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TBWA\Chiat\Day
TBWA\Chiat\Day took the open office concept to the extreme for their Los Angeles digs, buying an old warehouse and converting it to workspace in 1998.
Love them or hate them, open-plan offices are the new normal in the workplace.
Despite research showing that non-traditional, open office layouts can lower employee productivity and boost stress, companies show no signs of switching away from the modern layouts, which are long on collaboration space and short on private work areas.
For more than a decade, companies have been on a slow march away from traditional floor plans composed of private offices and cubicle “farms” of individual modules with six-foot-high wall panels.
They’re transforming offices into environments with giant communal workrooms and low- or no-walled pods, lounge areas with cushy sofas and whiteboards for group meetings, and single-person privacy booths. By 2015, more than three-quarters of U.S. companies expect to use open, collaborative workspaces with fewer offices, according to Teknion Corp.’s Workplace of the Future survey, published late last year.
But open-plan offices cause conflict, high blood pressure and increased turnover, according to a 2008 Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management report cited in Scientific American. A 2007 study from the Center for the Built Environment found that 60 percent of employees who sit in cubicles think acoustics interfere with their ability to work. Office workers are more bugged by sound privacy -- or lack of it -- than noise levels, according to the study.
The switch to such floor plans in offices is partly a generational thing. Younger workers, especially in their 20s and 30s, like being social and working in groups, and companies are doing what they can to attract them. That includes revamping office layouts to be more flexible and let in more natural light -- a perk for sustainable-minded Millennials, says Chris Corrado, president of Environments, a 30-year-old office furnishings supplier in Portland, Ore. “Gen Xers and Yers, they have a totally different view of life,” Corrado says. “They have their phones and laptops and iPads. They don’t need to be tethered to a desk to get work done.”
It’s also a cost thing. Workstations for open-plan offices run 6’x6’ with 50” high walls instead of 8’x8’ or 8’x10’ with 72” walls, and as a result, cost up to 10 percent less, Corrado says. But what companies save buying smaller cubicles, and fewer of them, they spend building more space for conferences or other collaboration, he says.
Companies including Intel and Microsoft have gone so far as to adopt workstations that are shared by multiple individuals, a practice known as “hoteling” or “hotdesking.” In some of these shared workspaces, employees keep personal belongings in lockers or rolling file cabinets that can be wheeled into storage when they’re not being used.
TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Los Angeles outpost switched to an open layout when the advertising agency bought an old warehouse and converted it to an office in 1998. The two-story space features 27-foot tents that separate brand teams, an indoor park, basketball court used for all-staff meetings, and lunch counter made partly of surfboards. When someone needs time alone, they can retreat to rooms tucked away behind scrims.
The high-concept interior isn’t just about image. It also helps foster creativity, says Patrick O’Neill, executive creative director at the agency’s Los Angeles office. “It’s a collaborative business so it behooves us to have an open plan,” he says.
Not only that, having a more flexible office space makes it easy to reconfigure workgroups quickly, an advantage when dealing with clients whose own business plans can change on a dime. “We’re constantly rethinking how our teams are built. The space is valuable for that because it’s open and malleable,” O’Neill says.
But not everyone’s happier or better off because of how office spaces are changing.
Susan Cain, author of "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking", argues that privacy makes people more productive and creative, while collaboration leads to groupthink. “Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in,” Cain wrote in the New York Times.
If companies are smart, they’ll realize introverts and other employees aren’t comfortable working in the open and take that into account when designing work spaces, says Cathy Sexton, a St. Louis, Mo., productivity strategist.
For starters, companies can orient workspaces so individuals face inside, away from foot traffic, because “just having someone walk by can be a distraction,” she says.
Sexton encourages people to wear headphones to listen to music or white noise if it cuts down on distractions. She recommends using telephone headsets to reduce noise from conversations that might distract coworkers. And she suggests designating specific areas for collaboration or conversations, and even instituting quiet times.
Ultimately, open-plan offices aren’t going away, so employees have to adapt. Says Sexton: “If everyone recognizes what everyone needs, it becomes more acceptable.”
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Leave a Comment:
worked in this environment not once, but twice, even after I promised myself I wouldn't do it again. This is not a one-size fits all proposition. As a creative and independent individual, I prefer to be part of a social group under my own terms. I imagine this model is a boon for those who seek other's approval and thrive on interpersonal conflict and drama, as well as managers or execs that have little trust of their employee base. Agree with one of those interviewed it is almost mandatory in a collaborative work setting like a media office, or ad agency, but don't suggest that an open plan is the standard for all office space - it isn't.
Even in an environment that needs collaboration, there needs to be spaces where people can be quiet and think; collaboration is never 24/7 or even 8/5. Sitting behind a scrim may be private, but it is not quiet. And after the collaboration sessions, when one person needs to put the PowerPoint deck together or create the project plan, it's very difficult to do that in a noisy environment. Personally, I also find "forced socialization" to be detrimental - effective brainstorming and collaboration often demands different perspectives and viewpoints that don't come from groupthink. I also find that often, the quietest, introverted people are more creative -- they express themselves in their work and ideas, not necessarily in the group environment. Even a media office or creative agency that needs people to collaborate also needs people to be creative - these places don't exist without creativity. So best to give those creative types the atmosphere they need, and that may be privacy with some spaces for collaboration rather than the other way around.
