In the past it was common practice for individual departments or teams to have their own office. This was often connected to a separate office which belonged to the departmental managers.
However, in recent years these separate offices have increasingly been replaced by open plan offices where several teams and often even a number of departments share a larger office space with only low height noise prevention walls separating individual work areas.
Whilst there are many known advantages for these open plan offices, they are not always popular with staff.
First of all, they reduce the privacy of individual staff in doing their work. Telephone conversations might want to be carried out without other departments listening in, confidential information such as emails or presentations is in plain view for anyone walking past the desk. This leads to staff feeling the need to lock their computer every time they get up from their desk for a minute and for tension when they feel watched by colleagues in what they are doing.
Noise in another issue often associated with open plan offices. Whilst little shoulder high walls surrounding workspaces are trying to reduce voices from traveling across the whole office, the constant ringing of telephones and the ongoing chatter and conversation of colleagues can be very distracting. In addition not all colleagues follow the correct etiquette of open plan offices and talk into their phone on loudspeaker, which can be very distracting to others.
Whilst the visibility to other colleagues can improve communication between and within departments, it can also reduce productivity. In the past a closed office door signaled to colleagues that one did not want to be disturbed at the moment. In an open floor office, this little barrier has been lost. Colleagues walking past the desk throw questions at you and come to sit with you for a chat or a business conversation without invitation. This can disrupt the workflow and result in time being lost or mistakes being made.
Another issue of open plan offices is heating and air conditioning. It used to be an issue in small offices that one person was too warm, whilst the other was already too cold. This problem is magnified when 20 or even 50 people share one office. There can be a lot of tension about the right level of heating or cooling in an open floor or open plan office.
A maybe smaller, but still existing, concern is the reduced security of open plan offices. With little to no lockable space in a room shared with many not well known colleagues as well as their visitors the risk of personal items being stolen is increased.
Space can also be an issue. With meeting rooms often being limited in offices, having your own office often means that you are able to use it for meetings with suppliers – in particular if the meeting also involves the direct colleagues. An open plan office does not provide this flexibility as meetings at your desk would be disrupting for other colleagues and departments.
Open plan offices are not always popular with staff due to perceived or real disadvantages. Whilst they can offer clear advantages to companies and the office workflow and communication, these have to be taken into account when considering the introduction of open plan offices.