Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace.

OrbitalDawn

OrbitalDawn

Ulysses Everett McGill
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Workplaces need more walls, not fewer.

A year ago, my boss announced that our large New York ad agency would be moving to an open office. After nine years as a senior writer, I was forced to trade in my private office for a seat at a long, shared table. It felt like my boss had ripped off my clothes and left me standing in my skivvies.

Our new, modern Tribeca office was beautifully airy, and yet remarkably oppressive. Nothing was private. On the first day, I took my seat at the table assigned to our creative department, next to a nice woman who I suspect was an air horn in a former life. All day, there was constant shuffling, yelling, and laughing, along with loud music piped through a PA system. As an excessive water drinker, I feared my co-workers were tallying my frequent bathroom trips. At day’s end, I bid adieu to the 12 pairs of eyes I felt judging my 5:04 p.m. departure time. I beelined to the Beats store to purchase their best noise-cancelling headphones in an unmistakably visible neon blue.

Despite its obvious problems, the open-office model has continued to encroach on workers across the country. Now, about 70 percent of U.S. offices have no or low partitions, according to the International Facility Management Association. Silicon Valley has been the leader in bringing down the dividers. Google, Yahoo, eBay, Goldman Sachs and American Express are all adherents. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg enlisted famed architect Frank Gehry to design the largest open floor plan in the world, housing nearly 3,000 engineers. And as a businessman, Michael Bloomberg was an early adopter of the open-space trend, saying it promoted transparency and fairness. He famously carried the model into city hall when he became mayor of New York, making “the Bullpen” a symbol of open communication and accessibility to the city’s chief.

These new floor plans are ideal for maximizing a company’s space while minimizing costs. Bosses love the ability to keep a closer eye on their employees, ensuring clandestine porn-watching, constant social media-browsing and unlimited personal cellphone use isn’t occupying billing hours. But employers are getting a false sense of improved productivity. A 2013 study found that many workers in open offices are frustrated by distractions that lead to poorer work performance. Nearly half of the surveyed workers in open offices said the lack of sound privacy was a significant problem for them and more than 30 percent complained about the lack of visual privacy. Meanwhile, “ease of interaction” with colleagues — the problem that open offices profess to fix — was cited as a problem by fewer than 10 percent of workers in any type of office setting. In fact, those with private offices were least likely to identify their ability to communicate with colleagues as an issue. In a previous study, researchers concluded that “the loss of productivity due to noise distraction … was doubled in open-plan offices compared to private offices.”

The New Yorker, in a review of research on this nouveau workplace design, determined that the benefits in building camaraderie simply mask the negative effects on work performance. While employees feel like they’re part of a laid-back, innovative enterprise, the environment ultimately damages workers’ attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction. Furthermore, a sense of privacy boosts job performance, while the opposite can cause feelings of helplessness. In addition to the distractions, my colleagues and I have been more vulnerable to illness. Last flu season took down a succession of my co-workers like dominoes.

As the new space intended, I’ve formed interesting, unexpected bonds with my cohorts. But my personal performance at work has hit an all-time low. Each day, my associates and I are seated at a table staring at each other, having an ongoing 12-person conversation from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s like being in middle school with a bunch of adults. Those who have worked in private offices for decades have proven to be the most vociferous and rowdy. They haven’t had to consider how their loud habits affect others, so they shout ideas at each other across the table and rehash jokes of yore. As a result, I can only work effectively during times when no one else is around, or if I isolate myself in one of the small, constantly sought-after, glass-windowed meeting rooms around the perimeter.

If employers want to make the open-office model work, they have to take measures to improve work efficiency. For one, they should create more private areas — ones without fishbowl windows. Also, they should implement rules on when interaction should be limited. For instance, when a colleague has on headphones, it’s a sign that you should come back another time or just send an e-mail. And please, let’s eliminate the music that blankets our workspaces. Metallica at 3 p.m. isn’t always compatible with meeting a 4 p.m. deadline.

On the other hand, companies could simply join another trend — allowing employees to work from home. That model has proven to boost productivity, with employees working more hours and taking fewer breaks. On top of that, there are fewer interruptions when employees work remotely. At home, my greatest distraction is the refrigerator.
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Thoughts on this?
 
