An office is generally a room A room, in architecture, is any distinguishable space within a structure. Most typically a room is separated by interior walls from other spaces or passageways; moreover, it is separated by an exterior wall from outdoor areas, sometimes with a door. Historically the use of rooms dates at least to early Minoan cultures about 2200 BC, where or other area in which people work Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how, but may also denote a position within an organization An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. The word itself is derived from the Greek word ὄργανον (organon [itself derived from the better-known word ἔργον ergon - work; deed - > ergonomics, etc]) meaning with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder The incumbent, in politics, is the leader of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W. Bush was the incumbent, because he was the president in the current term, official An official is someone who holds an office in an organisation or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either his own or that of his superior and/or employer, public or legally private)); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Some examples can be seen in the box to the right. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words, the term office may refer to business A business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main-related tasks. In legal Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator in relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and obligations related writing, a company or organization has offices in any place that it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of, for example, a storage silo A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store grain or fermented feed known as silage. Silos are more commonly used for bulk storage of grain, coal, cement, carbon black, wood chips, food products and sawdust. Three types of silos are in widespread use today - Tower silos, Bunker silos and Bag silos rather than an office.

An office is an architectural and design phenomenon and a social phenomenon, whether it is a tiny office such as a bench in the corner of a "Mom and Pop A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. The legal definition of "small" often varies by country and industry, but is generally under 100 employees in the United States and under 50 employees in the European Union. In comparison, the shop" of extremely small size (see small office/home office The modern concept of small office/home office, or SoHo, refers to the category of business which can be from 1 to 10 workers. SOHO can also stand for small or home office or single office/home office. A larger business enterprise, one notch up the size scale, is often categorized as a small business. When a company reaches 100 or more employees,) through entire floors of buildings up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one company. In modern terms an office usually refers to the location where white-collar workers The term white-collar worker refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. "White-collar work" is an informal term, defined in contrast to "blue-collar work" are employed.

History of offices

The word stems from the Latin officium, as its equivalents in various mainly romance languages. Interestingly, this was not necessarily a place, but rather an often mobile 'bureau' in the sense of a human staff or even the abstract notion of a formal position, such as a magistrature. The relatively elaborate Roman bureaucracy would not be equaled for centuries in the West after the fall of Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populous city, with over 2.7 million residents in a municipality of some 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million. It is located, even partially reverting to illiteracy, while the East preserved a more sophisticated administrative culture, both under Byzantium and under Islam.

Offices in classical antiquity were often part of a palace complex or a large temple. There was usually a room where scrolls A scroll is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of transmitting information or using as a decoration. It is distinguished from a roll by virtue of being intended for repeated use rather than continuous, but once-only use of the roll were kept and scribes A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing. The work could involve copying books, including sacred texts, or secretarial and administrative duties such as taking of dictation did their work. Ancient texts mentioning the work of scribes allude to the existence of such "offices". These rooms are sometimes called "libraries" by some archaeologists and the general press because one often associates scrolls with literature. In fact they were true offices since the scrolls were meant for record keeping and other management functions such as treaties and edicts, and not for writing or keeping poetry or other works of fiction.

The medieval chancery Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the audience. A chancellor's office is called a was usually the place where most government letters were written and where laws were copied in the administration of a kingdom. The rooms of the chancery often had walls full of pigeonholes, constructed to hold rolled up pieces of parchment for safekeeping or ready reference, a precursor to the book shelf. The introduction of printing during the Renaissance The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the did not change these early government offices much.

Pre-industrial illustrations such as paintings or tapestries often show us personalities or eponyms in their private offices, handling record keeping books or writing on scrolls of parchment Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. Its most common use is as the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned, therefore it is very reactive with changes in relative humidity and is not waterproof. The finer qualities of parchment are called vellum. All kinds of writings seemed to be mixed in these early forms of offices. Before the invention of the printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press cloth, grapes, etc. and possibly prints. Gutenberg and its distribution there was often a very thin line between a private office and a private library A library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. The term can mean the collection, the building that houses such a collection, or since books were read or written in the same space at the same desk A desk is a furniture form and a class of table often used in a work or office setting for reading or writing on or using a computer. Desks often have one or more drawers to store office supplies and papers. Unlike a regular table, usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on . Not all desks have the form of a table. For instance, an or table, and general accounting and personal or private letters were also done there.

