
Open-plan offices are making workers sick - astrec
http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24906913-5017672,00.html
======
catone
Yes! ... I actually work from home, but I went into the office for two weeks
this past August to get to know the guys I work for. Their office is an open
plan (one big room with a long E[ish]-shaped desk and people sitting at
various points along the E).

Two main things I noticed:

1\. Office distractions were MUCH harder for me to deal with than home
distractions. Distractions at home are generally things I self impose and can
control with will power (i.e., not playing with the cat, not turning on the
TV, not getting a snack, etc.)... but in the office there was stuff going on
all around me and no way to shut it out.

2\. The guy sitting next to me was sick -- when I got back to my home office
two weeks later, so was I. (Granted, travel could have been a factor here -- I
live in the US and their offices are a 20 hour plane ride away in Australia.)

Oh, I hear the bug went around the entire office after I left, too.

~~~
blackguardx
The transmission of illnesses would be greatly reduced if companies gave
decent sick time benefits. At my company, my sick time is rolled into my
vacation time. If I am take off work for an illness, it counts against my
vacation time.

I once was sick with mono for 4 weeks and went to work miserable everyday. I
did almost nothing but sit and stare at my monitor all day.

~~~
swombat
That's atrocious. I think it's probably illegal in the UK - and we have 20-30
days of paid vacation!

I'm surprised you managed to stay awake with mono... I remember I stayed in
bed for about 20 hours out of every 24, for about 6 weeks.

~~~
icey
This is something that's becoming more common in the US - "personal time"
replaces sick and vacation time. Ostensibly, it's to encourage people
scheduling time off than feeling like they need to "burn through" their sick
time every year. However, I think it may have to do with paying out accrued
vacation time for employees. I'm not well enough versed in HR stuff to speak
to that though.

------
swombat
Whilst we all love to hate overcrowded offices, I really don't think that
there's any problems with open plan offices. I worked in those for 4 years and
never had an issue with them. Sure, there is a slight decrease in your
personal productivity due to the likelihood of distractions and interruptions,
but that is balanced by an increase in team productivity thanks to an increase
in communication.

Work is not all about your own personal work. In fact, in the large
organisations where I worked, I'd say at least 50% of the work that people
ended up doing was a result of miscommunication, and so there are clearly huge
benefits in finding ways to decrease that miscommunication.

Even programming work was largely dependent on communication. The projects
where I worked didn't do any rocket science that required weeks of solitary
work to chew through, but it did require a good understanding of arcane,
bizarre business (finance) rules and interface requirements, and the
bottleneck there was definitely communication rather than concentration.

~~~
binarycheese
That's funny because the moment you put programmers in warehouse everyone of
them puts on headphones - as such no communication is increased.

~~~
swombat
Even with headphones you're more likely to have a chat with someone who's a
couple of desks away in an open plan office than someone who's in a separate
office.

~~~
diN0bot
not necessarily true. it's much harder to "bother" someone who is visually and
audibly giving cues he doesn't want to be bothered, than with someone whom you
simply skype in with once a day. maybe you can "communicate" more frequently
with the former, but the interactions may in fact be less productive than an
open atmosphere.

open plan offices may actually make people more defensive about distractions
and hurt team interactions.

------
ars
"and using open-plan designs can save 20 per cent on construction"

That's all? Doesn't sound right, if you put people in offices each person gets
a lot more space, so you'd need a bigger building, etc. I think it's a lot
more than 20 percent.

~~~
spolsky
It depends. A startup can move into a big open loft, buy $50 folding tables
from Staples which are 2" too high and cause intense pain when you type, and
spend nothing.

On the other hand, if you compare the cost of a typical, Class-A cubicle
installation to a typical Class-A private office instalation, they're about
the same. In both cases you give workers about 100 square feet of personal
space; the main difference is whether you build drywall partitions, which is
relatively cheap, or buy fancy cubicle systems, which is actually more
expensive. The cubicle systems are supposed to be a bargain "in the long run"
because you can move or reconfigure them, something which literally never
happens in the real world.

~~~
JimmyL
Yeah, but you can depreciate cubicle systems, which is something you can't do
with drywall.

Curiously, cubes count as office furniture (and hence business machines),
which means that you can depreciate it much more efficiently than you can if
it was a capital improvement cost, which makes it cheaper on paper. Even
better, if you've got some crafty people, you can have someone else own the
things and lease the cubes - which is even better from a tax point of view.

While this probably doesn't apply in a startup context, it has a significant
impact if you're moving into a larger space and will be paying for the
improvements yourself.

------
sh1mmer
You could read this research, or just have read Peopleware from, what, 15
years ago? DeMarco and Lister nail everything you've ever thought about
working in an office.

If you haven't read this you should have! [http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-
Productive-Projects-Teams-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-
Projects-Teams-Second/dp/0932633439) I think Joel just cribs articles directly
from it some days ;)

~~~
jmatt
Well, he has definitely read it.

[http://www.amazon.com/review/RYVTUPDAUANZW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_per...](http://www.amazon.com/review/RYVTUPDAUANZW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm)

Thanks for the link.

