One of the strongest points to the Microsoft New World of Work approach is its recognition of the diversity of work places, work roles, and workers themselves. The Microsoft Netherlands joint research piece with Erasmus University laid out a helpful grid to distinguish across 2 fundamental dimensions (see above). The report comments…

“Of course, mobile working is not a dichotomous variable. People work mobile to a greater or lesser degree. As we can learn from the mobile work quadrant below, telework is just one alternative. In the quadrant, different types of mobile working environments are distinguished based on two dimensions: frequency of changing worker location and location (fixed vs. multiple) (Schaffers et al, 2006).”