CDC Suggests Avoiding Open Plan Offices

I think open plan offices started to become a thing in the late 90's just before the first dotcom crash. At least that was the first time I encountered the concept codified into a formal term that everyone was throwing around. That, and "management by walking around" (which i think was the pre-cursor to "stand up meetings".) Anyway, I hated the open-office concept then and I still hate it now. Its noisy, distracting, invasive...it really made me miss cubicles. I can't believe it took a worldwide pandemic to get people to reconsider them...

Over the last 3 months I’ve come to believe increasing human urban density is correlated with increasing viral illness. Over the next tens and hundreds of years, this bodes poorly for the viability of Tokyo&#x2F;New York&#x2F;Mumbai&#x2F;Seoul and others.<p>I’ll offer that only Tokyo may yet survive another couple of hundred years of widespread, infective zoonotic diseases, as Japan’s astonishingly low fertility rate might halve or quarter their population by the year 2200.<p>Curious what others think about long term population trends vis a vis human health?

One can dream.<p>I never understood why cubicles took on a bad rap. Who doesn’t like their own room? It’s your own room in the office.

Good read. I also believe sanitation companies will continue to be in demand in foreseeable future.

Although my company is doing right by IT workers and actually requiring everyone to work from home I&#x27;m skeptical this will result in any real change when we do return to the office. Honestly WeWork is staring to look appealing if I want a lockable office instead of a cube.

I used to hate open plan offices. I still do, but now a have a citable excuse.