Office structure

There are many different ways of arranging the space in an office and whilst these vary according to function, managerial fashions Fashion refers to the styles and customs prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage, "fashion" exemplifies the appearances of clothing, but the term encompasses more. Many fashions are popular in many cultures at any given time. Important is the idea that the course of design and fashion will change more rapidly than the culture and the culture of specific companies can be even more important. Choices include, how many people will work within the same room. At one extreme, each individual worker will have their own room; at the other extreme a large open plan Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of housing estates, business parks, etc, in which there are no defined property boundaries such as hedges, office can be made up of one main room with tens or hundreds of people working in the same space. Open plan offices put multiple workers together in the same space, and some studies have shown that they can improve short term productivity, i.e. within a single software Software includes things such as websites, programs or video games, that are coded by programming languages like C or C++ project The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from the Latin verb proicere, "to throw something forwards" which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes something that precedes the action of the next part of the word in time and iacere, "to throw". The word "project" thus actually originally meant "something. At the same time, the loss of privacy and security can increase the incidence of theft and loss of company secrets. A type of compromise between open plan and individual rooms is provided by the cubicle A cubicle, cubicle desk or office cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually five to six feet tall. A cubicle is open on one side to allow access. A cubicle's purpose is to isolate office workers from the sights and noises of an open workspace, the theory being that this allows, possibly made most famous by the Dilbert Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character. The strip has spawned several books, an animated television series, a computer game, and hundreds of Dilbert-themed merchandise items cartoon series, which solves visual privacy to some extent, but often fails on acoustic separation and security. Most cubicles A cubicle, cubicle desk or office cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually five to six feet tall. A cubicle is open on one side to allow access. A cubicle's purpose is to isolate office workers from the sights and noises of an open workspace, the theory being that this allows also require the occupant to sit with their back towards anyone who might be approaching; workers in walled offices almost always try to position their normal work seats and desks so that they can see someone entering, and in some instances, install tiny mirrors on things such as computer monitors.

Office buildings

While offices can be built in almost any location in almost any building, some modern requirements for offices make this more difficult. These requirements can be both legal (i.e. light levels must be sufficient) or technical (i.e. requirements for networking). Alongside such other requirements such as security and flexibility of layout, this has led to the creation of special buildings Buildings come in a wide amount of shapes and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons which are dedicated only or primarily for use as offices. An office building, also known as an office block, is a form of commercial building A commercial building is a type of building that is used for commercial use. These can include office buildings, warehouses, or retail . In urban locations, a commercial building often combines functions, such as an office on levels 2-10, with retail on floor 1. All municipalities / cities / regions maintain strict regulations on commercial type which contains spaces mainly designed to be used for offices.

The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PCs and other equipment they may need within these areas.

An office building will be divided into sections for different companies or may be dedicated to one company. In either case, each company will typically have a reception area, one or several meeting rooms, singular or open-plan offices, as well as toilets.

Many office buildings also have kitchen facilities and a staff room, where workers can have lunch or take a short break.

Office theft statistics

Theft in the workplace is a common occurrence. Surveys indicate that the majority of office workers (58%) have admitted to having taken office supplies for their personal use. The most commonly stolen office supplies include pens/pencils (78% admit to this), followed by self-adhesive "sticky" notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). Some employees are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture (i.e. stools, chairs, shelves) (2%).^[1]

In fact, in the U.S. state of Ohio Ohio ( /oʊˈhaɪ.oʊ/ ) is a Midwestern state of the United States. The thirty-fourth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the seventh-most populous with nearly 11.5 million residents. Ohio, whose name was derived from the Seneca word ohi:yo’, meaning "large creek," was formed primarily from the Ohio Territory and was admitted to, approximately 45% of all stolen equipment in 2004 was office equipment.^[2]

To minimize the effects of robberies of office buildings, the company which leases the office space will often invest in office burglary and robbery insurance.^[3] This insurance often covers both monetary theft by employees and physical robberies, such as stealing office furniture, equipment, or information.

Grading

Offices and office buildings are generally graded, in terms of quality, in a three tier grading system: [1]

Class A

Class A Class A Office Space describes the highest quality office space locally available. The architecture of Class A office structures always prioritizes design and visual appeal over cost, and sometimes over practicality - a Class A building can be considered a monument and a testament to the success and power of its tenants. In most areas, Class A (or Grade A) will have the highest quality fit and finish to the internal furnishings and will tend to have more architectural detailing on the outside of the building. Such buildings will typically charge the highest rental charges.

