Comments on: Open-Plan Workspaces: Getting Cozy with your Coworkers

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:13:30 +0000

Its a terrible idea. Obviously, our “masters of the universe” forgot that the classical image of a great genius at work is the solitary figure, brow furrowed. It is difficult to hang onto a train of thought for very long, when you are also being bombarded by several other, frequently unrelated, conversations at once. If you are the least bit inflicted with any level of hyperactivity (ADHD), then this environment is anathema, and as such, discriminates against people with that “disability” (Id like to add that the hyperactive mind is frequently also highly intelligent and creative, just the kind these companies supposedly want). This may be a wonderful and “fun” environment for the gregarious chatterbox types or a coffee klatch, but at some point, you have to be able to furrow that brow and CONCENTRATE to bring great thoughts and ideas to fruition. I dont believe any of the hype that the open environment (at least, not a perpetual, 9-5 type) is conducive to productivity and creativity. Its all just a trojan horse for what is really being pursued – the ability to monitor every move of every employee, and to impose a kind of heavy-duty self-conscious peer pressure due to being within eyeshot and earshot of all your peers and superiors, at all times. But fear of being repirmanded for not toiling strenuously away without pause like a good little workerbee is no replacement for the creativity and excellence that comes from undistracted brow-furrowing work. Also, how could this possibly add to employee cameraderie – 8-10 hours of close proximity day in and day out with people less favored than close family could drive certain people to extreme irritability, let alone psychopathy! I prefer cubicles, with a central “group hang-out” spot. Let those who (supposedly) function well in that coffee klatch environment simly migrate over to the central gab-fest as the spirit strikes them. Let the rest of us work on taking over the world in silence, like all evil geniuses generally do. Leave the 100% open environment to the child’s classroom, please.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:42:38 +0000

The department I’m working in is started from ground up, so my boss decided to experiment on the open space layout based on what he saw at a multinational company. His plan is just desktops for writers and cameramen, and workstations for the editors but no one assigned his/her own workspace (except him). I’m against it but he’s the boss. Whereas previously, people could personalise their own cubicles, he didn’t like it because he says “people get territorial” over their space. Within a month, tabletops get cluttered with cups, paper, trash, etc. He has brought up the issue on housekeeping several times during department meetings but to no avail. Why? Because when people don’t have their own space, there’s no ownership. My bigger concern is that when there’s only shared space, people may not be able to set down roots here. I think the hot-air on the whole open space layout will fizzle out when companies realise how it affects productivity and morale. I personally hate it.

By: Shweta

Shweta — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:44:13 +0000

Office Supplies are pretty boring, but what about organization, productivity, office humor and annoying your coworkers? http://blog.officenmore.com

By: Joey

Joey — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:06:54 +0000

I just finished a documentary about cubicles that explores a lot of what you talk about in this article.

What I found is that open spaces offer the ability to collaborate and communicate while closed offices give you the privacy to focus and get work done. Cubicles are just an ineffective compromise that blocks impromptu collaboration and doesn’t offer the privacy of a closed office.

I’ve got some videos about work spaces at the doc website:
http://www.cubiclesfilm.com/blog

By: MarkS

MarkS — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:01:31 +0000

If management wants to “increase the level of communication within the team”, then I am quite certain that the open floor plan will do that… The problem is that productivity will probably decrease… The communication will probably be a lot more BSing and other non-work related chat. People overhearing other conversations and chiming in. People trying to concentrate, having their concentration broken, and then at some point, getting frustrated and just getting up to walk it off. Maybe dropping in to another persons cube, interrupting them and then having a conversation about something that’s not related to productivity.

I recently moved to a new office. Used to have an office. I’m in a cube now. It’s awful. I keep headphones on… sometimes turning it up fairly loud to drown out conversations nearby. It’s not nearly as productive. It sucks.

Everybody should read Peopleware (mentioned above).

Offices for people who need to concentrate, enough conferences rooms to support teams that need to communicate more, without disturbing others who aren’t part of the meeting.

If you want to increase communication amongst a team, try letting people out of work at 4pm once in a while and sponsor a happy hour at a local bar. I worked at a company that did this twice a month, onsite. Beer, wine, and some food to pick on (cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies, chips). There was a lot of communication going on. People enjoyed working there too. Company was bought by a major corporation, and out went the happy hours, not to mention all the fun.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:57:14 +0000

I couldn’t work without my office. I work in a corporate communications dept. and am part of a three-person Web production team, so most of the work that goes on in the hallways and in the cube farm is only semi-relevant to what I do. I overhear enough obnoxious stuff in this place on an average day even WITH the office; I don’t know what I’d do without the option of closing my door once in a while.

By: aimee

aimee — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:35:19 +0000

I favor the open plan office, but you certainly need to create sound barriers between the different departments. My first job was in an open office space with 50 people. It was a Japanese company and so it was generally pretty quite in that big room but not oppressively quite. It made it much easier for everyone to stay current on what the rest of the department was doing without spending my entire life in meetings. I was miserable at my last job stuck in a deathly silent office all day long with minimal contact with the other employees.

