Do open plan offices really work?
May 23, 2017
By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com
- It was common practice in Madison Avenue well into the 00s to give every employee their own office.
- Not only senior execs, some mid-level and junior ones got one too.
- At Y&R, for instance, even art director + copywriter teams had each a separate office.
- Contiguous most of the time, but separate.
- Nests of various shapes and sizes with family photos, travel souvenirs, tchothckes, the works.
- I can’t say I saw people drinking scotch at their desks but I am pretty sure that a lot of power napping took place.
- Some were tiny, just little holes in the wall.
- Others were huge and airy, probably larger than the average New York apartment.
- The good old days.
- Speaking of which: I read an article once about this big shot who dwelled in a cavernous SoHo loft.
- He was an unabashed womanizer, he had no qualms at admitting that his loft was a bachelor pad carefully designed to “entertain”.
- In fact, he described it as a “big bedroom that happens to have a kitchen in it”.
- I don’t necessary approve of his lifestyle, which I found to be a possible manifestation of deep sexual insecurities.
- However, his candor was refreshing and the analogy he used to describe his abodes was an insightful figure of speech.
- At least he didn’t sugarcoat his intentions.
- He didn’t beat around the bush.
- He told it like it is.
- Which brings us to “open plan offices”.
- Nothing new, I know.
- Chiat Day spearheaded the movement in the mid 90s.*
- They’ve been around for quite some time.
- Silicon Valley loooooves them.
- Facebook, Google, Apple operate from huge open plan office HQs.
- They’re all about collaboration.
- The new buzzword.
- Really?
- Are open plan offices truly about teamwork?
- Or are they a management maneuver to monitor and control the comings and goings of staff?
- The same way a big loft is just the owner’s oversize bedroom I tend to believe that open plan office spaces are simply an oversize CEO office where you happen to crash during business hours for the duration of your employment.
- An office the size of his or her ego.
- The advantages are clear.
- Saves a lot of squandered square footage.
- And it’s cheaper than installing CCTV cameras in every office.
- Not to mention less intimidating.
- Big brotherhood with a hoodie and Birkenstocks.
- It’s Mark Zuckerberg’s world, we just live in it.
- To be continued next week.
* The inventor of the open office: the story of the man who came up with the idea to tear down cubicle walls.