We have an open-plan office here at Pto de Contato (www.pto.ec) and sometimes (rarely actually) the issue of noise level comes up. We then talk to the noisy coworkers and it's done.
Of course open-plan offices are not for everybody, as aren't cubicles, home office, vault closed offices (sic), or any other offices that might exist now or in the future. Our world has more than 6 billion people and each and every one has he's way of living and he's preferences of working space. One thing we know for sure, because we have been living it for the past 5 years. Most of the workers (be them freelancers or corporate workers that were dying in their own cubicles) that have passed through here were very glad and claimed to be more productive than their previous situation. And we have many success cases of cross work, where one coworker makes a project with another, and some we know that wouldn't happen in other conditions. We use to say that coworking (and open-plan offices by the way) are not substitutes to regular offices, but they are a complement and spaces where you can meet people you wouldn't in a usual work routine and that can contribute a lot to your own project. As for privacy, one can know in 5 minutes sitting close to someone if they are paying attention to what you are talking, and in this case, we have other 49 seats where you can change to. Or meeting rooms and other more private areas if you need to openly discuss a sensitive subject. It's just a matter of getting used to a new environment. It's sad to see that are still that many people (and influent ones) with such a short mind. Cheers to you all and long live open-plan offices. Marcus Trugilho Pto de Contato A place of ideas for Entrepreneurs On Thursday, November 21, 2013 7:56:29 AM UTC-2, Will Bennis, Locus Workspace wrote: > > > http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/18/open-plan-offices-bad-harvard-business-review<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fnews%2F2013%2Fnov%2F18%2Fopen-plan-offices-bad-harvard-business-review&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEKtU8vR-omH_T_hqzXQqQ-dHpVbw> > > Putting this out there because I suspect what gets posted is generally > filtered toward the "coworking positive". > > While cubicles are the worst, this article is about shortcomings of > open-plan offices more generally. > > Putting aside the obvious fact that even if open-plan offices aren't for > everyone, they're certainly preferred by many of us, my existing bias has > been that most independent workers would do better (in terms of > psychological health as well as productivity and work quality) over the > long run in a social work environment than in a private/enclosed office. > But articles like this make me wonder if that really is just my own bias. > > Most of the findings suggested are contrary to what I would expect for > independent workers, and I wonder how much the results here may be > contingent on working in an organization (where being in an open plan > office also corresponds to being lower in the work hierarchy and where many > of the people you're working alongside are implicit competitors). > > Thoughts? Where does this article go wrong (other than suggesting one size > fits all)? Does it suggest that ideal coworking space design would work > include ample opportunities for more private work and more isolated > collaboration? > > Will > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