I think your office layot preference does depend a lot on your job and prefered work style. I hate silence and find it impossible to work when it’s too quite (unless I was looking for books, I was never in my school’s library). That said if your coworkers are petty, clock watchers the open plan can lead to trouble since they will resent your socializing especially if they don’t realize socializing is part of your job.

By: The Water Cooler Blog » Blog Archive » At Work: Team Work Areas

The Water Cooler Blog » Blog Archive » At Work: Team Work Areas — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:21:39 +0000

[...] I just read an excellent article on Web Worker Daily regarding team work areas, these areas may be called by many names, but to name a few: community areas, team areas or “open-plan” workspaces as noted in the article. Check it out here: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/10/11/open-plan-workspaces-getting-cozy-with-your-coworkers/ [...]

By: noafilm

noafilm — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:29:35 +0000

I have been working as a teamleader for a IKEA distribution center in Belgium and managment firmly believed that an open workspace would improve communication and production, we were sitting in blocks of 3 people in an totally open space with a total of 30 people. Because my group got a lot of incoming phonecalls from suppliers and stores it was very distracting, I never found it an advantage working in this way. People sometimes also just shouted over information to a table a few meters further which made it even more chaotic.
So is working like this better? I’d say no, it does make it easier just to “hop” over to an other block without having to knock on a door first but people also use this as a excuse to have a quick chat. Nothing wrong with that but it is if your on a deadline and you have to listen to your colleagues talking about their weekend adventures. :)

By: The Big Cooler

The Big Cooler — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:26:39 +0000

This is an excellent article, hitting the best points about community workspaces. I work for a very large company that has decided to “trial” community workspaces; we have a large common area surrounded by “mobile stations” where any user can plug in, as well as, “anchor cubes” where employees with permanent desks sit.

This format suits our increasingly mobile workforce, and affords visitors to the surrounding training rooms, a place to get cozy for sidebar meetings and phone calls. The problem is that it is so well utilized, that it is disruptive to everyone in the area because there aren’t any sound barriers; the sound problem is amplified by the half-height cubes in place to increase team interaction.

In my mind every company should want their teams to interact more closely, developing a more cohesive relationship, but at what point is it too much? I think that is what companies will struggle with as more business look at similar models – it’s going to take soak time.

Personally I dislike our setup, while open, the surroundings are still stale, void of anything inviting. It used to be our desks providing an environment that feels good, and with those removed or reduced, we need something else to stimulate our senses. Additionally, I dislike the fact that we’ve taken local employees and made them mobile; going mobile has removed more of the “team” cohesiveness than this furniture layout has, but in concert, it has totally destroyed it.

I do agree that with today’s work/home lifestyles, a work environment conducive to team work, and making the employee comfortable and low-stress is very important.

In the end I think a balance can be achieved, it is especially difficult in larger companies, but not out of reach.

-The Big Cooler The Water Cooler Blog

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:13:54 +0000

Let’s get this straight: Open-plan spaces are NOT about fostering communication, but about paranoid bosses. Bosses love open plans because they can snoop on their people at all times. (Of course, that’s why the bosses themselves have offices, so nobody can snoop on them.)

By: Kendall

Kendall — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:55:46 +0000

I own my own business, so it’s pretty much just me in front of this pc for 18+ hours per day.

I just wanted to say that I was drawn to this site and this posting because it was on the front page of WordPress.com, and the photo of Anne is quite captivating. :)

-Kendall

By: Vince Veselosky

Vince Veselosky — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:58:28 +0000

My personal preference is for a private office, giving me time and space to think. But in that situation it is ideal to have a private IM system to make communication easy when needed, but not *too* easy when it’s not needed.

OTOH, a bullpen-style collaboration can be the most productive work environment when there is a specific goal to be achieved and everyone is pulling the same rope. So I like having conference rooms or “team rooms” at the ready for that kind of collaborative work.

The best answer, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.

By: Ahmad

Ahmad — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:49:59 +0000

I work in the marketing/PR industry and there has been a gradual move towards the open office layout as a way of increasing collaboration and productivity. On paper, this sounds ideal, but in practice, it can be a disaster. Whether people are conducting business or socializing (yes, people do socialize at work), it can distracting. This whole thing about finding a quiet space to work is ridiculous. When you think about it, companies prefer the open space plan because it really provides another benefit for them…checks and balances. You can tell pretty quickly who’s in the office, who’s working etc. IMHO, I think this has more to do with keeping tabs than productivity.

By: whythulc

whythulc — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:45:45 +0000

I think that an open office layout is ideal for people working on the same task. Even if they aer only working on a main project together this might get distracting.

I found that when I was working on a task for my company and we were grouped together in a u-shape, it was easy for me to ask questions to the group and get things done quicker because I didn’t have to walk to a different room or a separate cube.

By: J Lane

J Lane — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:34:32 +0000

Having experienced both, offices is the way to go. There are times when you just need to close the door, turn on the music and go. Then there are times when you can leave your door open, and invite people in to “communicate” with you.

It’s ridiculous that the argument for open plan workspaces is increased communication. You’re forcing a single communication medium on people then (face to face), when some people are better in e-mail, on the phone… whatever.