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Horrible open office spaces
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    According to the International Management Facility Association, 70% of American employees work in open-plan offices.

    Workers who share an office take more sick days than those who work in their own closed spaces. A study in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health found that open office setups reported 62% more sick days on average than one-occupant layouts.

    CK Mak and YP Lui questioned 259 office workers about the importance of sound, temperature, office layout, air quality and lighting for productivity; they found that sound and temperature mattered the most. The most irritating noises were conversations, ringing phones and machines.

    Those over 45 were more sensitive to it, and factors like noise and temperature had a bigger effect on their productivity.

    Overhearing conversations in the office is very intrusive and distracting for workers.

    People work less well when they move from a personal office to an open-plan layout, according to a longitudinal study carried out by Calgary University.

    A survey of 7,000 Dutch workers found that they were absent for 2.5 days a year on average because of complaints about their office environment, most commonly related to temperature.

    Via: http://qz.com/85400/moving-to-open-plan-offices-makes-employees-less-productive-less-happy-and-more-likely-to-get-sick/#

  • 16 Replies sorted by
  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    Makes sense, although wasn't it always about the ability of the bosses to monitor the workers rather than worker comfort? However, just imagine the noise of open offices with dozens of manual typewriters in the days before cubicles, carpet and other sound absorbing efforts.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    just imagine the noise of open offices with dozens of manual typewriters in the days before cubicles, carpet and other sound absorbing efforts.

    They had one huge advantage - absence of cell phones. This alone cost all other things combined.

  • BlackLegSanjiBlackLegSanji

    I think this has more to do with the position/rank of the workers than their health. Those who have their own spaces tend to be higher up in the corporate ladder, and from my experience the boss/supervisor folks tend to take fewer sick leaves than the average.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    I think this has more to do with the position/rank of the workers than their health. Those who have their own spaces tend to be higher up in the corporate ladder.

    Fuck this corporate ladder.

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  • last_SHIFTlast_SHIFT

    Having had many office jobs and having had worked in the office space design industry - I have to say I'm sick of corporate ladders and office politics. I just started a new job that so far has the best environment based on the company culture - 'flexible' work hours, training and good, clear communication. My last job - you were docked if you were late 5 minutes, but of course you put in tremendous uncompensated overtime - worst job I ever had in my life and coincidentally the most terrible space planning and culture. I did have a boss once say he wants the layout a certain way so he can see who comes in and who goes out. Also had an ass kisser colleague who said he always wanted the boss to see him to be the first one in and the last one out.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Also had an ass kisser colleague who said he always wanted the boss to see him to be the first one in and the last one out.

    Btw, it is pure monkey behaviour.

  • MirrorkisserMirrorkisser

    some say there is a better communication flow in an open office structure, but i guess that rather applies for boobs, high-heels and football results-talk :)

    corporate ladders are micro-cosmos-ranking-prestige-mickey-mouse-shit. a currency you can only pay with in one microcosmos. the guy in the basement post office of company a shits on the shoes of the CEO of company b. i could never understand, how people can totally overidentify with such things. american psycho :-) it has to be said though that a rise in ranks usually goes along with a raise in pay. psychologists say though, that the life satisfaction level is not raising money related wise from a salary of 60.000 euros on.

    and yeah, fuck the hamster wheel. too many people who run their whole life without knowing where to and who the fuck they actually are...

    there are only 3 ways in life: art, the path for enlightenment and the way of Oblomov :D

  • kellar42kellar42

    Thankfully I've never had a job. Of course I'm drinking your milkshakes.

  • MirrorkisserMirrorkisser

    thats the spirit, i am in an on-off-relationship with the hamster wheel...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    and yeah, fuck the hamster wheel. too many people who run their whole life without knowing where to and who the fuck they actually are...

    It can be worse. Many actually belive if they'll run fast enough they'll go till the end where new big wheel decorated with diamonds awaits them as a reward.

  • MirrorkisserMirrorkisser

    i know, i am sometimes not sure if i should cry or laugh about the wheel system. people dream about those wheels and spend their entire education in persuit of that wheel. the only ones that profit are the board members, divorce-lawyers and drugstores which prescribe tranquilizers and performance enhancing stuff. something that should not be underestimated though and that has always played a huge role: no social status no poontang...at least none of the good stuff. after a while the average man is also in debts with all the crap he bought although he did not need it, so he can not even leave the wheel. thats why i reconsider every financial committment three times...

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @Mirrorkisser

    You can always drive average monkey into this game, as it is natural. Monkey always loses, it is in the game rules, monkey just do not like to read.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

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  • chauncychauncy

    Truely stupid idea. But all the usual HR and mid-level managers went to a seminar and adopted it. Managers as well often sit in the open office.

    I hate it. I actually long for a cubicle. I started in offices to a cubicle and now to a flat desk in the middle of the damn room with 12 others. In cubicle days, I used to be the guru so I got hit with so many questions I had to have office hours. At least I had some control. Now people just yell questions.

    I don't want or need a manager watching me. I have a right to a little privacy. I have a right to MY area. The only thing any employer has any input on in my life is my productivity at work, nothing else, nothing. EVERY study has show productivity drops in open office and stress rises.

    Yet they all adopted it. Especially here in Sweden where no one thinks for themselves but adopts whatever is in style. Workers need to push back. Hard.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Workers need to push back. Hard.

    Well, make union, make your owner to sign collective agreement with this requirement.

    Usually open spaces are simple - new building tech make it very easy and cheap to make big open spaces and very tall buildings. So, for business it means cutting expanses.

    Your owner must not care about how you feel, only how much profit you bring to him.

    And you actually demand from parasite to think about so complex things. They can be made to do this only by force usually.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    More hamsters

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