An office is a space where an organization’s employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word « office » 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 law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of (for example) a storage silo rather than an establishment with desk-and-chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon: ranging from 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 is usually the location where white-collar workers carry out their functions.
According to James Stephenson, « Office is that part of business enterprise which is devoted to the direction and co-ordination of its various activities. »