An
office is generally a
room or other area where
administrative work is done, but may also denote a position within an
organization with specific duties attached to it (see
officer,
office-holder,
official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an
adjective, the term "office" may refer to
business-related tasks. In
legal writing, a company or organization has offices in any place that it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of, for example, a
storage silo rather than an office. An office is an architectural and design phenomenon; whether it is a small office such as a
bench in the corner of a
small business of extremely small size (see
small office/home office), through entire floors of buildings, up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one company. In modern terms an office usually refers to the location where
white-collar workers are employed. As per
James Stephenson,"Office is that part of business enterprise which is devoted to the direction and co-ordination of its various activities."