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The folks that work for office space design firms pitch this as a way to help cut down on things like "Amazon shoppers" and other not-for-work Internet usage. Folks supposedly know they "can't hide" and won't let their coworkers see that they are filing our fantasy football brackets or sharing recipes on companies' broadband. Like the senior managers never do anything but their duly assigned task. Righto.
Ha.
In my experience it does NOT work out that way -- people still check their gmail and order whatever the heck they want from pretty much any web site (filters keep the creeps from ordering 'marital aids'...), back in the old days the guys that got "reprimanded" about having the sports pages box scores tucked in next to their columnar pads would just take an extra long "bathroom break" before calling their bookie. You can't regulate every aspect of an employee's day...
Oh well, another great "Managment theory" down in flames...
BTW -- they have to set the "white noise" generators up to the "Niagra Falls" volume to drown out the sounds of keyboards and normal phone conversations and that seems to make everyone take an extra couple of trips to the lavatories. Such innovation. No wonder we have those weird commercial for drugs designed for "leaky pipes" and "incontinent pads". Yuck.
My office has no walls at all. We're in rows of 8 or 10, 4 or 5 "cubes" facing each other. My desk vibrates whenever anyone else thumps on theirs, or even when they're typing fast and hard. It shakes the monitors. Noise travels far, even conversations in low voices. I have to turn my headphones up loud to drown it out, which isn't good for my hearing as I have pretty bad tinnitus.
Working from home isn't an option, unless you're sick or the plumber's coming or something like that. Otherwise, butts in seats is the rule.
If you can believe it, some offices are even worse than mine. I turned down a contract that paid more money because the office environment was even worse. The second I saw it, I was thinking "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO." I went through with the interview anyway, cos y'know...I was THERE. But I was surprised when they offered me the contract. When I talked to the recruiter to turn it down, I listed the office as one of the reasons why. Not the top reason (I made up a few better-sounding ones), but one of them. When I described it to him, he said "Wow...I don't blame you."
I feel for you!
For years, our company refused to let people work from home, because they couldnt control them. Now, they want to be in the list of Great Places to Work, so they've become much more lenient and have enforced production requirements. Which means, most of us are working overtime nights & weekends to stay afloat.
Our cubicles are set up long rows with a 4 pod-like positioning. We are about 3 feet away from the person behind us. And staring directly across & to the side of another.
My new office is like this, nobody likes it but after a month or so we all got used to it. Open spaces like this are supposed to foster "open communication" and "innovation" but really they just make everybody miss the cube walls and semblance of privacy.
Also I think it is a cultural thing. We have a few employees who worked in Europe and they say this is the norm over there... open workspaces with everyone collaborating. Here stateside, we have a certain expectation of our own space at work and that is an adjustment.
This is just the latest fad and itll soon fade.
My highschool was actually set up the same way, with open walls between the different classrooms. The school has since been remodeled.
Everything old is new again. My office was an open office in the late 80's and early 90's. I didn't mind it because I knew no difference and my coworkers were SO FUNNY. Since we could hear conversations 5 rows up; we all commented and laughed if someone was having a rough interaction.
When I first moved to another company where we all had our own OFFICES - I really hated it at first. I missed the interaction. But this company was much different; there would not have been much lighthearted interaction anyway. I soon got used to my own office and liked it.
THEN, I got moved into my home and HATED it for about 2 months. Then I loved it.
Now I'm back in cublcle land with some freedom to work at home every so often. Probably a good happy medium.
They do this in blue collar places too... they want to keep everyone in view of each other and minimize private areas to increase productivity and make people go to break at the same time in the same place... just the middle management throwing their weight around and making themselves feel important when really they could save the extra cash by eliminating said middle management's job instead.
I hate them too. They are very distracting. I just listen to music or white noise on headphones to keep focused on my work. People working in cubes automatically develop boundaries & even talk slowly. In open offices the environment becomes too casual & people can stopby your desk anytime whereas in cubes they atleast knock on the wall or tap on your desk to get your attention. Its like a mini office. If your job requires lot of reading & focus on the job then the open setup is a big disaster. I hope someday they realize how it affects the productivity & set up the boundaries again.
I don't mind either the cubes or open office, but open office does have a tendency to be a lot noisier.
I loathe open offices; I have a strong startle reflex and I hate it when people creep up behind me. I also find it distracting to constantly see motion in my peripheral vision. Some may not find it distracting. I do. And you don't just "get over it" either.
Right now there are 5-6 people milling around 2 rows over speaking loudly (mixture of English and "other") and a couple of people throwing Nerf balls across the room.
Wish they'd shut up and sit down.
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The second I saw it, I was thinking "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO." I went through with the interview anyway, cos y'know...I was THERE. But I was surprised when they offered me the contract. When I talked to the recruiter to turn it down, I listed the office as one of the reasons why. Not the top reason (I made up a few better-sounding ones), but one of them. When I described it to him, he said "Wow...I don't blame you."
