UK workers to ditch the office block by 2020

The days of being stuck behind a desk in a soulless office block are numbered if the UK's workforce is to be believed.

More than 1,150 workers in the UK were questioned about their career aspirations and workplace predictions for the year 2020 for a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) survey. The majority believe that by 2020 it will be the norm to work from cafes, home, the park or elsewhere, thanks to employers allowing workers to log into office computer systems remotely.

The PWC report says the workers have been worn down by managers piling more work onto them during the recession, fuelling a desire to break away from the confines of the office. The survey found a significant desire for better flexible working arrangements (47 per cent) and an improved work/life balance (42 per cent).

Yet surprisingly it was only the youngest group of workers, the 16 to 25 year olds, that predominantly believed they would still be working in an office block come 2020 (61 per cent).

The boom in remote working may not be as far away as 2020, with recent analyst predictions saying 2010 will be the year CEOs invest in flexible working technologies.

The other major finding was that one in three staff believe the most important thing companies must do in the future is embrace technology and the power of social networking. However, there are challenges that businesses must overcome if they want to make social media work for them in the future.