I agree with rhe Author, but I'm way more concerned about my personal space and vocal about it than he is. I have worked in a small open scenario for about 2 years and I hate it like pest. It's my number one hate of my work environment. I love my job and what I do, but I can't take anyone looking over my shoulder constabtly or onto my work space. The constant questions I have to answer about what I am doing and what is this and what is that irritates the life out of me. Screw Open Offices. I need privacy. I don't crap with open doors and let the whole world see me wipe.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
Workplaces need more walls, not fewer.



Thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

I agree wholeheartedly with the author. Open plan offices are not conducive to productivity. Far too many distractions like people talking about something and it catches your interest and you leave your work to comment. That to me is the biggest problem. Oh yes, the age old air conditioning and radio station battles are annoying.

Give senior employees their own office I say, even if its small, I'll take it
 
I have worked in open plan most of my life so I am quite used to it and have managed to tune out the constant noise but I still cant manage when you sit right next to someone who is constantly shouting at passers by talking loudly on the phone etc etc. I think it depends on the people you employ and the type of work you do but its the old problem of painting everyone with the same brush. Some jobs just need longer focus durations and that gets hard when there are constant interuptions.
 
Open offices suck.
Offices with decent partitions are ok. And then either if you can use headphones or have white noise generators installed.
I'm working - I do not care about the conversation 4 desks on or idiot that forgot their phone again.
I have this idiot at my office who'd walk over, then wait until I acknowledge him before asking his question. There goes whatever I was working on. And telling him to **** off would not be good office manners.
 
I've worked in both. I get a lot more done if I have my own space. Open offices are quite distracting.
 
I work in an open office. I need to have headphones on permanently to get anything done.
 
I've worked in open office situation where we were on 4 person islands and hated it.
I have also been into much bigger offices which were little better than battery farms full of chickens - Rows and rows of workspaces separated by partitions hardly higher than the shoulder.
Not for me.

EDIT. I do like Open Office as an alternative to Microsoft!
 
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How big are these open offices you guys work in?

My max was 7 people in a come & go environment so you could end up spending the whole day on your own.
 
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I definitely don't think every person having their own office would benefit anyone but as is my current arrangement different teams should have their own space.

Our "department" are split into separate large offices. Not partitions but proper walled offices which work very well.

Even the manager share an office between two or more people and the only person with a office to themselves is our financial director for obvious reasons.
 
I work from home and still feel the need to isolate myself during the day, so I completely agree. All the things I've tried have only led to further distraction, so closing the door and minimising jarring sounds has helped.
 
Agree with the distraction of an open-office as I have been working in one for the past seven years. Most of us need to use headphones to do work as the noise is the biggest distraction. Also agree with telecommuting for those with sufficient self-discipline.
 
I used to work in an open plan office with around 60 people and it was a nightmare. There were no dividers so even with headphones on it was very difficult to not be visually distracted. I ended up building a wall around me using 4 x 23" monitors on stands.

Even in these environments where good noise canceling headphones are critical to survival, people do not respect headphone etiquette. I would get interrupted at least once every 20 minutes. No one every caught the hint.

My pet peeve however was people bumping other desks in the cluster and the vibrations running through into my keyboard. I'm amazed that we got any work done in that place.

2-6 people per office, with a strict policy on disruptions/distractions, is the only way this can work.
 
There always seems to be a few inordinately noisy people around - it is a major problem for me.
 
I also work in an open plan office. I haven't found a single time whereby I was annoyed by this, other than initially starting out.

It encourages communication, sharing ideas, openness and transparency. our drawers function as seats as well, and we have a lot of cubes around.

though, it's expected that you get along with people, and people are generally more than more workplace-only friends.

people need to be more social about the work they're doing. there's just too many people good at too many things to expect everyone to cope on their own.
 
I sometimes to my laptop to our library at work to just get things done, most of the times I can cope in an open office, but I am the only guy among women and jeez they can start talking when they first get going.
 
An open office is fine if you are doing rote work, but if you need to concentrate, then they don't work, well, anyway, not for me.

After a couple of distractions at the wrong time, productivity goes negative!
 
I've worked in an open plan and shared a small office with a few others. Both are kind of the same to me, to be honest. The open plan has compartments/cubicles, so the guy next to you would have to lean across to view your screen. Managers are a pain in open plan and offices. Don't share with them.
 
We have a semi-open office. We all have partitions but for instance I can wheel around and ask a question of a dev/analyst sitting a few cubicles down from me easily. I don't mind the setup at all. For what I do, I need good proximity to the developers in any case.
 
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