~~~
sh1mmer
I know Joel has read it, Joel is one of the biggest blogging proponents of a
lot of their philosophy. I only meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. I don't
think Joel is trying to rip those guys off at all.

------
apollo
I would like a hybrid office inspired by libraries... one center room with an
open layout, one side room with general use study carrels which is
quiet/soundproofed... and maybe one or two small rooms for private group
meetings. The open layout in the middle will encourage interaction, but for
people who have to disconnect and focus they can go claim a study carrel in
the quiet room. What do you think?

~~~
gruseom
The collaborative-space-plus-private-retreat model has been discussed many
times, and I favor it too. But I've never heard the library analogy before.
That's very intriguing. Thanks!

------
comatose_kid
Has anyone studied the environments that great products were produced in (eg,
Xerox Parc, Apple)?

~~~
apollo
Steve Jobs guided the design of the Pixar building. Here's a quote from Brad
Bird (director of The Incredibles, Ratatouille):

"Then there's our building. Steve Jobs basically designed this building. In
the center, he created this big atrium area, which seems initially like a
waste of space. The reason he did it was that everybody goes off and works in
their individual areas. People who work on software code are here, people who
animate are there, and people who do designs are over there. Steve put the
mailboxes, the meetings rooms, the cafeteria, and, most insidiously and
brilliantly, the bathrooms in the center--which initially drove us crazy--so
that you run into everybody during the course of a day. [Jobs] realized that
when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So
he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company."

Edit: here's the source article, although you'd have to register to read the
whole thing:
[http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/innovation_lessons_from_pix...](http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/innovation_lessons_from_pixar_an_interview_with_oscar-
winning_director_brad_bird_2127)

~~~
comatose_kid
Thanks, that's an interesting data point.

------
blackguardx
I'd be surprised if cubicles fared any better.

The real problem is packing large numbers of people in a big warehouse,
regardless of walls. I think the best solution is having a small number of
people working on the same project share an office. There should be numerous
small conference rooms for when maximum concentration is required.

~~~
tallanvor
"The research found that the traditional design was better - small, private
closed offices."

They're not suggesting the use of cubicles - I know I wouldn't really consider
cubicles to be much different than open plan offices.

~~~
potatolicious
Traditional design may be better for health, but it destroys collaboration.
IMHO the best office design I've ever been in were simple team rooms -
everyone on a team (or sub-team) would work in a large office that they can
tailor the way they like (lighting, decor, etc). This really helped build team
cohesion, and since everyone is just a shout away it broke down the walls
preventing collaboration.

And I suppose it has the added benefit of only getting one team sick at a time
:)

~~~
tallanvor
It really depends on the type of work you're doing. For jobs that require a
lot of collaboration, open areas holding around 10 people can be good. Some
jobs would benefit more from having offices that hold 2-3 people each, and for
jobs that require you to be on the phone a lot (sales, marketing, support,
etc.) private offices really are a better option.

------
juliend2
I worked in a Web agency a few months ago and it was an open-plan office, with
many 4-places tables. There was a table for the designers, another for the
devs, etc. There is a high staff turnover in this company. I did not realize
it until i came accross this article, but the open-plan architecture of the
office may be a big reason why i left this company. I was not comfortable with
all the noises. Now i work in my apartment and i'm happy with that.

------
bobochan
I lived in a cube for a good long while but have had an office for the past
ten years. An office is nice but I really miss the camaraderie of being the
14th cube in the 8th row after the water cooler. Maybe it was a unique
situation but I was surrounded by interesting people with cool hobbies that
told great stories. There was always a group that was heading our for lunch
and plenty of people to informally work on problems with. As for illness, I
don't need co-workers to get me sick... I've outsourced that responsibility to
my kids.

------
mudetroit
I think it has a lot to do with corporate climate, more than the studies are
capturing. I have worked in small offices, cubeland, and open office plans. I
have been in open office plans where communication was non-existent, and in
small offices where we communicated well.

My current place is a very open floorplan, but it just works. We all know that
one of the problems we have is that we spread around disease more than we
would like. But the thing is we are all extremely happy with the format, and
with the benefits we get out of it. There have been offers made in the past to
change it, and the team decided to turn it down.

I think breaking it down to floorplan alone doesn't address the issue fully.

------
akeefer
I've worked in an open-plan office for the last 6 1/2 years, and I'd never go
back to cubes, or even to private offices. The level of collaboration and
knowledge-sharing is much, much higher, and while the level of distraction and
ambient noise is higher, I find that the increased communication is so
valuable that the increased distraction level is more than worth the tradeoff.

From the responses here, I'm guessing not a lot of people on this board have
tried XP or any other programming methodology that thrives on high-bandwidth
communication. There are plenty of other development methodologies that work
for people, of course, but XP and anything close to it really requires a
constant level of communication betweeen developers, product managers (and
customers), and testers that's just impossible to achieve if you're not
physically sitting right next to everyone. In the worst case, maybe the
distractions mean I only get 6 hours of work done in an 8 hour day, but it's
the right 6 hours of stuff, which isn't always the case when I can't
constantly talk with everyone else.

