
Open offices make people talk less and email more - nkc407
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180718-open-offices-make-people-talk-less-and-email-more
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Harvey-Specter
> Open-plan offices have taken off because of a desire to increase interaction
> and collaboration among workers.

Open-plan offices have taken off because of a desire to decrease real-estate
costs and stuff more employees into the same space.

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1337biz
I think open offices are mostly based on extroverts logic, i.e. they think it
forces more introverted people to communicate more, supports the team spirit
and that it is super awsome to solve problems by just talking to the person
sitting next to you.

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bunderbunder
More fundamentally, there's an assumption that more talk = more collaboration.

I've found the opposite tends to be true. Person-to-person talk is inefficient
and tends to promote siloing. Email and (well planned) meetings help people
stay on the same page, which makes it easier for them to work co-operatively.
And it gets you there with less actual time spent communicating.

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mattmanser
I swear we should introduce a monthly thread like "Who's hiring" about open
plan offices just to let people vent. Thread predictions:

1 highly voted chain saying "but I like open-plan offices".

1 highly voted chain saying "I hate open plan offices".

1 highly voted thread saying "Actually they _really_ do this to save money".

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kenshi
Open plan offices do have some advantages:

\- being able to put more employees in the space AKA being able to scale
efficiently as the company grows

\- easily able to group related employees together (perhaps on a per project
basis)

\- ad-hoc collaboration can occur

\- easier/cheaper maintenance

How much of these advantages are actually leveraged in practice can vary
greatly. (eg: If your company culture is cut throat or demoralised no open
plan office is going to foster greater collaboration).

There are of course downsides to the open plan office, which I am confident
other people will list on this thread.

edit: formatting

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username_my
This study would be interesting if it compared same size/ same indusry
companies to each other

It’s easy to imagine more old industry company where technology penetration
isn’t high using traditional office space don’t send too many emails in
general

