Are You Happy Working in an Open Workspace?
With the rapid adoption of open workspaces, the office environment is changing faster than ever before. While many employers (and employees) welcome new open office designs that encourage spontaneous collaboration in a stimulating work environment, other employees find there is a downside: distractions caused by increased noise and reduced privacy in open workspaces can make it harder to concentrate and think.
From the Bullpen to the Action Office to today’s Open Workspace — are work environments evolving faster than we can adapt?
What’s the real cause for all these changes in office design?
If we had to guess, we’d probably say it boils down to the natural desire for business to want to grow and become more profitable. To achieve this, businesses invest in the most current technologies available to help their employees become more productive.
As we look back in time, we can easily see how each generation’s business technology had an influence on office design:
- In the early 1900s, office design had to change to incorporate a succession of new devices, as office communications moved from the telegraph to the ticker tape and the telephone.
- The post World War II era saw another shift. While many office workers were employed typing out documents in secretarial ‘bullpens’, the mainframe computer was making inroads into business offices.
- By the 1960s, collecting, managing, interpreting and distributing information was emerging as a full-fledged business unto itself — becoming as important as manufacturing goods in a factory.
Early 1970s
In response to these changes, designer Robert Probst of Herman Miller created an influential line of furniture that lives with us to this day, the Action Office, a concept that many now derisively refer to as office cubicles, cubes or cube farms.
(To learn more about the history of cubicles and ‘cube farms’, we recommend the book Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace by Nikal Saval.)
While we make fun of cubes today, the original concept was a huge step forward — offering far more privacy and quiet compared to working in the bullpen-style office that preceded it.
Cubicles, as it turns out, were the right design at the right time. As computer technology during the late 1970s and early 1980s got smaller and smaller, cubical designs were ideally suited to be the ‘home’ for the next generation of business technology, the ubiquitous PC desktop computer and monitor combination found on almost every office worker’s desk.
Work Anywhere Technology Leads to Open Workplaces
Image by Business Insider
But technology marches on. Wireless technology and even more powerful devices mean today’s office workers can ‘work from anywhere’ — from the coffee shop to the airport and mid-flight on the plane.
In this new, more mobile world, some high-tech companies began to ask the question… “if an increasing number of our employees are working on the go and outside the office, why should we pay for dedicated cubicles and desktop PCs if they rarely use them?”
And so in the 1990s, high-tech companies, like design software giant Autodesk, began issuing employees notebook computers instead of desktop machines. Employees who traveled extensively or worked remotely would no longer get a dedicated cubicle. Instead, they would be provided temporary ‘hotel’ space at the office — allowing them to plug-in and do their work when they did come into the office. To provide space for collaboration, an ample number of conference rooms were made available to conduct impromptu meetings.
Startup culture took to this approach and made it universal. No more dedicated offices, just open workspaces that looked like a coffee shop — paired with airy, glass-walled conference rooms for meetings.
Has this approach been successful? From all outward appearances, the answer is yes. High-growth companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest all use the open workspace plan, and there is no denying their success.
Around the world, other companies, in other industries, have been trying to unlock the secrets of these phenomenally successful high-tech companies. Is the open workspace part of the ‘secret sauce’ of their success? Does it lead to, as many proponents advocate, an environment where spontaneous collaboration and innovation occurs by design?
More and more employers worldwide are going to find out.
According to the results of the British Council for Offices survey What Workers Want 2016 by Steven Lang of Savills PLC, the number of British workers in traditional office environments has dropped to 77%, while open offices have doubled to 18% in just the last three years. (Rounding out the survey, 3% worked remotely, and 2% worked in business incubators.)
What Advantages do Open Workspaces Offer Employers?
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of working in an open workspace, both from the employer and employee point of view.
Image by Sid Lee Studio
First up, the employer’s view. Here are some of the key benefits employers seek to achieve by implementing an open workspace plan:
Spontaneous Collaboration
