The modern open-plan office has a long pedigree. In 1919, Modern Business had this to say on the topic:
“There are offices today where everybody, from the president down, is located in one great room. The higher officials are usually separated by railings from the general office. The advantages of such a system are obvious. Everyone in the general office is under constant supervision of his superiors and his associates, and this prevents waste of time. With the whole office procedure thus in plain view, it is also easier to detect any waste motion in the passing of business thru the organization. Moreover, in an office of this sort there is a tendency to foster a democratic spirit and to create an esprit de corps.
Having spent a great deal of time in open-plan offices, including at OSE up until our move eighteen months ago, I feel safe in saying that acquired hypersensitivity to one another’s noise may be a kind of esprit de corps but not one I think should be encouraged.
It turns out that my opinion, which is based solely on my personal observations and biases, comes near to the conclusions of research on the topic. It’s hard to get more serious about research than the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and “The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration” suggests that open offices are failing at their most publicized feature of encouraging collaborative effort. The downside of open offices is well known, but apparently their upside is minimal. Two nice interpretations of the formal paper can be found at Ars Technica and Signal Vs. Noise.
Open offices, of course, cost less. I don’t expect them to disappear any time soon.
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