Are Open-Plan Offices Better or Worst?

Have you ever worked in an open-plan office? Or have you always worked in a small office with one or two others or perhaps your own office or in a shop or perhaps on a factory floor? The open-plan office resembles a factory floor. Companies built open-plan offices because they were cheap to construct and they were meant to foster interaction and collaboration between workers. The irony is that research has found open-plan offices actually reduce face-to-face interactions.

Two Harvard University researchers last year found that employees in open-plan offices spend 73 per cent less time talking to each other, and email and message use increased by 67 per cent.

The study, called ‘The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration’, was the first to track the impacts of open-plan offices using actual measurements of communication. It used electronic badges and microphones to monitor interactions among employees and tracked changes in email use.

Women in open-plan offices feel watched

This year another study came out from Auckland University, which found open-plan offices are particularly bad for women. Women reported feeling watched and exposed. A feeling of being under constant observation made women worry more about their appearance. Men reported none of these negative effects. 

Senior researcher Rachel Morrison said the study was just meant to investigate how open-plan offices impact on people’s work. It was not geared towards exploring the differences between men’s and women’s attitudes.

“This difference in responses was especially striking since we did not set out to explore the gender effects of open-plan work spaces,” Dr Morrison says.

Over 14 months, researchers surveyed and interviewed employees at a New Zealand law firm that had moved to an open-plan office. The study has been published in the ScienceDirect journal.

Do physical spaces influence people?

The ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui states that people need to harmonise with their surroundings. Feng Shui has a system of laws that govern spatial arrangement and orientation. The underlying principle is that energy needs to move around favourably and these rules need to be observed when designing and decorating buildings.

I wonder how Feng Shui followers feel about open-plan offices? What factors do you consider when redecorating your bedroom or living room? Do you go for vibrant or peaceful colours? Do you like space or clutter? Do you like small or large rooms? Open plan or sections? Do you believe your physical space impacts on your feelings?

How open-plan offices make women feel

Women in the New Zealand study reported feeling more image conscious once their law firm moved to an open-floor plan. The increased visibility led some to change the way they dressed and even which way they walked around the office. Did they avoid walking past the desks of certain male colleagues?

Was their appearance really being noticed more, or did the women just feel like they were being more closely watched? I guess that doesn’t actually matter, the point was that the female employees felt less comfortable and that is important. These women felt they needed to change their behaviour – to walk different paths and wear different clothes because they felt more exposed and more watched at work.

Open-plan offices pressured women to work longer hours

Women in the study also said that they felt compelled to work longer hours in the new open-plan office even when they had no work to do! One lawyer said she felt like she could go home after finishing her work at the old office. In the old office she was only judged on the output of her work, not whether she was always ‘on the floor’. 

In the open space, she was always ‘on show’ and felt a subtle pressure to stay even though she didn’t need to. She felt when she left on time she got looks from some senior partners and even from different teams. I think this is worrying, especially if these women had children to go home to. Work-life balance is vital for women and men.

Open-plan offices are bad for women and men

A 2013 study by Sydney University found that open-plan offices impact on people’s ability to focus or concentrate on their work. The researchers found that the environment plays a huge role in workers’ ability to be productive and motivated. The output of workplaces is often impacted by how people interact and co-operate or not co-operate.

In the past two decades the nature of work has changed enormously. We are no longer focused on individual tasks but work more in teams. Research shows that the time employees spend on collaborative activities has increased 50 per cent in the past two years.

Office spaces that help workers collaborate have been shown to be more productive. Building a strong sense of community helps teams become more productive.

Workers need privacy and quiet

Many offices are now open-plan yet workers again and again say they need a space that is private and quiet. Other studies have found that when employees can't concentrate, they communicate less and even become indifferent to their co-workers.

Many office jobs require employees to gather, analyse and make decisions drawing on multiple sources of information. When they are constantly interrupted by the people around them, they make mistakes. Being able to focus on your work without interruption is critical.

Another study by a psychologist and construction industry researcher in Canada found that poor office design stresses workers and causes distraction. Crowded spaces and a lack of privacy means distractions.

Different workers thrive in different spaces

And yet another study by Queensland’s Griffith University has found that different workers thrive in different type spaces. This research is called ‘A Framework for Understanding Connectedness, Instrumentality and Aesthetics as Aspects of the Physical Work Environment’. Some people do like open plan, others like small private offices.

When you are looking for a new job, do you look at where you are going to work? Do you look at the building and your office and all the other surroundings? Most people focus on the company, their manger, the CEO and the team, but it seems the physical work environment also has a big impact on your happiness at work.

According to the Griffith University study, workers should be able to choose whether they want to sit in an open-plan area or in their own office.

New designs for workplaces are seeking to achieve this, by offering different zones for different types of work and different needs. However people don’t always like to hot-desk (move from desk to desk). The effect of hot-desking needs more research. I think it makes people feel lost and ‘homeless’! It is no surprise that more people are choosing to work for themselves. Remember last year I wrote about a new study that found that people who do Airbnb and Uber driving were found to be much happier than full-time employees. Perhaps their work is not always challenging, but they have total control over when they work and how many hours they work – and they don’t have to sit in crowded, noisy open-plan offices. And I haven’t even written about how coughs, cold and flus travel around open-plan offices! To me it makes sense to turn your passion into a profit and go to work for yourself.