Open Offices

ℹ️Open Offices
File:MissCubicle.png File:MissCubicle.pngx
By :	Aristotle Sabouni
Created :	2019-01-14

1Liner  :  Since some startups didn't have money to create good facilities, and they succeeded, others stupidly copied the idea.

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Summary  :  Planners decided that if Google/Facebook/Twitter succeeded in spite of a horrendously distracted working environment, then everyone should suffer. Corporate America (especially Tech) started shifting to Open Office to the annoyance of tech workers everywhere. This was sold as "more collaborative", but distracting is more accurate.

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Facts

File:OpenOffice2.jpg

• Planners who failed at life decided that if Google/Facebook/etc. succeeded in spite of a horrendously distracted working environment, then Corporate America (especially Tech) started shifting to Open Office to the annoyance of workers everywhere.

• This was sold as "more collaborative", but a lot of work requires focus (free of distractions). There have been multiple studies that bear out that workers get MORE quiet to keep from disturbing others, hide away in meeting rooms, or work with headphones to create faux privacy. They get less collaborative.

• One-size-fits-all fits many really poorly.

• The real incentives were placing facility costs over individual productivity
  • Population density can go up
  • But if you do it without fixing facilities (parking, loading/unloading, power or food/toilets), then you create new problems
  • The results have been productivity killing, increased employee friction, increased illness/sick-time, less face-to-face interaction, and more start working from home or as remote as can get away with.
  • Companies try to combat the backlash against open office by mandating people must come in to the office more.

Conclusion

This will go down as proof that companies that ignore management fads operate much better than those that follow them.

COVID hit open office much harder than those that had kept personal space.

Open Floorplans

           Main article: Open Floorplans

Introverts

           Main article: Introverts

File:GeekPirate.small.png

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🔗 External Links

• https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/its-official-open-plan-offices-are-now-dumbest-management-fad-of-all-time.html
• https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/science-just-proved-that-open-plan-offices-destroy-productivity.html
• https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-open-office-trap
• http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170105-open-offices-are-damaging-our-memories
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2015/04/22/office-designers-find-open-plan-spaces-are-actually-lousy-for-workers/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/30/google-got-it-wrong-the-open-office-trend-is-destroying-the-workplace/
• Panopticon: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-open-plan-office-failed-so-were-moving-to-a-towering-panopticon
• Study: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0239#d3e1265

Solutions:

• Passive-Aggressive response to Open Offices? https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/486161/i-stopped-showering/
• https://www.cnet.com/news/would-you-wear-this-muzzle-around-the-office-for-private-calling/