A new study from Harvard reveals that open-plan offices decrease rather than increase face-to-face collaboration
They start using email and messaging with much greater frequency than before. In other words, even if collaboration were a great idea (it's a questionable notion), open plan offices are the worst possible way to make it happen.
Previous studies of open plan offices have shown that they make people less productive, but most of those studies gave lip service to the notion that open plan offices would increase collaboration, thereby offsetting the damage.
The Harvard study, by contrast, undercuts the entire premise that justifies the fad. And that leaves companies with only one justification for moving to an open plan office: less floor space, and therefore a lower rent.
But even that justification is idiotic because the financial cost of the loss in productivity will be much greater than the money saved in rent. More important, though--if employees are going to be using email and messaging to communicate with co-workers, they might as well be working from home, which costs the company nothing.
Yep I saw this myself. I got so distracted by hearing other colleagues conversations (up to two or three desks away) that I could not concentrate on deep thought work. I used to wish I could just go home and finish my report as I knew I'd get it done in half the time. But if your office culture is "If I see you I think you are working" then that does not work very well, or where there is "no policy for working from home"....
See It's Official: Open-Plan Offices Are Now the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time
A new study from Harvard reveals that open-plan offices decrease rather than increase face-to-face collaboration.
source https://gadgeteer.co.za/new-study-harvard-reveals-open-plan-offices-decrease-rather-increase-face-face-collaboration
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