The office is where many managers and designers spend a third of their lives. Someone will be lucky enough to sit in an office or at least in a “cubicle” cell, but most will have to work in front of a dozen colleagues. So, according to the International Management Association, more than 70% of Americans go to work in open offices. In Russia, open space is still considered a fashionable trend - especially in the regions - which is steadily gaining momentum.
For corporations, offices without walls, writes Fast Company, have become a kind of "architectural gift." They save millions of dollars on rent, since with the advent of the new format, the area of work has decreased by about a third. In Russia, companies began to move en masse after the crisis: in 2015, the number of firms renting open-plan offices increased by 17%; renting such a room can be 30-40% cheaper than an office with a "cut". There is an opinion that moving to a space with a free layout improves the image of the employer: companies look more innovative and modern, even if in fact they are not.
However, the voices of those who are forced to work in these conditions are heard louder and louder. Employees complain about noise, everyday conflicts and psychological discomfort from the lack of personal space. Someone tries to find solitude behind lockers, in restrooms, or sits with headphones all the time. Women especially suffer from “life behind glass”: many talk about the feeling that they are always in sight and there is nowhere to hide from the male evaluative glances. Last year, the analytical center "Alfastrakhovaniya" interviewed employees of 90 large Russian companies. The survey showed that 58% of them would not like to work in open space; readiness to work in such conditions was expressed by only 15%.
The negative influence is manifested not only in psychological discomfort, but also in purely physiological malaise. Research confirms that open space is bad for the health of workers: excessive noise increases pressure and stimulates the nervous system to release stress hormones; crowded conditions make people easily catch colds from each other. According to some reports, those who work in open-plan offices take sick days twice as often.
The story of Apple's new campus, designed by Norman Foster, received the greatest resonance in this topic. Even before construction was completed, employees of the company began to criticize the headquarters in Cupertino. The organization of the workspace seemed inconvenient to them: engineers, accustomed to separate offices - or at worst “cubicles” - could not come to terms with huge rooms and common tables. Their rejection was so strong that they were ready to quit. Johny Srouji, senior vice president of the hardware technology division, even built a separate building for his team on the side of the main building.
What else, besides saving, are the "big bosses" guided by when they prefer free planning? They believe that the absence of partitions will lead to greater productivity and greater interaction between employees. However, the claim that open space makes workers more united is nothing more than a myth. According to a study by scientists from Harvard University Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, "white collars", instead of communicating with colleagues in person, prefer to resolve issues by mail or instant messengers. “It seems that open architecture triggers a natural human desire to separate from colleagues,” the scientists say.
As the newspaper Vedomosti writes with reference to the opinion of Maria Makarushkina, partner of Ecopsy Consulting, “you should not expect that the employees who were put together will immediately start working together … Until the company has a corporate culture of cooperation, different departments and in open offices will not cease to compete and annoy each other."
The productivity that employers rely on is also going downhill: layouts like these are distracting with hustle and bustle, employees don't have enough personal space, they have to listen to other people's conversations - both on the phone and on the phone. First of all, this applies to representatives of creative professions, who need to focus deeply on them to complete tasks. The poll showed that 65% of “creatives” need absolute silence and a calm environment in order to give their all.
American office furniture maker Haworth conducted its own research and found that open-plan "workstations" can only be useful in one case: if there are clearly defined areas for collaboration and for individual work. Loyal companies do something like this: they move away from "extreme open space", replacing it with a hybrid. For example, the accounting department is housed in a quiet part of the building in a separate office, and the sales managers are housed together and possibly at one long table. There are also fenced blocks (often soundproofed) for conference rooms, meeting rooms, kitchens, lounges, and libraries. But it is unlikely that employers will soon completely abandon the idea of keeping employees in one room and return to the traditional "isolation". The economic benefits of such sites are very easy to calculate even in your head, while only the most thoughtful can predict the possible damage in the long term.
