Is Trendy Office Space Design All That Functional?

Fair question: is the trend in hip office space design driven by any hard data? Actual awareness of changing work habits and preferences? Or something as insidious as FOMO?

This and more below.

1. Office space design comes under more scrutiny

Trendy design may not buy productivity, but more employee autonomy can, according to FastCompany.

2. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Speaking of trendy office space, Shutterstock is using every last inch of their space in the Empire State Building. The stock photo company recently expanded another 25K sqft. to fit more employees and run more events like hackathons and film production classes.

3. Brooklyn passes Chicago as 3rd largest “city” in the US

Technically, the US Census Bureau doesn’t count the Five Boroughs as individual cities. But if it did, Brooklyn would surge past Chicago as the third largest city in the US, as residential and commercial growth continues.

Photo credit: Dirk De B! via Flickr

4. Everyone should have unlimited vacation days

Even as US workers come to grips with the fact that they’re overworked, there’s still plenty of corporate unease over how much flexibility is too much when managing employee work schedules. Author Travis Bradberry shares how companies with unlimited vacation policies aren’t just throwing employees a bone – they’re padding the bottom line, too.