Open Workspaces – To Be or Not to Be?

Seems to be the question of the day, month and year!

Being an extrovert, I love the open workspace concept and have found it to save me so much time and wasted effort. And I’ve witnessed its benefits more than a few times for others too.

Case in point regarding a colleague of mine – let’s call him Sam. After overhearing Sam in a conversation, one of Sam’s colleagues provided some valuable tidbits of information to Sam. Sam changed his approach which ultimately saved Sam and his client valuable amounts of time and resources.

But what of the downsides of this?

Each perspective presents valid points.

It’s a debate that I’ve pretty much ignored until a “I don’t get what the big deal is” comment was made to me by a manager who has a team moving into an open floor plan from their traditional cubicle environment. Of course, the door to his private office in which we were sitting at the time was closed.

Regardless of whether a team is moving from a closed to an open workspace or from an open to a closed work environment, it is a change issue and one that must not be overlooked.

Workspaces are a part of people’s identity – heck we spend 40+ hours a week being in them – and since the human spirit has a strong need to belong, when we start messing with people’s workspaces, we start messing with their identity.

A recently published article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the story of Elizabeth Tobey parking herself outside a space for thirty minutes in hopes of being able to make a private phone call. Is this really the best of use of Elizabeth’s time not to mention the psychological impact of having to “fight for” for some privacy?

I believe that it’s not that “one way is better than the other”, but that it’s “both and”. The task at hand is to create work environments that help all people feel comfortable and productive. And help prepare them for whatever change is coming.

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