For those in office jobs, work seldom ends at a precise hour. Many remain at their desks long after quittin' time, completing unfinished tasks, responding to emails and preparing for the next day's work.
To ensure employees end their day on time and maintain a work-life balance, Amsterdam design studio Heldergroen simply makes its office vanish at 6 p.m. every day.
Large industrial motors attached to steel cables tow the office's tables (and everything on them) up to the ceiling, clearing the floor below. Once the chairs and filing cabinets are also stored away, the space is open, allowing outside parties to hold activities like yoga classes, parties and educational courses.
"We believe that if you give something, in this case a room to do anything you like, you will eventually get something back," Sander Veenendaal, creative director for Heldergroen, told Fast Company.
While Heldergroen may have the first vanishing office space we've seen, it's certainly not the first company to attempt curbing employee burnout. Volkswagen, for example, announced in 2011 that company servers would cease sending emails 30 minutes after employees' shifts ended and would resume again 30 minutes prior to the beginning of the next work day.
The German labor ministry in 2013 put a similar measure in place by banning its managers from contacting staff outside of work hours -- save for exceptional cases -- to ensure employees get adequate rest time away from the job, according to The Telegraph.
Watch video footage showing off Heldergroen's unique office space, above, to see it transform before your eyes. Head over to Fast Company to read more about this innovative idea.