For a brief moment, picture the perfect workplace.

You head there early to exercise in the free gym, then stay late to unwind in the lounge. A wall of windows is the only thing between you and the beach outside. There‘s an open floor plan for when you want to collaborate, but also a private office for when you don‘t. Above all, everything you need to do your best work—whether it‘s a whiteboard, or a 3D printer, or a can of LaCroix—is right there at your fingertips.

For years, the world‘s most iconic companies pursued this perfect workplace in order to connect their employees, build their brands, and inspire their innovations. From Apple Park to Googleplex, they invested billions of dollars to create unique headquarters designed to anticipate anything people might want at work.

But in 2021, predictions around “the future of work” are filled with uncertainty. At Moveworks, the chatbot company where I am CEO, we‘ve hired employees based far from our headquarters during this era of remote collaboration. And although we‘re planning to return to offices around the globe, given the benefits of being together in person, we still can‘t predict what obstacles await us.

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