Typical fixtures will include hardwood The term hardwood is used to describe wood from non-monocot angiosperm trees and for those trees themselves. These are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen mouldings; 6 panel doors; sinks made of corian Corian is the brand name for a solid surfacing material created by DuPont. It is composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate. It is said to be a thermosetting plastic, but can be thermoformed by heating it to 300°F , allowing unique shapes to be created. Its primary use is for kitchen worktops and bathroom vanity tops, but is also commonly, china Chinese ceramic ware is an artform that has been developing since the dynastic periods. China is richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made about 11,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese Ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built and gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (Latin: aurum) and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most; and countertops and flooring Floors typically consist of a subfloor for support and a floor covering used to give a good walking surface. In modern buildings the subfloor often has electrical wiring, plumbing, and other services built in. Because floors meet many needs, some essential to safety, floors are built to strict building codes made from corian or natural stone In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids such as granite Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their chemistry and mineralogy. Outcrops of granite tend to or marble Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, Ca .

Class B

Class B (or Grade B) will have similar surfaces as a Class A building but using materials of a lower quality. The buildings will have fewer architectural details than typical Class A buildings.

Typical fixtures include a mix of hardwood; wood flat panel doors; formica Formica is a brand of composite materials manufactured by the Formica Corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio. In common use, the term refers to the company's classic product, a heat-resistant, wipe-clean, plastic laminate of paper or fabric with melamine resin countertops; and ceramic A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous . Because most common ceramics are crystalline, the definition of ceramic is often restricted to inorganic crystalline materials, as opposed to the non- tiles and porcelain sinks used in toilets.

Class C

Class C (or Grade C) will have lower quality fit and finish to the internal decorations and furnishings. The design of such buildings will be basic and will typically demand the lowest rental charges.

Typical fixtures include formica countertops; sheet vinyl A related phrase is vinylidene which stands for a double-bonded two-carbon residue with two substituents rather than one, for instance in 1,1-dichloroethene flooring; cheaper carpets and cheaper windows and doors.

Offices in popular culture

• The television show "The Office The original version of The Office was aired in the United Kingdom, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It starred Gervais as the boss and main character. Initially broadcast on BBC Two on 9 July 2001, the show ran for fourteen episodes - two series of six, plus a two-part Christmas special" (both the UK and US version) takes place almost exclusively inside an office building.
• The German television show "Büro Büro" (English translation: "office office"), 1981-1992

See also

Physical

• Business park A business park or business estate is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential
• Class A office space Class A Office Space describes the highest quality office space locally available. The architecture of Class A office structures always prioritizes design and visual appeal over cost, and sometimes over practicality - a Class A building can be considered a monument and a testament to the success and power of its tenants. In most areas, Class A
• Cubicles
• Corner Office
• Factory
• Office supplies
• Over-illumination
• Serviced office
• Steel Buildings
• Warehouse

Soft issues

• Office etiquette
• Office manager
• Online office suite
• Sick building syndrome
• Open plan

References

• Adams, Scott. What do you call a sociopath in a cubicle? (answer, a coworker) Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Pub., 2002.
• Duffy, Francis. Colin Cave. John Worthington, editors. Planning Office Space. London: The Architectural Press Ltd., 1976.
• Klein, Judy Graf. The Office Book. New York: Facts on File Inc., 1982.

1. ^ http://research.lawyers.com/Majority-of-Office-Workers-Have-Stolen-Supplies.html
2. ^ http://www.crimestats.ohio.gov/robberies%20%206-6-05.pdf
3. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/office-burglary-and-robbery-insurance

Categories: Office administration | Office buildings | Rooms

See Also:

• Office
• Shopping: Office Products: Supplies: Rubber Stamps
• Business: Consumer Goods and Services: Office Products: Supplies
• Business: Consumer Goods and Services: Office Products: Supplies: Labels
• Business: Consumer Goods and Services: Office Products: Supplies: Rubber Stamps

What Links Here:

Recently Viewed Pages:

• Plastic: Encyclopedia
• Imprint: Dictionary
• Textile: Encyclopedia
• Pigment: Encyclopedia
• Image: Encyclopedia
• Craft: Encyclopedia
• Wood: Encyclopedia
• Toy: Encyclopedia
• Glass: Encyclopedia
• Rubberstamp: Dictionary

Most Popular Pages:

• Banhua: Blogs
• Artistamps: Images
• Mike Dickau: Images
• Rock (Geology): Encyclopedia
• Pigment: Encyclopedia
• Stamp: Dictionary
• Glass: Encyclopedia
• Craft: Encyclopedia
• Toy: Encyclopedia
• Textile: Encyclopedia

Related 'Office' Searches: