"Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/30/google-got-it-wrong-the-open-office-trend-is-destroying-the-workplace These new floor plans are ideal for maximizing a company's space while minimizing costs. Bosses love the ability to keep a closer eye on their employees, ensuring clandestine porn-watching, constant social media-browsing and unlimited personal cellphone use isn't occupying billing hours. But employers are getting a false sense of improved productivity. A 2013 study found that many workers in open offices are frustrated by distractions that lead to poorer work performance. Nearly half of the surveyed workers in open offices said the lack of sound privacy was a significant problem for them and more than 30 percent complained about the lack of visual privacy. Meanwhile, "ease of interaction" with colleagues -- the problem that open offices profess to fix -- was cited as a problem by fewer than 10 percent of workers in any type of office setting. In fact, those with private offices were least likely to identify their ability to communicate with colleagues as an issue. In a previous study, researchers concluded that "the loss of productivity due to noise distraction ... was doubled in open-plan offices compared to private offices." The New Yorker, in a review of research on this nouveau workplace design, determined that the benefits in building camaraderie simply mask the negative effects on work performance. While employees feel like they're part of a laid-back, innovative enterprise, the environment ultimately damages workers' attention spans, productivity, creative thinking, and satisfaction. - - - This kind of office plan of course was not invented by Google, and Facebook recently opened an enormous open plan facility at their main HQ. This kind of layout has also been fodder for films over the years. Recall the enormous open office shot in the opening sequence of Billy Wilder's wonderful "The Apartment" from 1960, with Jack Lemmon working at a desk in an insurance company's enormous room filled with employees, that seemed to reach back almost to infinity. (In fact, the set this was shot on was not terribly large, and perspective tricks were used, including furnishings and actors who were respectively smaller and shorter toward the back of the set. Pretty cool!) But back to today. The sense I get from people I know who have worked in both open and less-open plan offices is that the environments each tend to select for certain personality types at the expense of others, which is a point of significant concern if you're looking for a well-rounded employee population. There also appears to be evidence that the open plan environments tend to select for the youngest employees, which introduces other potentially problematic issues. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone. _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
