The pandemic didn't kill the office vibe, the open-plan concept did.

Photo: Nastuh Abootalebi

For four years now, leaders have been scratching their heads trying to figure out why employees push back to check in to the office when the answer is pretty much in the riddle: The Office. The open-plan office that is. Organizations paved paradise to put up a parking lot. They sacrificed private offices, put all workers in one giant room and then wonder why motivation and efficiency have dropped. 

Let’s pretend you are selling your home. What is the first thing real-estate brokers advise you to do to help sell it?

• Remove all photos
• Paint the walls a neutral color
• Declutter

Essentially, strip the space to neutralize, depersonalize and basically not let visitors feel there are traces of people living there. Which is exactly what happened to office towers everywhere once the "cool" open-plan concept took over. When you walk past a desk or a cubicle, can you tell which one of your peers sat there? Is there even sign of human occupancy? 
No. 
And so really what the work space is telling you is to come by, work, but don't get comfortable and leave your hand lotion behind because you may work in a different space tomorrow. 

I don't see Mulder changing offices every day, hauling his boxes of evidence from room to room ;)

Which throws me back to the first seven years of my career, when I truly did have a private office. A pile of books leaned on the ledge of the window over seeing the city. Next to my desk sat a round consulting table with two chairs for my client counselling sessions or impromptu colleague meetings, topped with a bowl of chocolates. I had art on my walls and also my diplomas, which reassured the more skeptical clients who often thought I looked “quite young”. ​A drawer chest hid my confidential client files and of course two pairs of high heeled shoes and on the hook of my door, a clean blazer just in case. It was like having a small apartment really.

​Going to work and knowing you had an actual office, AKA a private space, waiting for you was invaluable. Every day, it was just another thing you did not have to worry about. Day after day, for years, I did not have to wonder about something as basic as where I would be sitting and working for the day. I did not have to add yet another thing to the never ending DIY list in my head. I would find my space the same way I left it. I also knew exactly where my colleagues were every day and could find them in a second. 
  
Yet, as the "collaborative" workspace gained popularity, companies excitedly sabered through costs and claimed to be fostering teamwork. That was the beginning of the end of productivity. It was simultaneously also the end of the sense of belonging to the office and what it use to mean. The walls of the traditional workspace as we knew it were pulled apart to cut cost, but it also created other problems.

“Be open to change” they said.

When embarking in this open space concept, companies failed to realize just how much this would inevitably change the relationship employees had with work all at once. Employees were forced to accept constant interruptions, additional bureaucracy to execute basic tasks, and see it as an upgrade. All these minor inconveniences add up and chip away at focused work, leaving staff isolated with headphones to signal they are trying to concentrate or awkwardly kicking another colleague out from a private office. But why oh why aren't employees running to the office voluntarily? Come on. It’s not exactly rocket science.

The same way airlines squeeze passengers in smaller spaces with less comfort but better profit, open-plan concepts created a culture of detachment, where employees are not encouraged to anchor themselves to a single workstation. They are indirectly told by that very concept that profit is more important than their comfort. Ironically, this will affect the organization’s numbers. While it is understandable that open space concept could be productive for some companies, it’s not exactly a one size fits all solution.

 Working in an open space means:

• You see everything going on around you at all times and have to work harder to stay focused. (According to a University of California Irvine study, it takes an average of 23 minutes to rebuild your focus zone).
• Reserving both open and closed office rooms for different meetings in the same day.
• Forecasting that the room you reserved may not be available on time and may be left unclean. 
• Carrying your lunch, a pair of shoes (during winter) and your laptop with its charger around on your commute. 
• It means the absence of physical material that create a sense of permanence,  familiarity and predictability like books, professional designations certificates, photos and  thank you cards.
• Not knowing who is sitting where at any time in the office. 

Let me ask you this: when you work from home, do you change rooms multiple times a day? Do you work in one room on Monday and a completely different one on Tuesday?

No.
​
You go to the same spot, every single time. Be it the cold granite of the kitchen counter or a massive wood desk, you’re checking in that space daily because you’re efficient there. You’re comfortable there. It's the same for meeting and lunch rooms. Human beings are creatures of habit and that sense of predictability and perception of control is something our brain loves. I’m convinced that some of the basic rules of efficiency is to preserve cerebral energy for hard and complex decision-making moments instead of dispensing it on things like: hmmm, did I reserve that office for my meeting?

​Thankfully, the pandemic came and pressed on the reset button.

The workforce was launched into something we had never seen before. Working 100% from home, forcing organizations and managers of all levels to trust their employees and be result focused and may I just say: AMEN.

It reaffirmed how productive we are in dedicated and private workspaces. It forced organizations to finally recognize technological savvy employees as adaptive and ahead of the game. Most important and critical of all, the pandemic slashed out our commute time and enabled employees to decentralize work from their schedules to better manage other priorities. Bean bags and pizza don’t compare to time saving and the comfort of home. If companies are serious about creating a sense of belonging, they need to be interested in the needs of their employees and being clear on what problem going to the office more regularly is trying to solve.

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“A single best physical or digital workspace architecture will never be found. That’s because more interaction is not necessarily better, nor is less. The goal should be to get the right people interacting with the right richness at the right times."

​-The Truth About Open Offices, There are reasons why they don’t produce the desired interactions by Ethan Bernstein and Ben Waber

"The renowned researcher and organizational psychologist Adam Grant summarizes the findings from a series of research studies as follows: 'The evidence is clear: open plan offices are bad for people and organizations. For the sake of health, productivity, and collaboration, let's design spaces with doors.'"

-Open plan offices are bad for business by Linda Lai 

How do we define an employee’s work experience in 2024? What does their day look like? What of the younger generations who have never experienced checking in to work every day? How will we build camaraderie and trusting relationships with them? Instead of focusing on how to cut costs, invest in those who do the work. The more you think of employee wellbeing, the greater the benefits in the long run.
 
The pandemic didn't kill the office or the team's culture and sense of belonging, the open-plan concept did. The pandemic simply put the unsaid into the light. When we are able to leave a piece of ourselves at the office, we have greater peace of mind at home. 

You want "concrete" solutions? Here they are, black on white: 

• Listen and earn trust
• Bring back private and dedicated offices
• Contribute to employees commuting fair

​Confetti for dedicated and private offices!
​
P.S. This article explains it well and offers real applicable solutions as well: 
https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/the-open-plan-office-is-dead-do-this-instead.html