Do entrepreneurs need an office? Increasingly the view seems to be no.

企业家需要办公室吗?答案似乎越来越倾向于不需要。

A nifty new book called Out of Office by Chris Ward¹, is a manifesto² in favour of roaming around using temporary hotspots to work. It was hard for me to resist this freelancer's manual: the inside cover features a picture of one of my Gail's bakeries.

克里斯•沃德(Chris Ward)在其精彩的新书《不在办公室工作》(Out of Office)中，提倡利用临时的无线热点网络工作。我很难抵制这本“自由职业者操作手册”的诱惑：封二有一幅我的Gail's面包店的图片。

The author explains how President Barack Obama's first inauguration³ speech was written by 27-year-old Jon Favreau sitting in Starbucks; how Richard Tait, creator of Cranium, started the board game in a coffee shop; how Michael Acton Smith invented the children's virtual world Moshi Monsters in his local Caffè Nero; and how JK Rowling, the novelist behind Harry⁴ Potter, believes a café is the best place to write.

作者描述了美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)的首次就职演讲如何由27岁的乔恩•法夫罗(Jon Favreau)坐在星巴克(Starbucks)里写就;《脑力大作战》(Cranium)创作者理查德•泰特(Richard Tait)如何在一家咖啡馆里开始创作这个棋盘游戏;迈克尔•阿克顿•史密斯(Michael Acton Smith)如何在当地的Caffè Nero咖啡馆发明儿童的虚拟世界Moshi Monsters;以及《哈利•波特》(Harry Potter)的作者J•K•罗琳(JK Rowling)如何相信咖啡馆是写作的最佳场所。

It is a convincing narrative⁵, and for basic start-ups it makes much more sense to work from home and public spaces such as cafés than committing to an expensive office lease. Offices are hard to find, costly⁶ to fit out and involve much tedious administration. Moreover, by staying independent you avoid the misery⁷ of a daily commute⁸, which for many is the worst part of a job.

这种观点令人信服。对基本的初创企业来说，在家和咖啡馆等公共场所工作比租用昂贵的办公场所更划算。且不说很难找到合适的办公室，而且装修也得花不少钱，同时还涉及繁琐的行政管理工作。此外，保持独立让你免受天天上下班之苦——对许多人来说，通勤是工作中最糟糕的一环。

Thanks to mobile communications, ubiquitous WiFi and cloud storage, together with the increasing irrelevance⁹ of heavy-duty equipment such as photocopiers¹⁰, fax machines and desktop¹¹ PCs, the traditional office is becoming redundant¹² for many sorts of organisations and workers. Of course, factory managers, surgeons, chefs and industrial chemists are still tied to specialist locations. But many of us – from software engineers and copywriters to architects and fashion designers – can operate almost anywhere. That freedom, and a willingness to adapt, can make one's career more enjoyable and, sometimes, more efficient.

得益于移动通信、无处不在的WiFi无线网络和云存储，以及复印机、传真机和台式电脑等重型设备变得越来越无关紧要，传统办公室对许多组织和员工来说日益显得多余。当然，工厂经理、外科医生、厨师和工业化学家仍然得在专门场所工作。但我们许多人——从软件工程师和撰稿人，到建筑师和时装设计师——几乎可以在任何地方工作。这种自由，再加上主动适应的意愿，能够使人们的职业更有乐趣，有时效率也会更高。

Some oppose flexible working. Notoriously, a few months ago Yahoo sent round a memo¹³ stating that all employees must work “physically¹⁴ together” – essentially¹⁵ banning working from home. The company worried that falling productivity was caused by remote staff, who cannot respond to issues as quickly, while missing impromptu¹⁶ meetings that can make an important contribution to an organisation's output.

有些人反对灵活工作方式。一个出名的例子是，几个月前，雅虎(Yahoo)在发给员工的备忘录里声称，所有员工必须“集中在一起”办公——实质上禁止员工在家工作。该公司担心，远程办公的员工们导致生产率下降，因为他们不能迅速回应问题，还无法参加对企业产出可能有重要贡献的临时会议。

Unquestionably, real collaboration¹⁷ and interaction are much harder using digital devices instead of face-to-face contact. A discussion using Skype is not as good as being in the same room, just as an email exchange is never as good as a conversation on the phone.

毫无疑问，使用数字设备而不是面对面交流来进行真正的协作和互动要难得多。使用Skype进行讨论不如坐在同一间办公室里讨论有效果，正如电子邮件交流永远赶不上电话交流一样。

But this is an age when fixed¹⁸ costs must be kept to a minimum. If founders¹⁹ or employees prefer the informal method of distributed working, then you can save money and have a happier workforce²⁰ if they labour from home, car or a cool espresso bar.

但这是一个必须尽可能削减固定成本的时代。如果创始人或雇员喜欢非正式的分散工作方式，那么你就可以让员工在家、汽车或者酷的咖啡馆工作，既节省资金，又让他们更快乐。

There are alternatives to relying totally on ad hoc spaces. New clubs are springing up that permit their members to hire smart board rooms by the hour for important meetings when you have to impress clients. In London, these include the likes of Adam Street, One Alfred Place, and The Clubhouse. Then there are co-working spaces, rather more basic resources with hot desking and a sharing ethos. And there are serviced office providers such as Regus, MWB and Workspace. They offer a much more structured solution to the problem of where you locate your business.

企业也可以不用完全依赖临时场所。现在新的俱乐部大量涌现，当俱乐部会员需要给客户留下深刻印象时，就可以按钟点租用智能会议室来举办重要会议。在伦敦，这些俱乐部包括Adam Street、One Alfred Place和The Clubhouse之类。还有就是共享工作场所，提供比较基本的资源，包括轮流使用的办公桌和共享氛围。雷格斯(Regus)、MWB和Workspace等企业提供有服务的办公室。它们针对你的企业地点问题，提供更加结构化的解决方案。

I tried working from my study at home briefly²¹ and hated it. I needed to separate my domestic and work lives physically: thanks to always-on mobile devices this is hard to achieve anyhow. So I make the daily pilgrimage to a specific place of work, because I enjoy the sociability²², and because when companies reach a certain scale they struggle to be taken seriously if the only meeting room is a coffee shop. Other challenges include a lack of confidentiality²³ and the inability to tap nearby support.

我曾尝试在家里的书房工作，但我不喜欢这种工作方式。我需要将我的家庭生活与工作分开：由于永远在线的移动设备，现在本来就很难做到这一点。因此我每日朝圣似地前往办公地点，因为我享受这种社会性，而且当公司达到一定规模时，如果它只能在咖啡馆开会，人们就很难把它当回事。其他问题还包括缺乏保密性，以及无法就近获得支持。

But I like businesses with small headquarters – they are better placed to minimise bureaucracy and office politics. In industries I know well, such as retailing²⁴ and hospitality, it is assumed staff are on the road most of the time and hence they are able to share offices. This saves costs and keeps management close to customers and the action.

但我喜欢总部规模较小的企业，它们在尽可能地减少官僚体制和办公室政治方面更有优势。在零售和酒店业这些我熟悉的行业里，可以假定员工大部分时间都在外面，因此他们可以共用办公室。企业因此可以节省成本，同时管理层也可以接近客户和经营第一线。

Overall, the anti-office movement is probably a good thing for the morale²⁵ of your people, your cost base and the productivity of your teams.

总的来说，对员工士气、成本基础和团队生产率来说，反办公室运动可能是一件好事。