In public relations, 9 to 5 is no way to make a living

Since the dawn of the PR industry, agency staffers worked in the office. This office space brought everyone together in a single place, confined by walls and designed to encourage collaboration, creativity, and productivity.

There was a time and place when offices were essential. Making a work call meant you needed to be seated at your desk. Your computer, most likely a desktop, needed to be situated on the surface of your office desk and couldn’t be moved. Your office files and other vital documents were only accessible at the office.

Additionally, clients often insisted agencies stake a physical presence in locations where the client had a corporate footprint. This resulted in limited work produced outside a company’s offices.

With advancements in communication, project management, and collaboration tools, clients are questioning the conventional office. They are beginning to realize it is more efficient to assemble senior account teams according to talent, creativity, and relevance to an assignment, without restricting them to geographic locations and resources available in the confines of a central office.

With the traditional PR agency model, account teams are assembled according to staff availability and relevant industry expertise—two variables rarely aligned.