Going “officeless”—or nearly so—is a sea change in business attitudes. It’s driven by technological and cultural shifts as the Web-literate Generations X and Y become the driving force behind entrepreneurship. The trend is so advanced that architectural experts think it will even alter the way future corporate spaces are designed, as office-free companies vault into the ranks of the Fortune 500.

The article covers the generational angle well, citing research that suggests office buildings are gradually becoming obsolete as Generation-Y workers hate the idea of commuting and don’t place the same importance on having a physical office as previous generations did. (This makes sense to me. When your entire social life already exists online, the idea of shutting down the computer and driving to an office building to speak with co-workers must seem faintly absurd.) It’s not just about building a better business by lowering costs and raising productivity; the shift to a virtual workplace is occurring in part simply because this is how younger people naturally get things done.

Elsewhere, Seth Godin argued on his blog that it’s time to finally say goodbye to the office. In his words: “I think in ten years the TV show ‘the Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique.”

• It’ll cost them less. Like contract workers today, virtual workers aren’t paid benefits, so even when they demand a higher rate it can still be more cost-effective to use them for a project than an existing employee. And of course, a virtual worker doesn’t demand the overhead of office space, parking, or free coffee to do their job.

• They’ll have more flexibility. Since virtual workers aren’t employees, there’s no expectation they’ll be around past the end of a project or as a business enters its quiet season. This gives a company the flexibility to grow or shrink its labour force as it needs to in order to match market demand, without the risk of lawsuits or other kinds of retribution from laid-off employees.

• They’ll gain access to better talent. One of the effects of making full-time employment less desirable is that the most talented and in-demand workers will be less inclined to stick with it. Virtual work offers a better lifestyle for many and will, I believe, increasingly be the norm for those who are good enough at what they do to be able to choose it. How long will it be until those looking for regular employment are also those with the least-marketable skills?

• They won’t have a choice. Maybe. This isn’t true yet, but the incoming generation of workers, the so-called Generation Y, has seen the state of employment today and many are deciding they want nothing to do with it—they’re running their own businesses instead. Even those that aren’t are vowing to rewrite the rules of the workplace and have already started to win concessions from employers. Companies that want to stay relevant may soon have no option but to adapt to the more flexible, more independent work arrangements young workers are demanding.

Earlier this month I learned from NPR about a company that has taken this idea a step further. Fuentek is a multi-million dollar technology-management services company based in North Carolina with a staff of about 40 people, all of whom are required to telecommute. Fuentek not only is a virtual company, it is assembled entirely of virtual workers, too. The company’s success demonstrates how it’s now possible to build a thriving business with workers free to set their own location and schedule.

I think these stories illustrate a significant, lasting change that’s occurring in the way work is done. I see several trends converging to bring this about.

First of all, the traditional model of full-time employment is breaking down. Following the greatest economic crisis of a generation, companies everywhere are looking to lower their labour costs, which has led to widespread layoffs and to reductions in benefits for those left behind. With the previous recession still fresh in our minds, no one can really still believe there is security in a full-time job. Companies are purposefully moving away from permanent staff; The Globe and Mail has also reported (the article is now available only to subscribers) on new concessions built into job offers and how the market for contract workers is booming amidst a shift to more flexible, contingent labour. Last month, Business Week offered a bleak outlook for employees:

The forecast for the next five to 10 years: more of the same, with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions, and little job security. Right on up to the C-suite, more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk. “When I hear people talk about temp vs. permanent jobs, I laugh,” says Barry Asin, chief analyst at the Los Altos (Calif.) labor-analysis firm Staffing Industry Analysts. “The idea that any job is permanent has been well proven not to be true.” As Kelly Services (KELYA) CEO Carl Camden puts it: “We’re all temps now.”

At the same time the employment market is unravelling, technology is steadily lowering the barriers to self-employment and entrepreneurship—for knowledge workers particularly, but as the example of We Wash Cars helps demonstrate, for others as well. The Internet and applications built on it are freeing workers from traditional nine-to-five, office-bound roles as quickly as these roles are disappearing. New tools like netbooks and smartphones make productivity possible far away from an office building. Voice-over-IP and virtual-private-network technologies allow the self-employed to project an office presence wherever they go. Social-media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are increasingly the way new colleagues and customers are found. Most importantly, the capital costs of setting up a small, virtual business are plummeting: Hosted web, email and even telephony services are now astonishingly cheap, as are powerful computers and professional-quality software. As Fuentek demonstrates, in the new virtual workplace, traditional outlays like office space and a network infrastructure are no longer essential.

It used to be self-employment was risky because it offered neither benefits nor job security. Once these things are gone from full-time work as well, how many of the bright and talented will be afraid to make the jump?