When we think of modern office design, the first image that comes to mind is an expansive white space with light bouncing across the room. Picture perfect. The actual practicality of an environment like this is up for debate however. As we have moved away from cubicle style offices as well as series of individual offices, it is hard to escape the fact that the open plan office remains the most popular design available today. For one, it’s incredibly cost effective compared to other designs, all that is really required is a large open space which can be given a lick of paint. But while it seems an easy solution, there are a number of drawbacks which are hard to escape.
The whole idea behind having an open office is that they are supposed to ‘foster collaboration’ and make employees more productive. All your staff, working in close proximity, giving each other gentle encouragement with friendly pats on the back. Idyllic. So what happens when stress levels start to rise? Your account manager’s ‘unique’ laugh was a novelty when you first moved into the office, but now it is grinding you down every time you can hear it bounding across the office. You can’t escape the fact that colleagues flanked either side of you keep rearing their heads to see what you are doing. All of a sudden the idea of working as part of a team goes out of the window as you begin to suffocate from the restrictive nature which a poorly designed open plan office will deliver.
Why Do We Value Privacy So Much?
If you have ever worked in an open plan office… and if you are reading this I would wager that you have, you will probably be well versed in the pitfalls of the bullring style ‘collaborative work space’. If not and especially if you are re-designing your office, please listen in closer for the sake of your employees. Privacy is not something we are thankful for every day, but it is something we very much notice once it is taken away. In a wider context, imagine if your medical records were leaked, your issues at home spreading like wildfire at work or that *thing* you did when you were 18 years old and thought it would never the light of day again. How would that make you feel?
Having a colleague peering over your shoulder at work for 6 hours a day isn’t quite as drastic as these examples, but while it is manageable for a couple of days, the frustration of it all builds up. While you are trying to meet your deadline, all you can hear is the laughter booming from the other side of the office and phones ringing off the hook. When this happens, all you can hope to happen is to block out your surroundings in the hope of actually getting some work done. But simplistic open plan office designs do not facilitate this, they forget the intricacies of human relationships and they neglect the fact that everyone is different.
Office Design Needs Balance
By this point, you may be wondering how large companies such as Google which has set the benchmark in recent years for open office design, has been able to subvert some of these issues. Quite simply, they provide a variety of spaces for staff, some where they can sit with others and collaborate while they work. Then there are others which allow employees to sit in private, shut out the world around them and get on with the task at hand. Okay, so you don’t have a multi-acre estate to create a layout like this, but examples such as this highlights the importance of creating environments which allow staff privacy while still having the option to interact with others.
Headphone usage has been on the rise recently as bosses allow their usage so staff can focus, but this does not eliminate the issue of visual distractions. One solution for this can be to introduce Office Screens. These can add a splash of colour to the space especially if it has been whitewashed and more deluxe versions even integrate acoustic foam which can help to soak up some of that frustrating ambient noise which keeps bouncing over from the other side of the office.
What Should Be Considered…
Every work area is different, so this will require some thinking on your part. However, there is a fine line between giving someone privacy and simply just placing an employee in a box. Ask someone who worked in a cubicle what they thought of that. Open spaces are great when they are tempered with areas where staff can focus on one task at a time. Just because of all the space you have does not mean you need to fit in a desk wherever possible. Crowded offices become very noisy at peak times and can you seriously expect efficient work when teams are constantly trying to talk over each other?
Before you start, it would be beneficial to find out thoughts of those already working in the office, what is their pet peeve with the current design? To enable your employees to work at their optimum, it is important to integrate a design which allows them to get on with work at their pace. It is perhaps unrealistic to expect everyone to work 100% in every minute of the day, so the conditions need to be created so that when they are working, they are not constantly distracted by audible and visual distractions.
