Open offices are dead. At least that’s what the sociopaths who foisted them off on protesting office workers—but never their bosses for some reason—say. An article in Fast Company says that the architects who have been pushing the open office concept on their customers have changed their minds.
Sort of. First of all they ignore the most salient fact about open offices: they are germ exchanges that COVID-19 have rendered no longer feasible. Increased employee illness was always a problem with open offices but it was largely ignored by employers seduced by the cheaper buildout they offered. That’s no longer possible and probably won’t be for some time.
Secondly, they haven’t really repudiated their past designs; they’ve just changed them a bit. Take a look at the Fast Company article or these concept sketches from one of the architectural firms. They all look like open offices to me but with cute names like “The Library,” “The Plaza,” and “The Avenue.” The Library, for instance, is claimed to solve the noise and disruption problem by having a “no talking” policy as if no one has ever thought of that before.
It remains to be seen if employees will tolerate this nonsense after experiencing the comfort of distraction free working from home. I get that not everyone likes working from home and that—for some reason—some folks even like open offices. But most people don’t and are apt to object on the grounds that these open spaces are dangerous and inefficient.
I’ll be a lot less cynical about open offices in general and these “new” designs in particular when I see the bosses using them and taking advantage of all the things they offer their employees. I’m not holding my breath though.