It's certainly possible that people have tried XP with pair programming, story
cards, etc. and just hate it, but my experience with new hires is that there's
often a lot of initial hostility to the open seating plan, but after a few
months most people figure out how to deal with the distractions (generally via
headphones or even earplugs if necessary) while coming to appreciate the
benefits of a high level of cross-team communication.

~~~
palehose
I worked for a company that has an open-plan office and the work environment
did not do anything to improve in-person communication between developers. I'm
sure that it is possible for an open-plan office to be a positive thing, but
by itself there is no added benefit. The reason that having an open-plan
office made no difference was because everyone communicated via IRC. I would
spend more time typing questions into IRC than I would spend talking to co-
workers who were sitting right next to me with their headphones on. The fact
that the company had an open-plan office did nothing to prevent IRC from being
the main communication vehicle.

There were definitely positive things about IRC being the main communication
tool, but it killed off any potential benefit that having an open-plan office
would provide.

------
mattmcknight
We offer unlimited sick time, I think that makes a big difference. I don't
know if I buy this though, isn't isolation a problem too? I like a mixed
space, private areas for people, but with many open collaboration areas. Give
people laptops and they can run around.

Tiny cubes are the worst of both worlds. Can't have a private phone call.
Can't pair program or work with others.

------
edw519
Once again, correlation != cause

There are pros and cons both ways. Sometimes you just gotta be alone and other
times you gotta be together. Depends on what you're doing and who you're
working with.

And the talk about viruses was hilarious. Perhaps they should turn off the AC
and open a few windows on nice days. That probably has much more influence
than where you place your internal walls.

~~~
imgabe
In most offices, the AC is centrally controlled by the building management.
Many office buildings also have windows that don't open.

------
queensnake
This Programmer's Stone has a lot to say about the whole subject, here's an
entry point:

[http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/implications-for-soft...](http://the-
programmers-stone.com/about/implications-for-software-engineers)

------
yef
The real questions are: 1) how much do open-plan offices save and 2) what is
the increased rate of illness (ie, how much productivity is lost?). Anyone
have any data?

------
ambition
This article is all over the news but I can't get a copy of the original
paper.

------
sethg
How do coworking sites like Betahouse manage this issue?

------
time_management
Open-plan sucks, as anyone who's had issues with panic attacks can attest.
Although there are situations that require it, there's no question that the
bad outweighs the good for programmers.

I don't think that open-plan office layouts aid collaboration. It creates a
lot of hostility and stress that don't need to exist.

Open-plan is the modern analogue of the assembly-line/factory work
environment. I'd guess that the productivity loss for a programmer in that
environment is 70-80 percent.

~~~
akeefer
As per my other comment, I've worked in an open plan for 6 1/2 years and I'd
say our development team is pretty highly productive. I haven't seen any
resulting hostility or stress, it certainly doesn't feel like an assembly
line, and we get a lot of communication benefits from it.

Have you experienced/heard of such horror stories yourself? I'm guessing there
are good ways to do an open-plan office and bad ways to do it, but I
personally haven't seen any of the bad ways.

~~~
queensnake
You've done it that long? How many people in the room? I've done it twice,
with maybe 30 and then again with 20 people and hated it both times. Sometimes
as a programmer you need to think.

I confess I liked one aspect, the feeling of being in contact with people, but
it wasn't productive, I could almost always hear 3 conversations going at
once. The worst was, packing people at long tables with laptops. Not even any
place to put books. Teh shite, a triumph of cost-cutting and having Indians
willing to put up with anything.

Probably for me, high-walled cubicles with not too many people in the same
room is a good compromise.

~~~
akeefer
We don't really pack people in or use laptops, we have clusters of 4 or 6
desks that form larger rectangles and which are then stacked back-to-back, so
you can easily talk with the people next to/across from you in the desk
cluster or you can easily turn around and talk with the people at the next
cluster. We generally organize each sub-team as 2 or 3 clusters of desks, with
4-6 developers sitting back-to-back and QA and PM on the opposite sides of the
cluster. It makes pair-programming much easier, since all the developer's
chairs are in the same open area, so you can easily pair with someone to the
side or that sits behind you.

My current part of the floor has maybe 35 people in it, and there's kind of
four sides of a rectangle to the building, so overall there are about 140
people or so on the floor. Generally, the clusters are spread out enough that
you can't hear conversations that are happening more than about 20 feet away
anyway, so the primary conversations you'll overhear are from other people on
your sub-team, which are exactly the conversations you really want to be
overhearing anyway. It really helps to keep everyone on the team in the loop
about what's going on.

We have offices around the perimeter of the building that are unused so that
people can grab them to have impromptu whiteboard discussions or make phone
calls, which also keeps the general noise level down.

