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Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

qz.com

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Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#171

Post by paulhodge »

keithpeter wrote: post #89
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #43

I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in every possible configuration. I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions: - We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all like to have as an office from what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that simply because you like somethin…

"I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for organizations as a whole." The original article is quoting peer-reviewed research that tends to support the opposite of your opinion. What do you think is wrong with the methodology employed in the OA?

I can help with that:

"Workers in open-plan offices get sick more often" - Only supported by one study done in Denmark. Not enough research.

"Open-plan offices are less productive" - Supported by a study which only identified some of the negative effects of a open-office plan (such as the effect of irrelevant speech). That study didn't attempt to measure the benefits of an open office, or attempt to exhaustively list all of the effects of an open office, so it doesn't speak to the overall effect on efficiency.

All the other claims were either focused on employee opinions or were about things other than an open office plan.

You can guess what my opinion here is. At my previous company, the floor plan had both offices and a wide open area, so we could choose where to sit. I picked the open area and loved it. Being able to eavesdrop on the status of other teams, or having really easy group communication (as easy as yelling across the room) was incredibly valuable. I think the open office is especially nice in our industry since we really tend to suffer from under-communication and a lack of cross-team networking.

Anyway some folks at our company chose small offices and I think they enjoyed it. The ideal floor plan would have a mix of both I think. But I don't think Facebook's new one-giant-open-area building is nearly as awful as people make it out to be.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#172

Post by hnriot »

jroseattle wrote: post #159
peripitea wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you measure this productivity increase? That always seems like the hard part for me.

Our productivity increase was rather easy to measure -- our ship dates moved up. Same amount of work completed in shorter amount of time.

Of course it's entirely possible, and probable that the office configuration was not the only variable. Given that the company were trying to find ways to improve productivity the desk config was likely one of a number of changes, not the least of which would be the staff being aware that management was looking carefully at productivity.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#173

Post by driverdan »

rhizome wrote: post #120
mcphilip wrote: post #14

I really struggle to get in the 'zone' where I can do the creative aspects of software engineering (e.g. researching graph databases like neo4j and determining if our startup can benefit from it) when I'm in an open environment. I have been diagnosed with ADD for the past 8 years, but am working towards a medication free approach to dealing with it. Open spaces really hurt my productivity because my mind naturally tr…

Pretty much my worst working experience was in an open plan office (the boss had their own office, natch), where the boss would walk into the room, "Hey guys...", everybody takes their headphones off and looks up, and he starts talking about something that is relevant to two, maybe two and a half, people. This would happen about once per hour. Policy against headphones, is that a thing? Shudder.

I could never work at a place with that kind of idiotic policy.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#174

Post by hnriot »

jasonlotito wrote: post #156
mikevm wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Another issue with ADHD isn't just being distracted, but also getting back to work after being disrupted. It's easy to talk about getting into the zone, but for someone with ADHD, it's even more challenging. Since I've started medication, I've seen firsthand the dramatic difference. Did you have similar problems in College? That is, if you get distracted from homework assignments (say, friends are bugging you to go…

> Did you have similar problems in College? Yes. And it was a struggle. I always chalked it up to procrastination. As a 33 year old learning you've had ADHD and OCD all your life, it kind of freaks you out. They say not to do it, but you can't help but think of what you could have done had you been properly diagnosed. Instead, they tell me I need to focus on what I have accomplished in spite of my condition (which, t…

> Unfortunately, the meds are giving me side effects (increased heart rate).

That's because it's speed, an amphetamine.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#175

Post by driverdan »

bdcravens wrote: post #41
ghotli wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-Earphone/d... Those effectively eliminate auditory ADD in an open environment. Nothing has been more effective than these for me.

I have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 15's, supposedly one of the best noise canceling headphones you can buy. While it eliminates alot of the noise, noise still gets in.

Earphones that actually block sound are far superior to noise canceling headphones that degrade the sound quality of whatever you're listening to.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#176

Post by septerr »

After working in a cube partitioned off from everyone else on the team for 7 years, I will disagree with the title of this post. I long for a more interactive workspace. I find myself depressed, not motivated and alone. My instincts tell me it would be nice to have a little more human contact. At present I can go days without speaking to others on the team. And without much of a social circle, I think the scenario is quite a big contributor to my depression and lack of motivation.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#177

Post by hristov »

jstalin wrote: post #28

Like so many things, it seems as though people are looking for "the one" best way of doing things. Obviously some people like cubicles. Some like offices. Some like open space. How about letting people choose?

If that happens, everyone will choose personal offices. That's because they are associated with status, and everyone will go for the thing that communicates status regardless of whether it makes them uncomfortable.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#178

Post by nijk »

pvnick wrote: post #33
michaelochurch wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open plan is all about the brogrammer macho bullshit. The idea is that if you can't deal with 10+ hours of being on edge due to vertigo-inducing noise and open-back visibility, you're too old/lazy/weak to write code. It's total nonsense and the sooner that attitude dies, the better.

I agree with this. It carries with it a bit of a sense of youthful superiority, and leads countless kids to waste away their twenties all to make someone else rich.

Who do you think Facebook employees made rich?

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#179

Post by nijk »

michaelochurch wrote: post #78
SatvikBeri wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who is regularly exposed to these types of decisions, I don't think cost is the reason. Everyone recognizes that engineers are more expensive than office space. Private offices result in engineers getting more done but working on the wrong things, or solving problems in slightly the wrong way. The goal is to expose developers to the organization more so they have a stronger sense of what users/customers va…

I think it's better to have a culture where engineers naturally feel comfortable leaving their offices. I worked at a company that had 3:00 tea time, like in academic departments. People drank coffee and played board games, but after half an hour, they were talking about work again and the cross-department communication that was needed would happen organically. That's a lot better than subjecting engineers to a 24/7…

Uh, that company was Google.

Re: Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick

#180

Post by rdl »

What's with qz.com? They seem to have come out of nowhere to be a pretty awesome source of news, maybe better than TheVerge (who also seemed to come out of nowhere last year).

Of the most interesting ~20 stories I've seen in the past week, 5 were qz.

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