Why we need to rethink open plan offices
It’s the end of the day. You just had your third coffee, and you’re crushing it. Totally in the flow, you’re ticking off every single thing on your to-do list. And then it happens — a tap on your shoulder.
You try to ignore it. Maybe if you keep your eyes focused on the screen, they’ll leave — you’re wearing headphones for god’s sake! You turn up the volume a bit.
Second tap. There’s no getting around it anymore, so you turn your head and take off your headphones. You make sure you look visibly annoyed, hoping that they’ll take a hint this time.
The idea of an open plan office sounds great — thanks to big, shared workspaces, employers hope to inspire more and better collaboration between co-workers. But in reality, things are a bit more complicated.
Some people come over to ask you a question that could’ve been a message, and others like to suddenly blast music from the sound system just when you’re in a call with an important client.
Open offices have been around since the late 20th century, but surged in popularity during the mid-2000s, when tons of companies started overhauling their workspaces. But today, more and more businesses are looking at ways to decrease the openness of their offices.
It’s not hard to see why. If you’ve ever spent time in an open office, you know it can be a noisy, chaotic environment — not particularly great for getting things done. When the first thing you crave at the job is a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, you know something’s wrong.
There’s even research backing it all up. According to a 2009 study by the Queensland University of Technology, open-plan offices have been found to cause high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover — things most companies might want to avoid.
When we look at last-century ofices like the one above, we’re taken aback by the sea of cubicles. It’s something we’re not used to seeing anymore, making it look incredibly hostile.
But imagine sitting in one of them — the peace, quiet and focus you’d have. No colleagues zipping around on hoverboards, no Nerf guns, just you and your work. Thanks to tools like Slack, communicating with colleagues would still be effortless, and if you really need to talk they’re a few steps away.
Maybe we shouldn’t bring back cubicles just yet, but fact is that things need to change—the question is how we get there.
Companies like Luxafor are betting on a slight modification to our current work environment.
By developing a formal availability indicator, it hopes to bring back uninterrupted workdays to the modern office. The product — a small LED light you stick on top of your laptop — offers a way to show co-workers your availability: red for do not disturb, green for ask me anything.
It’s a nice idea—for some, it might be just the extra hint they need to understand you don’t want to be bothered.
Regardless of how we’re going to find eventual sanity in the workplace, I’m rooting for it. It’s time to get some work done.
