The idea behind an open-plan creative office is pretty solid. Whilst locking ourselves away in solitude and “Just cracking on with it” might be a tried and tested working method for those in less naturally collaborative industries, but as creatives, we thrive when we're able to more naturally bounce ideas off one another. In an open-plan office, we're free to do that without physical restriction, and as such, it's steadily become the de-facto office plan for advertisers, designers and tech heads. It also saves a lot of money for the company, of course, as more employees will be able to fit in one, large open-plan office, than in a large office broken into single office spaces. However, a recent survey conducted in Australia appears to suggest that we might actually have it all arse about face.
This industry survey found that workers in open-plan offices are generally more distracted, unfriendly and un-collaborative than those in traditional workplaces. Employees who have to share their office with more than two people apparently experience higher levels of colleague distrust and form fewer co-worker friendships than those working in single-occupancy offices, according to the report from the Auckland University of Technology. The survey of 1,000 Australian workers assessed the extent to which the design trend for open-plan and shared offices impacted workers. It showed that, despite the continuing trend for open-plan offices and co-working spaces, workers become less productive and friendly when the number of people they share an office with increases. Of course, this was a blanket report, but it's still information that we'd be daft to ignore.
A direct quote from the report states that: “Shared work environments, and in particular hot-desking, are associated with increases in distraction, negative relationships, uncooperative behaviours and distrust.” The report also found that “As work environments became more shared, not only were there increases in demands, but co-worker friendships were not improved.” In my own experience this is simply not the case, as I've always found open-plan office work to be more friendly, less stressful and, well, open. The report counters: “This may be due to amplified demands in terms of workload in hot-desk environments (for example finding and personalising a space) in addition to the uncertainty associated with not having an assigned workstation, or the increased load from distraction in a shared space.” This I can kind of understand.
According to the survey, those with their own offices, those who work from home and those who share a space with just one or two others reported the highest levels of concentration and colleague friendship. As someone who often works from home myself, I can confirm the former, though not the latter. Regardless of your opinions though, the report might actually be making a moot point of course, as with heightening rent costs and the growing prevalence of mobile technology, there is little chance most companies that have settled on the open-plan system will ever revert to providing single-occupancy offices for employees. As a condolence, the report suggests noise-cancelling headphones, walls of planting and bookshelf partitions as ways to create pockets of privacy within open-plan spaces.
Woods Baget Office: Melbourne
Open-plan and hot-desking offices were originally believed to increase collaborating and improve employee relationships. But this is the latest in a string of research reports showing the pitfalls of open-plan offices. Earlier this summer Gensler's 2016 UK Workplace Survey found that a lack of private office space is constraining the creativity and productivity of workers. Recent research by British office equipment company Expert Market has also found that open-plan office workers experience too many distractions to work effectively. What do you think? Are you for or against open-plan office spaces and what have been your own personal experiences of them? Sound off below.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK.
