After BYOD comes BYOO

Folks are concentrating on the "bring your own device" (BYOD) change in the workplace. I'm looking ahead, to a possible next change: "bring your own office" or BYOO.

The idea of BYOD is simple: Instead of companies supplying computing equipment to employees, employees purchase equipment. Instead of supplying employees with iPads, for example, let employees purchase their own tablets (iPads, Android, or Windows) and provide them access to the needed data and apps.

BYOD is one of a number of changes that shift responsibility from employer to employee. Other changes include company-funded pensions (replaced with employee-funded 401-k plans), company-funded medical insurance (replaced with employee-funded insurance), and company-supplied training (replaced with employee-selected and employee-funded training).

I see BYOO (bring your own office) as another step in that sequence. With BYOO, the company does not provide the office to the employee. Instead, the employee makes arrangements for his own workspace. This may mean a home office, or it may mean a co-working space, or it may mean s shared hotelling space in which workers rent a cubicle, desk, and office equipment.

BYOO is possible for people who can work without being in a specific physical place. Some jobs require physical presence: waitstaff, assembly workers, plumbers, etc. Many jobs, especially IT jobs, can be done remotely. Analysis, design, programming, and testing can all be completed without physical presence.

To implement BYOO, one needs the types of jobs that are "remotable", coupled with the equipment to make it possible. That could be as simple as a cell phone, a laptop computer, and an internet connection. (And possibly a quite place to work.) We have the technology today.

We may not have the psychological ability to implement BYOO. If managers need to see people sitting at their desks to believe that they are working, BYOO is not possible. Remote work is possible only when managers trust individuals to complete their work without immediate supervision.

One other prediction: the acronym BYOO will *not* be the one people use. I don't know what it will be, but it won't be BYOO.