya but without regional offices. Any time the managing director wants to call for a meeting, all it takes is for the employees to be available at a given hour for that virtual meeting.

Employees who have never even met physically get to interact through that video Zoom meeting, and they may never interact physically if distance is anything to go by.

The only person they get to meet could be the one in charge in their region of operations, and she, too, could not be operating from a physical office unless the business model vitiates the need for one.

No workplace politics or culture. In physical workplaces, there’s that unwritten policy where those in high hierarchy load it over those below them.

These seniors or occupying ranks of importance sometimes employ schoolyard bullying tactics, including frustrating the career growth of others. Working virtually rules out such a possibility.

 No one is there to vent or berate you, depending on how you’re delivering. And there’s no fear whose toes you’re going to step on. If the boss is satisfied with you in delivering the set daily targets, that’s it.

You can schedule your work time. The traditional 9-to-5 job, complete with traffic jams and rigid schedules, is no longer the only path. In today’s flexible work environment, you can have an open conversation with your boss to agree on a time schedule that aligns with when you’re most productive. You might be assigned a project with a clear deadline, but how you manage your time is up to you.

This freedom allows you to balance work with other activities, reducing the risk of burnout or work-related stress.

Without a manager constantly looking over your shoulder, you can work at your own pace. The best part? There’s no need to clock in or out, your schedule is adjustable and adaptable, designed to fit your rhythm and pace.