Open plan offices - love 'em or hate em ?

[LegendsWear7]

Just started at a new place. Very open plan. No privacy at all. May as well put the screen on a beamer. 14 people in the immediate area plus open busy office pathway directly behind me with clear sight / noise invasion. No walls in the interior.


Not happy.

My [realistic] ideal is to work with 2/3/4 people in a room with a door. Each person with screen privacy/ some personal space but at the same time easy for immediate discussions on the matters of the day.

Would it be wrong to bring my own wall/tent in ? I'm definitely not a loner but I don't want to share every fart, phone call and email I'm drafting with a crowd.

RANT OVER !


Excerpt:

Writing in the latest Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management he said: "Employees face a multitude of problems such as the loss of privacy, loss of identity, low work productivity, various health issues, overstimulation and low job satisfaction when working in an open plan work environment,"

Workers were plagued by insecurity, he said, ever conscious of their colleagues' ability to see what they were doing on the computer and eavesdrop on their phone calls.

High noise levels led to impaired concentration and low productivity, he said. There was a higher incidence of workplace conflict, with people sitting so close to their neighbour that even a ringing phone could irritate.

Open plan office workers suffer more from colds, high blood pressure and stress - Telegraph

[HairyArsedBloke]

Try working on a busy trading floor.

[Cliphead]

Try working on a busy trading floor.

Been there, done that.

[minestrone]

I am in the corner of a factory type building, it was meant to be a call centre but they moved all of IT down there while the call centre staff now work in the plush city centre offices.

[swamp]

Pretty much every office I've worked in has been open plan. It's crap, but most offices are like that and also over-filled, especially in central London. The worst aspect of modern offices is usually the inadequate number/quality of bogs, especially as most IT workers are male. Then there is the piss-poor air con: too many people, often running multiple computers and monitors, and a general lack of deodorant barely makes up for the good money.

[SueEllen]

I've got no problems working in offices of up to 8 people any more than it's annoying.

Interestingly in the smaller offices I've worked in people tend to take their mobile and move to an area where they won't disturb people if they want to take personal calls. They will also try and do that for important business calls. There as in larger open plan offices people don't give a damn how loud they are on the phone or if their ring tone (including on the office landline) annoys people.

However the main problem I have with large open plan offices is the inadequate air conditioning and heating which means that any cough,cold or other disease gets spread around the entire building.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

It wouldn't be so bad except I am trying to concentrate whilst clientco's permies are basically doing a re-run of the ******* Graham Norton show and pretending it's work.

[d000hg]

I've only ever worked in open rooms, though in most cases smallish rooms up to 8 or 10 people in mini-islands, or desks along walls. In one case a giant open-plan room of ~200 people, but with partial dividers 18" tall between desks... so when sitting you can't see the person opposite which would very weird.

I personally quite like a few people around so you have the option of chatting, as long as you're not near the self-important idiot who brays into his phone 3 hours a day, or leaves his mobile set to loud on his desk while away from his desk all day... I never know how that didn't end up 'accidentally' crushed.

I work from home 50% of the time and much prefer it, though it has it's own distractions like being called on the phone/skype too often.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Pretty much every office I've worked in has been open plan. It's crap, but most offices are like that and also over-filled, especially in central London. The worst aspect of modern offices is usually the inadequate number/quality of bogs, especially as most IT workers are male. Then there is the piss-poor air con: too many people, often running multiple computers and monitors, and a general lack of deodorant barely makes up for the good money.

See post two and on a trading floor of a French bank. Yes up in NW1, I'm talking about you.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

partial dividers 18" tall between desks... so when sitting you can't see the person opposite which would very weird..

I could

I never know how that didn't end up 'accidentally' crushed.
..

I turn those off