subject: - [print this page] Virtual office Washington DC are not just a collection of desks, chairs, and machinery that most workers associate it with. Apart from homes, the office is the place where individuals spend most of their time. As long as governments or other organizations have existed, offices in one way or another have also been in place as a venue to do the associated administrative tasks. In fact, the historical development of the office is intimately linked as an administrative adjunct to the centralized power of the state.
The office is hereby defined as a place of work where services or professional duties are carried out. The term first appeared in England around the 13th century, having been adopted from Old French. In many ways, offices reflect a societys values. They show how people care about efficiency, order, productivity, and flexibility, but also about power and authority. The evolution of the office is quite long, from its humble beginnings in the 19th century to the Virtual office Washington DC businesses use today.
The locally oriented economy of the United States in the early 1800s did not require the use of offices as we know them today. Back then, a business was a family concern involving local trade of some product or service. The early business owner, typically a merchant, managed all aspects of the enterprise, sometimes with the help of a few clerks. Business then was run much in the same way as it has been for half a millennium.
The first commercial offices of appeared in the northern cities of the United States only in the nineteenth century. The invention of the telegraph and telephone allowed offices to be situated away from the home or factory, and control could be retained over production and distribution. With the arrival of the railroad, the locally-oriented economy and the entire nature of the American business changed forever. The railroad opened up the States to expansion, provided access to raw materials, and exposed local merchants and traders to an infinite range of markets.
New technologies of the time, such as electric lighting, the use of typewriters, and automatic calculating machines allowed large amounts of information to be accumulated and processed faster and more efficiently than ever before. The rapid pace of growth and the increasing concentration of wealth in newly-formed corporations required an ever-increasing proportion of literate individuals to work in such white-collared factories. As such, companies needed buildings to house their extensive business operations. Subsequently, the demand for infrastructure also grew.
The use of high-rise buildings in the 1950s onwards further fueled the development of the concept of the office. Such buildings are capable of providing, most importantly, vast office spaces to accommodate the needs of the changing economy. The recent influence of information technology has had the greatest influence on the offices development. The Internet, mobile phones, and computers have created a much more fluid environment, enabling the use of a Virtual office Washington DC enterprises use today.
