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Open Plan or Closed Office?

31st Jul 2013
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After a least a couple of decades of occupying cubicles of various sizes and degrees of comfort, this columnist has just been introduced to the brave new world of Open Plan working.

The thought of vacating a personal space and being thrown out to share life with the world is absolutely terrifying.

The likelihood is that amongst AccountingWEB community, there will be large numbers who cannot see what the fuss is about and others who would not dare to emerge from their large, well-appointed and beautifully furnished offices during daylight hours.

While the new accommodation is airy and (relatively) spacious, it is still be a shock to the system. As readers are likely to point out, things could be a lot worse and the atmosphere might be more like that of a battery hen house or, perish the thought, a call centre.

The word on the street is that this particular area is very quiet, which in itself is a double-edged sword.

On the plus side, it must be easier to work somewhere quiet than in an environment where your colleagues are competing with the Rolling Stones to maintain high decibel levels.

Against that, if things really are quiet then everything you say on the telephone is likely to be overheard by dozens of people. If you are showing off your business skills, that maybe fine. However, when dealing with cold callers trying to flog insurance and pensions, as happened on two consecutive days last week, the rudest techniques might not be quite so easily accepted or could lead to a round of applause.

The idea of being able to commune directly with your closest colleagues must also be attractive. Long gone are the days when they would be shouted at for as much as knocking on a partner's door, let alone opening it.

Similarly, being able to listen in on their calls to clients could be helpful from an educational point of view with hints on how to do things better easily conveyed (and you may well pick up a few tips along the way).

After two days, the first impressions are reasonably favourable. It is considerably noisier than working in an office and you are both very conscious of other people's conversations and self-conscious about your own.

One of the big pluses is that as people pass by, you get an opportunity to chat and this gives the potential to cross-sell (totally ethically), which is a big difference from sitting enclosed within four walls, even if one of them is made of glass or Perspex.

It will be interesting to know whether readers have exposed themselves to the Open Plan experience and any tips on making the transformation a little gentler would be very gratefully received.

At least your dedicated columnist is not going to be designated an "agile worker", instead being given the grace of a "preferred desk". This means that he will not be involved in a daily scramble at four o'clock each morning for hot desks as far away as possible from the scariest partners.

It does seem likely that working at home, which might well form a subject for another week's column, will become far more common, since trying to dictate a lengthy report in public will properly not prove to be desirable to eyes of the dictator or those trying to work around him or her.

The other obvious solution of going on holiday and avoiding the whole process will almost immediately be implemented, since the next column will be coming to you from the heart of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. If nothing else, the trip north should save a lot of money on sunblock, which has become compulsory over the last few weeks in lovely London.

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Replies (9)

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By Rachael White
31st Jul 2013 10:06

We operate an open plan office policy with assigned desks here at Sift towers, which I personally, as a worker, to be a great way of doing things. 

Not only is it so much easier to communicate with colleagues both on your own and other teams face to face, but you feel more a part of what's going on around you and more 'connected' to the common goal, or more part of the team. 

Noise doesn't bother me, as it's just others typing and taking calls, but this would also depend on the person. I need a lot of concentration when writing an article but if it ever gets too much and I really need to concentrate, I pop a pair of headphones in and that's that. :)

I have also worked from home on a few occasions, and have set up a little home office for myself (folders, files, desk, laptop and even a cheeky bowl of fruit). As housemates are always out for the day I find it easy to concentrate and ban myself from procrastinating!

They're just my insights and everyone is a different sort of worker, so it may or may not suit you!

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By User deleted
31st Jul 2013 11:34

Open Plan Office =

Hell on Earth,  to me anyway :o)

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By wilcoskip
31st Jul 2013 12:10

Need some 'quiet space'.

Like many accountants, I spent most of my training & working life working in small offices (shared at first, then my own (the excitement!) when I got to manager.  Fairly late in my working life I worked in an open plan office for the first time.

On the downside, I was self-conscious making telephone calls.

On the upside, team communication was far, far better.  Information was only a desk away, and often someone would overhear something in someone else's phone call that they could immediately help with or see a solution to.

The absolute necessity is to have at least one quiet, enclosed office - not just for client meetings but also for delicate and sensitive phone calls.

Overall, given a choice, I wouldn't go back to separate offices again.  And I'm a quiet, introspective person by nature.

WS.

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By Rachael White
31st Jul 2013 12:36

There's a really good feature on this in today's BBC magazine actually.

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By User deleted
31st Jul 2013 13:52

A picture of an Open Plan office

 

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By User deleted
31st Jul 2013 14:09

You couldn't pay me enough...

You couldn't pay me enough to work in an open-plan environment again. Hated them with a passion. I'm very self-conscious on the phone (and that started when I was forced to answer the phones as a junior in a small open-plan office) so that's a huge no-no, I can't work on detailed thinking work with noise, and I find large spaces (except outside when they're fab) very unsettling. Throw in my aversion to people and quite frankly you might as well hand me the white jacket with straps at the back. No, I'll stay working for myself at home with peace and quiet, and nothing more unappealing than the dog gassing me (and then leaving the room to go sit on the hall rug with a look that says 'oops, I did it again and I don't think it will be nice').  

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By RussellD
01st Aug 2013 09:11

66% decreased productivity

A sound branding agency chairman, Julian Treasure, did a TED talk where he indicated that open plan offices result in a drop of 66% in productivity. Below is a link to a blog which states it and offers a link to the video.

http://www.thesoundagency.com/2011/sound-news/more-damaging-evidence-on-open-plan-offices/

I tend to work in an office and in an open plan office (depending on which site I am on). I think I get less done in an open plan office because people feel free to 'interrupt' my work flow to get movement on their own (I am almost certainly guilty of returning the favour). 

I personally prefer to 'meet' with people at a pre agreed time to get or give information or decisions rather than being interrupted or interrupting. I read interesting book on the train this morning where some companies have most meetings doing something active - walk, run, roller skating. I love that idea.

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Replying to atleastisoundknowledgable...:
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By User deleted
01st Aug 2013 09:29

I couldn't cope ...

RussellD wrote:

 I read interesting book on the train this morning where some companies have most meetings doing something active - walk, run, roller skating. I love that idea.

... I can't see how you can have a meaningful meeting if you are not concentrating on it fully, it is just lip service to make you feel busy and worthwhile, imho!

I am a great believer in doing one thing properly rather than several badly.

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By tom123
03rd Aug 2013 05:18

Depends on the work, I think.

When I managed a general accounts team, in manufacturing, I was in an open plan office - just with my team. My payroll person had a private office for obvious reasons.

Communication was great, as you just overheard what was going on - and were able to quickly interject with advice if needed.

For a while, I moved to an individual office next to the MD - good for working 'upwards', but it did need morning and afternoon 'ward rounds' to my staff - and I felt a bit out of touch with the day to day work.

When starting in my current post, the finance team (of 10) shared with procurement (again 10).

This worked - because there is a lot of similarity of thinking between the sections.

I don't think it would have worked sharing with the sales teams. Purchasing are used to the idea of stormy weather type news, I find, and tend to take it in their stride - I'm thinking of brief cashflow lows etc.

Nowadays I work in compliance activities, where I have no overlap with anyone else in the UK, and find an individual office is great - mostly with the door open, but easily closed.

I did get back from holiday once to find my office had been moved though!

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