Why Companies Benefit From Getting Rid of Open Office Spaces
Since its rise in the early part of the 21st century, Silicon Valley became the new "cool" when it came to corporate look and presentation. The sight of young creative-minded people in casual attire with matching earplugs instead of formal office wear while hooked on their laptops brought a refreshing vibe.
One notable office concept introduced by internet giants — like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — is the open plan space. Instead of separating them into cubicles or individual work stations, employees were gathered in a large room with no walls to provide an airy feeling and to allow ideas to flow freely.
Experts in various fields were gushing about the advantages of this new office setup — how it allowed employees to freely interact with each other which fostered cooperation and camaraderie and delivered more fun in the workplace. Numerous companies — established ones and startups — sought to emulate the concept.
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Almost 20 years later, companies are beginning to second-guess this once celebrated office arrangement as reports of increased stress levels among employees were noted that affected their work performance. What was once thought to be a collaborative configuration became a source of lower productivity.
A recent study of over 40,000 workers in more than 300 U.S. office buildings revealed that open-plan offices don't work. It found that enclosed private offices outperform open-plan layouts in most aspects of indoor environmental quality particularly in acoustics and privacy.
This means that workers in open-plan offices feel uncomfortable being in close proximity with other people. It also learned that whatever benefits brought by "ease of interaction" were smaller compared to the inconvenience of visual distractions, increased noise level and decreased privacy.
Another interesting survey, which was funded by office furniture giant Steelcase, found out that 95 percent of 10,000 worker respondents revealed that working privately was important to them while 31 percent said, "they had to leave the office to get work completed." Distractions also cost employees 86 minutes per day and contribute to their stress levels.
