A room or building where people work at desks, or a position of authority or responsibility in an organization or government.
From Latin "officium" meaning "service, duty, official position," from "opus" (work) and a root related to "facere" (to do). It originally focused on duty rather than the physical room.
An "office" was first a role, not a place—your official duty, not your cubicle. The room borrowed its name from the responsibility, which is why we still talk about "holding office" even if you mostly work from home.
Offices and office work were historically male-dominated, with women often restricted to lower-status clerical or secretarial roles. Language around “the office” has sometimes encoded assumptions about male leadership and female support staff.
Use role titles and office language without gender assumptions (e.g., “office worker,” “administrator,” “manager”), and avoid jokes or tropes that feminize support roles or masculinize leadership by default.
["workplace","work environment","administrative space"]
When discussing the history of office work, recognize the central role of women in building modern administrative, clerical, and knowledge economies, even when their contributions were underpaid or undervalued.
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