I read within a job description, "...open floor plans inspire a constant exchange of ideas, advice, and banter.". Is it just me, or do all of those things make you cringe when you're thinking about actually getting work done?
I have noticed a strong trend away from doing actual work, towards cooperation and collaboration as a means of increasing the upside of the small amount of work that is actually done, to ensure it is worthwhile and relevant work being done. People in knowledge work create tremendous, near infinite at times, value - in a very small percentage of their work time. The majority of the work is meta-work that enables those tiny periods of massive contribution, and the balance is just hanging out.
Among many reasons, open floor plans are cheap. Offices require drywall and doors and (re-)construction permits. Cubicle walls are surprisingly expensive for how cheap they look. If you are looking to cut every cost you possible can, open floor plans certainly cut costs.
In decades past, it was predicted that people would work far less than 40 hours per week due to increases in productivity. Maybe that has happened, but we just pretend it hasn't: people now spend hours a day discussing beer with their coworkers in their open offices instead of working.
The book "Peopleware" discusses this. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Tom-DeMarco-ebook/dp/B00DY5A8X2/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Tom-De...</a>
Basically, open floor plans are cheap and you can maximize metrics like $/person-sqft.<p>Other factors:<p>* "everyone else does it"<p>* Open floor plans seem like a good idea when you first hear them; the downsides are not immediately obvious. Verbal reasoning, no matter how flawed, almost always wins.<p>* The decision makers tend to be blissfully unaware of the dynamics of knowledge work because their work is typically interrupt-driven. Thus, they don't see any problem putting 50 programmers in a cramped and echoey gymnasium.<p>* Even if the decision maker is fully aware, their boss might not agree to a higher-cost office plan. Actual dollars will almost always beat non-metrics like "compounded employee productivity" or "time and money not wasted due to mistakes caused by people operating in a distracting environment".<p>--Yes, in theory you could design an experiment, but that would delay the decision and probably require spending money. And the outcome would probably be misinterpreted: the open floor people will be louder and will appear to be working harder. (But are they actually more productive or are they just scrambling to fix all the bugs they created?)
I work in an open plan office and sometimes I find it annoying. If I come in early, I get about an hour's peace. When people start coming in I hear conversations about kids then sport.. then when people who sit closer to me come in, I obviously have a quick morning chat with them.<p>The whole thing can be very distracting.<p>On the plus side, it's never lonely even when I am not talking to anyone. It's easy to see if people are available. It's easier to go chat to people about work.
It's a trade-off. Closed offices make deep thinking easier; open floor plans make communication easier. Ideally, you want both, but how do you get it?
Because the management doesn't!<p>Notice how the further up the hierarchy you go the larger and better appointed offices the managers have? They then hold their meetings in conference rooms, or better still, swanky restaurants and clubs.<p>And all that is based on the revenue generated by the cube farm slaves.
I love open floor plans. I've been working >10 years in cubicles, ~5 years in offices and >5 years in open floor plans. My favorite has been open floor plans. It's far more social and people are a lot more accessible. The other benefit of open floor plans is that people can go elsewhere if they feel like they don't want to be disturbed, so it's almost the best of both worlds.
I used to find open floor plans the most annoying thing in the world. People would pop up behind/around me unannounced. However, since we started using slack, such annoyance has declined dramatically. I wonder what will happen to office planning with better communication tools around.
this is really typical. good luck finding a startup with cubicles or private offices. It might be cheaper or maybe it's a design attempt to look effortless and elegant.
open floor plans can cause something like that: <a href="http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-a-programmer/" rel="nofollow">http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-...</a>
The use of open floor plans could also be a choice towards company culture.<p>I work in an office with an open floor plan, and, most of the time, no one is even talking.<p>The amount of work you could do in an open floor plan office might also depend on the company culture.