I own an IT Company, the first space I bought 5 years ago was an open floor plan, seemed hip and fun at first but got old quick. I found myself feeling constantly annoyed by everyone, once the newness wore off I was over it. Also you always have people who take this as an open invitation to walk up on you anytime with no notice or respect for your space. I re-upfitted the space 12 months later, big difference..
I have worked in an open floor plan -no privacy-no boundries-constantly available to anyone and everyone-NO THANKS!!!
I currently work in an open space environment in an industry where we are NOT working in teams; there is no collaboration (nor does there need to be) and w/ high pressure deadlines. Productivity in almost non-existent due to the noise and traffic. Everyone seems to think it's party-time for most of the day. It's ridiculous.
I recently turned down an offer from an employer who had an open floor plan. This was not the only reason I declined (there were other issues) but it sure played mightily into my decision. And no one would ever mistake me for an introvert but even extroverts need privacy sometimes. Do my fellow employees need to know that I'm trying to schedule a doctor's appt?
Having worked in numerous open plan offices in a "creative capacity," I can say I'm not a fan of the concept. That's why I wrote a similar article entitled <a href=""/>The collaboration myth of the open plan office.</a> back in 2010.
Tasks that need a lot of concentration are not appropriate for open floor plans that tend to be noisy and distracting. Time and again, companies try to force a one size fits all and it doesn't work well.
Sounds exactly like where I worked in 1973 - we have come full circle. No chance of concentrating and everyone in everyone else's business. Not a fan...
Everything goes in cycles. This concept was popular in the 60's. Didn't work then, won't work now.
Companies are just wasting money reconfiguring. Employees like the feel of 'their own space'.
Thanks for everyone's great feedback. Do you think the move to open office spaces will motivate more employees to want to work remotely, i.e., telecommute?
Michelle Rafter
Would an open office promote more telecommuting? I know it would for me, particularly when I had to get something done on a deadline. People I work with have a hard enough time finding some piece and quiet with our 5' tall cube walls. Since my company allows telecommuting, I think my colleagues would definitely take advantage of that if the company went to open office layout.
If the open space concept is so great, why are people in upper management still in closed door offices? I worked in an R&D group that had cubes with 6 foot walls. Engineers had a certain level of privacy and it was a pretty productive environment. Many of us worked with instrumentation and the high walls kept the noise pretty much confined to the cube. This was important when running repetitive tests on the instruments we were developing. We had a couple of open spaces for collaboration when we needed it.
One of the R&D directors wanted to put us all in a cube farm with short walls and volunteered to move from his closed door office into a cube with low walls. He lasted a week, didn't like it, and went back to his office. He said he couldn't concentrate on his work because of the distractions. The group was still made to go to cube farms and open spaces anyway. Go figure. He's in a new office now. Which got bigger, by the way.
Well-done open floor plans can work well, but most companies think it just means throw everything into the middle. We are transitioning to open work space and this has meant filling every little bit of open floor space with low-wall cubes or conference tables for 6-8; one area has two of these conference tables right next to each other....those should be interesting meetings. I'm lucky that I have one of the high-wall cubes next to a window, but due to the fact that there is no ceiling, I can hear conversation from several cubes over and everytime the ventilation system goes on, it sounds like I'm in a tropical forest. I will be living with my noise-cancelling headphones on.
I work in a help desk / NOC environment. No walls at all. Just a big room, full of consoles, big screens, computers and phones. There is no privacy whatsoever. Many times, I can't even carry on a conversation with my "customers", because my co-workers (including at least one supervisor) are carrying on and shooting the sh!t at the other end of the console. And that's not even taking into account the two different people sharing my computer and phone. (It could be worse. Other positions have FIVE people sharing the same work space.) At least SOME of my coworkers have the good manners not to come up and interrupt me while I'm eating. (We "get" to do THAT at the consoles, too.) I even had one X'er (a team lead) make the remark that there were "too many old people" in the center, when I got irate about the carrying on while I was trying to talk on the phone. Yeah. I love my job. Should have gone to HR about that one.
I'd like to be able to scratch myself (yes...there) or pick my nose without anyone seeing. :)
Tivity is at the NYU Poly incubator open space in SoHo and they layout is open and great. There's ample opportunity for cross collaboration within our company and with the other companies in the space. There's also space to close a door or put on your headphones to get to work when extra focus is needed. In all a great combination of open and closed space.
I prefer to have just a little privacy. Aside from the noise factor that others have already mentioned, there are times when you work full time that you need to make the occasional private phone call or pay a bill online or conduct some other private business. If you're are on your lunch break you may want to check your personal e mails; it's nice to able to do these things without feeling like you're displaying your life to the office (I have had people comment on things that I have said to someone over my personal mobile phone).
I also think that the open plan sends the wrong message to employees; that you are being watched and judged; that you are not trusted and need to be surveilled. Whether this is the case or not, that's the message that it sends...not good for employee moral.
open plan office sux big time (someone just walked behind me as I'm typing this)... leave it at that.