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Virtually True
The British TV series 'The Office' and the American newspaper cartoon series 'Dilbert' are still funny but their premise is increasingly out of date.
Nowadays it's time for the 'virtual office'. We have known about working from home or in a cafe with a laptop for a long time. However, it has only recently clicked that the reality of the virtual office is truely with us today.
In Manhattan, sales of office space is disappearing faster than you can say Wi-Fi. It's not because of the expense. Employees of what are known as 'virtual companies' prefer to connect with clients with BlackBerrys and by e-mail. Many modern customers haved moved into the same groove.
A lot of virtual companies do not even have an old-fashioned street address or a zip code. These firms are not just one-man-and-a-dog operations. They include serious financial corporations and major commercial organisations.
Certainly there is a time when there must be a face-to-face meeting. These days it is more likely to take place at a restaurant near New York's Union Square or on the Upper West Side, rather than in a traditional boardroom.
On the other hand there is a downside. It is very handy to be flexible and not to have the obligation of taking the 7:15 commuter train to Penn Central Station.
Nonetheless, men, especially men, have taken refuge in the office, even having to suffer the pain of the inevitable office politics. Working at home, all the time, although you love your wife and kids, can become penurious. No more long lunches with colleagues at an expense-paid Sashimi restaurant. Now it's Campbell's soup at the kitchen table. And certainly no more after-work cocktails at the favourite Monkey's Paw bar in Greenwich Village (located near Bank Street).
Having said that, there's nothing wrong with a big bowl of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.
