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The Open Office Is Destroying the Workplace
HughPickens.com writes: Lindsey Kaufman reports in the WaPo that despite its obvious problems, the open-office model has continued to encroach on workers across the country, with about 70 percent of U.S. offices having no or low partitions. Silicon Valley has led the way — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg enlisted famed architect Frank Gehry to design the largest open floor plan in the world, housing nearly 3,000 engineers within a single room that stretches 10 acres. Michael Bloomberg was another early adopter of the open-space trend, saying it promoted transparency and fairness. 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 according to Kaufman, employers are getting a false sense of improved productivity. A 2013 study showed 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, and more than 30 percent complained about the lack of visual privacy. 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 says Kaufman. "Though multitasking millennials seem to be more open to distraction as a workplace norm, the wholehearted embrace of open offices may be ingraining a cycle of underperformance in their generation," writes Maria Konnikova. "They enjoy, build, and proselytize for open offices, but may also suffer the most from them in the long run."
But according to Kaufman, employers are getting a false sense of improved productivity. A 2013 study showed 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, and more than 30 percent complained about the lack of visual privacy. 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 says Kaufman. "Though multitasking millennials seem to be more open to distraction as a workplace norm, the wholehearted embrace of open offices may be ingraining a cycle of underperformance in their generation," writes Maria Konnikova. "They enjoy, build, and proselytize for open offices, but may also suffer the most from them in the long run."
I had a programming job in an open office with the boss on the phone faking jovial, garrulous laughter in sales calls all day long when he wasn't coming over to refocus our efforts many times a day and ask how long that would take.
Needless to say, I got more productive development done (on my hobby project/next business) in the private office of the back seat of the bus for half hour in the morning and evening. A bus can be noisy (and you have to hang on to your laptop for fear of sudden stops), but it beats the open plan office by a long shot anyday.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Every time I read an article that mentions Zuckerberg I know it is going to contain some idea, process or plan I am going to hate. Zuck is the worst possible CEO to have so much power which we know translates to the tech industry following his lead and also legislation. It is dbags like the Zuckerbergs that make me want to get out of tech since with people following their lead things are only going to get worse for the rest of us.
Each engineer had a desk. No deviders or walls.
All of the desks faced the same direction.
At the front of the room was a raised platform (about 1 foot high). On that platform sat the managers.
Four engineers shared one phone. That phone was on a swing arm that would swing in a circle above the four desks.
Oh, and I forgot. Your desk had to be completely bare when you left in the afternoon. And you do not want to be caught reading a newspaper anytime after the whistle blows at 8 AM.
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Sheesh, I had to scroll down FAR to find someone else who didn't mind open office plans...
For me, working in an office is about maximizing Communication. Cubes and even conference rooms get in the way of communication, isolating and dividing groups so that they start wandering off in different directions and ends up creating more work to get everyone back on the same page.
Yes, distraction is an issue. But an important part of cognitive function is to be able to filter out distractions when you do need extended periods of hyperfocus. This is pretty easily handled with headphones and some discipline. My coworkers are polite enough not to approach someone who looks like they're "in the zone" and attach their comments and questions to their work tickets (woo documentation) and/or wait until standup to discuss things that need more eyeballs - usually things are resolved much faster that way anyway (as long as it's timeboxed not to waste the time of the entire team).
Plus, your workspace is very much a showcase of your work, personality, and work habits, and I find it way easier to display it on the open planform "science fair" office than in the empty nest "cube farm" booth format.
In the name of improving communication, I would even go so far as to split team members up and spread them around the office so they can better mingle with other groups in your supply / input / process / output / customer chain. After all, your teammates should already have a good deal of sync with each other, since they attend meetings together more frequently and back each other up on the same projects, so it's more beneficial to maximize inter-team communication by spreading your group out to keep tabs on the other groups in your office. They can do a better job passively filtering information discussed by other teams, helping keep track of the pulse of other groups so you have some advanced notice of when a deadline might slip or an important milestone is coming up. I always find it a greater waste of time when, after every 6 mo. reorg, they try to shuffle around everyone's seats so teams are seated near each other in a cluster by their current manager so they can "better collaborate" with each other, like they weren't going to be able to find a convenient way to do so anyway.
If you really need privacy, grab a break-out room, or work from home that day. But for the most part, I find that work sucks more when there's not enough communication, as opposed to when there's insufficient time for hyperfocus work (assuming your manager is doing a decent job shielding you from the BS, which I know is by no means a given).
What country have you worked in where workers are more empowered to make decisions, and trusted to act independently?
Germany, Austria and Switzerland for three. Throughout many joint projects I've worked with self-motivated people that crush through a work day focused on their tasks and the work environment is irrelevant. They could be in a private office or a conference room packed with people, these Europeans are still doing what they need to do. Americans on the other hand, give them a private room and they may do their work but their web logs often show otherwise. Anyone ever evaluated and stacked up web logs of Germans to those of Americans? The latter always encourages me to wonder why 1 out of 7 men can't obtain porn on a home computer and how they can feel comfortable viewing it in a work environment.