Should You Consider an Open Office Layout?

More and more modern workplaces are starting to adopt open office floor plans in the hopes of boosting employee productivity and encouraging collaboration and teamwork. However, open office layouts may be doing more harm than good in many industries. Here's why.

Less Productivity, Not More

The absence of cubicle walls and doors in an open office layout implies that without that separation, employees are constantly available to interact and collaborate with each other. While the constant availability may seem like a good thing on the surface, it can actually be highly detrimental to employee productivity. Research from the University of California at Irvine shows that employees in open offices have to deal with 29 percent more interruptions than those with private offices. Continuous interruptions and distractions make it hard to focus on tasks, resulting in poor performance and higher stress levels. Employees who are interrupted frequently report 9 percent higher rates of exhaustion.

Inhibited Interaction

Open office plans are designed to encourage serendipity — the idea that co-workers who would otherwise not interact with each other might happen to fall into a collaboration once the walls are removed. This is a romantic concept in theory, but in practice, it simply doesn't work that way. Faced with a lack of privacy, human beings instinctively create their own barriers to cope. It's not uncommon to see workers in open office schemes wearing headphones to both cut down on noise and help themselves focus and escape. Removal of the physical walls in an office often causes invisible walls to be erected.

Relationships Suffer

Open office layouts — contrary to what many proponents believe — actually prevent co-worker relationships from growing. This is because, when everything is out in the open, people naturally limit their verbal interactions. Contact is quick and casual, while longer, personal conversations are less common because of the ease with which others may eavesdrop. This makes it that much more difficult to cultivate friendships with colleagues, resulting in a sometimes superficially polite, uncomfortable office environment.

The Need for Privacy

What it all boils down to is this: most workers, whether they consider themselves introverts or extroverts, work best with a healthy amount of privacy and solitude. Those with introverted personalities in particular are most negatively affected by open office layouts, because it stifles their creativity and makes it difficult to focus and brainstorm. Even in companies where teamwork is highly valued, workers still need to be able to spend time with their own thoughts and focus on their own responsibilities.

Modern workplaces that implement open office layouts do so with the best of intentions. Employee creativity and collaboration, however, are not dependent on any physical office design, but rather on the culture and work environment with which employees are provided.

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