No to Open-Plan Offices: Employees Dislike ‘Collaborative’ Workspaces
THE CARETAKERS Address: 11-17 Canvale Rd, Canning Vale, WA 6155 Contact Number: 08 9455 3444 E-mail: mail@thecaretakers.com.au
Hailed as one of the most innovative workplace designs, open-plan offices were supposed to foster creativity and collaboration, but a growing body of research shows the downside associated with these supposed benefits. A particular study published in 2013 claims that people dislike the environment and the distractions that come along with it. Further research show that open plan offices cause increased stress, making people revert to traditional office fit-outs and partitioning. Open Plan Offices, Performance
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Research from the University of Sydney, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, evaluated data collected from 300 office buildings in different countries, including Australia, Canada, Finland and United States. Researchers looked into more than 40,000 survey responses and concluded that open plan offices did more harm than good in terms of employee productivity.
Survey participants claimed that the lack of privacy is the main problem about open office layouts. More than half of the employees who work in such environments (59%) and approximately half in unpartitioned cubicles (49%) complained about the lack of privacy, contributing to poor job performance.
Between 20 to 40% claimed that they were frustrated with the lack of visual privacy. In other studies, this factor contributed to increased stress. Researchers explain that whenever people are in public environments, the body’s fight-or-flight mechanism is constantly alert, affecting the adrenal glands and eventually, the immune system. The supposed advantage of open-plan offices, which is more collaboration opportunities, backfires because of the increased distraction in such workplaces. Most employees find it difficult to concentrate. One particular international research from Ipsos showed that office workers lose 86 minutes a day because of disturbances from colleagues, noises, etc. This leads to poor motivation and productivity and high levels of stress.
Productivity inside the Box Traditional commercial fit outs and office partitioning is still the most effective when it comes to improving productivity in employees. Partitions provide enough privacy for employees, which allow them to concentrate more on tasks. Further, it minimises distractions. Most fit outs are designed to keep sounds from spreading throughout the space. This then reduces the noises from phone calls or conversations with other employees, ensuring that productivity of other employees will not be affected. Open plan offices are not as effective and beneficial as they appear. Traditional workplace layouts are still the most practical choice for creating environments that promote productivity.
RESOURCES: http://www.thecaretakers.com.au/commercial-fitouts/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494413000340 http://qz.com/85400/moving-to-open-plan-offices-makes-employees-lessproductive-less-happy-and-more-likely-to-get-sick/