Tales from the open concept workspace

By Michael L. Diamond 

Victory! Oh, sweet victory.

Workers are finding the benefits of an open space work place are outweighed by the distractions that come with it, according to a new study in ScienceDirect.

It repudiates the increasingly conventional wisdom that companies are more productive with the brainstorming and teamwork that comes with wide open spaces. And it is vindication for introverts like myself, who, it should be noted, is in a book club that has only two members, myself being one of them.

With the open-space concept, it is true that you have a better chance at a serendipitous meeting that could improve your own idea or provide you with a new one. But it also leaves you no place to go, no time, no breathing room to make that idea come to life. Because there is always someone walking by, just wanting to say "hi" and, regardless of your body language, delivering a story he, I mean he or she, has been dying to tell you.

Hey, I'm as guilty of it as any worker in the open-space era. In addition to my introversion, I also can't seem to concentrate for more than 15 seconds at a time. So up I walk, over to the printer to bother my co-workers, eliciting responses like, "I thought you were an introvert." Did you put the "do not disturb" status on your intra-office message system? I must have missed that.

So yes, I say! Bring back personal offices and assistants who can act as gatekeepers. Want to say hi? You'll have to wave.

It doesn't look like that's happening either. KI, a furniture maker, and HOK, the architecture firm, say corporate America should take their cues from colleges and universities to better accommodate millennials, many of whom are "lost in transition."

They have spent their college years working with their colleagues on projects from anywhere - the library, the dorm room, the coffee shop, the bar, via Skype, streaking in the quad. And at anytime - during class, after class, weekends, weekdays, in the moonlight hours.

And then they get to the real world. The task is about the same - figure out a solution to a problem. But they are told they need to be at their assigned desk at an assigned time. Maybe some people work well that way. Maybe some don't.

KI and HOK's advice:

*Adopt a "distributed work strategy," which is consultant-speak for "work anywhere, work anytime."

*Dedicate more space for collaboration and teamwork and less for individual tasks.

*Allow workers to have more choice.

"By allowing workers to have a higher degree of choice with regard to their workplace, greater productivity will result," they say.

I choose to have a private office.

View Original Article