Thinking has to go further than curvy desks and telling staff they only need come in on a Thursday

"Thinking has to go further than curvy desks and telling staff they only need come in on a Thursday.". MINISTERS ARE to be forced to disclose details of government sponsorship deals with commercial companies amid allegations that some Millennium Dome backers might have received privileged access. US ad agency Chiat Day, one of the movement's pioneers, recently shifted tack again - with the re-introduction of personalised workstations for every member of staff, he points out. The idea is that Shell's core operations staff, who now work at these and from home, are brought closer to Shell retailers and consumers. The mid-Nineties vogue for designer offices with "touch down areas" rather than personal desks for workers and meeting rooms without chairs was all fine and well but, in retrospect, now seems a bit of a red herring, Myerson thinks. "An interesting experiment, but there is already a backlash against it," he explains. Shell UK, for example, recently relocated from its Shell Mex House headquarters in London and replaced it with a network of local, mini-corporate offices managed 24 hours a day at various satellite locations. Canadian telecoms giant Nortel, for example, has created distinctive neighbourhoods within its new headquarters to build community spirit and individuality - staff (or "citizens") are free to decorate their work spaces as they choose. The relevance of the corporate head office is also now in question. Once the ultimate business status symbol, now it is just as likely to be regarded as vulgar and passé as senior executives are expected to be on the move, not languishing behind giant desks.

Japanese firms are already experimenting with subtler variations of the traditional office environment with the introduction of uplifting smells and white noise to reinvigorate frazzled employees. Others, meanwhile, are thinking bigger as they attempt to re-define what "office" means. Walls or desktops could become tomorrow's computer screens." There will be alternatives to physical walls dividing working areas, or open and shut doors signifying if someone wants to be disturbed, suggests Black, plus the evolution of "mood zones", with barriers of sound or light providing workplace cues. "A computer will no longer just be something that sits on the desk. In the future, others suggest, work environment will be controllable using a mobile communications device small enough to fit in the ear. This could be used for dealing with e-mail, managing bank accounts, even checking directions on an atlas. "One factor will be the imbedding of technology in all things we currently take for granted, such as the desk and chair," says Alison Black who works on the human factors design team at design consultancy IDEO. Latest generation mobile phones combine PC, phone and internet in a single unit. And the time is not far off when you could have a real-time phone conversation with someone in a language you don't speak - your phone would simultaneously translate. At the US headquarters of Monsanto, staff have been issued with personal, portable infra-red controllers allowing them to alter light or heat in any part of the building.

"We're at the edge of the 21st century, yet people are still crawling around on their hands and knees adjusting plugs," he says. "We are still based in offices modelled on thinking that evolved in 1910, but we don't still drive Model T Fords." Change is slow, but it is coming. Wireless technology is already a feature of many office innovations. "A feeling typical to many work spaces is that of being intruded upon," he says. And in the US, the Clinton administration last month made America the first country to introduce legislation to help to protect workers from contracting Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI.