Sick of your office? It's time for a change of scene

The old-fashioned commute to the office is draining energy and productivity from the world economy and from its workers. Thus, in a recent survey, 89% of US workers said that the option to work remotely is one of three main job perks. So desperate are people for a break that almost a third would take a reduction in paid vacation, and a quarter a pay cut, for the opportunity to work remotely– stats that should make every business scramble to edit its HR policies.

The reality of working at home is disappointing, though. Around the world, veterans of home-working say there are too many distractions, and not enough chances to network at the water cooler. It's fine occasionally, but not every day; the attractions of working close to TV and fridge soon fade.

There's an alternative to office and home, and it's not the co-working hubs where you need the right clothes, right phone and VIP tickets to Coachella to belong. It's called 'third-place' working, with people using libraries, coffee shops, business centres and business lounges to work remotely. It's linked to the global trend for more flexible ways of working.

Third place is not new. Anyone who checks emails at a coffee shop or works in their parked car is doing it. They just don't think of it as a 'third space'. And they don't know that it's becoming increasingly easy to find more work-conducive third spaces.

Those new workspaces let people do their job closer to where they want to be – near home, customers, or leisure facilities. Already in the US, the rising demand that are in shopping malls – currently 10 per cent of the total – is a telling indicator of people's desire to work at locations that fit their daily lives (or retail habits).

Employers may still treasure 'the office' and daily face-time with staff, but forcing them to endure the average 25-minute commute every day is shortsighted. Consider this, instead: 72 per cent of firms that give their staff flexibility over where and when they work say there is a direct link to greater productivity. And at a time when the world's workers, businesses and the economy are in need of a boost, that statistic suggests that the third place is where they should look.