Surviving the Open Floor Plan Office

By Nicole M. Coomber

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – A spirited debate broke out recently in a working mom Facebook group over the concept of the open floor plan office. One woman had written a post, describing how her office had been redesigned to an open floor plan, leaving everyone with less privacy and more distractions. Most of the commenters agreed: Open offices are distracting and pose difficulties for introverts.

Some people said the open office even contributed to their decisions to quit their jobs. A few commenters said they liked the collaboration the change encouraged, but ceded that it doesn’t work for everyone. Meanwhile, those who worked for architecture and design firms said they’d been asked to create these kinds of office space more often recently, explaining that the open floor plan office seems to be “on trend.”

The open floor plan design for offices has been around since at least the late 1970s. Early research explored how the layout affected employees, and found a negative impact on affected employee satisfaction and motivation. Partly these effects resulted from the employees’ jobs changing after the floor plan change.

The chief complaints are about increased interruptions and a lack of privacy. More recent research indicates that the lack of privacy affects women more than men. In one of my favorite books, “What Works for Women at Work,” the authors discuss how women walk a tightrope at work, performing a balance between being “too” feminine and “too” masculine. If women feel that they are always on display, they may feel greater pressure to “perform” this gender balance all the time. Additionally, women face privacy issues related to pregnancy and the postpartum need to express milk for their newborns.

Years of research have not supported the claims that open floor plans increase efficiency and communication, or lower working costs. While there are some increases in collaboration, decreased work satisfaction, involvement and motivation outweigh those gains. New research indicates that open offices may actually decrease collaboration and result in more defensive behaviors as colleagues find it harder to concentrate.

The symbolic meaning of giving the same resources to all members of the organization, meanwhile, remains among the key reasons for having an open floor plan office, and the egalitarian nature of these offices might be one of the strongest arguments for them. In one study, managers felt a slight loss of status, while clerical workers actually felt they had more privacy and more access to information they needed for their job.

If you’re destined to work in an open office, how can you make it work for you?

•  Know yourself. Are you extroverted, but easily distracted? Do you need peace and quiet to get certain work tasks done? Are you an introvert who thrives on quiet? Knowing your own working style is the first step to success in any work environment. Understanding your personality and organizing your day around it can also help. For example, if you do your best thinking when it’s quiet, you might want to try to arrive earlier than your colleagues. That way, you can tackle your thinking projects early in the day and be ready to collaborate when they arrive. 

• Make use of quiet zones. A good floor plan design will have quiet zones. Making use of them for focused work can make getting individual tasks done more easily. When you need to collaborate, moving out to the open spaces will feel more like a treat.

• Take advantage of telework. In some open offices, management assumes that 10 to 15 percent of the staff will work remotely on any given day. Working from home can help you save on gas, commuting time and even dry cleaning costs. Build one or more work-from-home day into your schedule, and schedule the tasks that require the most focus for those days. Save meetings, calls and other collaborative tasks for days when you’re in the office. You can make the most of both spaces and their function that way.

The popularity of the open floor plan office design waxes and wanes. But by making the most of the space for your working style, you can make sure that the open office doesn’t negatively affect your productivity, regardless of your personality.

Nicole M. Coomber is an associate clinical professor of management and organization for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and mother to four boys.