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Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

On the ninth floor, we first look at a “traditional” layout. It is a tidy prison of cubicles, walls about eye-level, row upon row of neutral coloured boxes where it is unclear if anyone is actually present and, if so, living and breathing. Powell points out — and industry data supports her — that about 40 per cent of such office space is vacant on any given day.

For the federal government, with 99 departments and agencies, that’s an entire planet of space to carpet, heat and light for no one in particular.

“I don’t see that as the future of work,” Powell said. Neither does her department which, on top of making the workplace better, has a loose goal of reducing the footprint of the office portfolio 30 per cent in a generation.

Over we go to the activity-based side.

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

There are roughly three zones, at which workers don’t park themselves at the same desks every day. (No personalizing the space with plants, photos and goldfish.) There is a quiet zone where workers toil at massive monitors and generally don’t make much noise or take phone calls. There is a collaborative area where staff work close together, talk over low risers and gather at tables actually labelled “chat points.”

There are also fully-wired meeting rooms of various sizes, rooms labelled “phone booth” for those loud or extended calls with clients or plumbers, and quiet or break rooms to decompress for a moment. (It is, truly, labelled ‘Quiet Room.’)

But the real ‘yowzer’ part of the tour is the lunch room. It has magnificent, two-sided views overlooking the Ottawa River, which is sparkling this day, the Library of Parliament and Peace Tower, the Supreme Court and the Château Laurier. In the old days, Powell says, this is where big shots might have had the corner offices.