Inc. magazine without the office

Joseph Plambeck of the New York Times writes Monday about how Inc. magazine’s staff stayed away from the office for the entire month of February to put out its latest issue.

Plambeck writes, “The production went off without a major hitch, with the staff members using nothing more than readily available technology, including Skype and instant messaging. And Ms. Berentson described Mr. Chafkin’s cover piece, ‘The Office Is Dead. Long Live the Office,’ which is infused with first-person details, as richer and more unusual than it would have been without the experiment.

“‘I think about the magazine industry and how we’re going to use all of this new technology, such as the iPad, but there’s innovation in this very basic way as well,’ Ms. Berentson said. ‘Why are we in the office in the first place?’

“Away from the office, some staff members struggled to adjust, Mr. Chafkin said, as minor technical hiccups arose and parents working at home had to find ways to separate their work from their children. But in the end, most employees discovered that they could and should work out of the office more often — though they did not want to eliminate the office entirely.

“Mr. Chafkin, 27, who has been at the magazine since 2005, found himself working more hours than usual in February and pining for the company of his colleagues.”

Read more here.