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How many articles will it take to incite positive change? Not only does this survey reveal that people don't like open office spaces it highlights that they wo

How many articles will it take to incite positive change? Not only does this survey reveal that people don't like open office spaces it highlights that they would rather work remotely. This is a shift that I haven't seen before, at least in any survey. Interesting.

acct1771 8y ago
"You can call me a rich bastard in the press all you want, as long as I'm still rich."
toomuchtodo 8y ago
Articles won’t matter. People will have to refuse jobs in open office environments or quit when they’re proposed or implemented for change to occur.
organsnyder 8y ago
I mentioned the open office to my former manager as one of my reasons for leaving (yes, I know some people think it's never a good idea to give exit feedback, but IMHO it depends on the context). I knew my manager was already not a fan of open offices, so I figured I'd give him a bit of ammunition.
Kadin 8y ago
Who cares what articles say, if a company can still recruit employees? When good candidates start turning down positions because of the office layout, that might create some pressure to change, though. But I think one of the problems is that bad office layouts tend to exacerbate problems. They may be the ultimate underlying cause of retention problems, but they're typically not the proximate cause, and thus don't get the blame they're due. Someone might leave because of interpersonal conflicts or just "not fitting in" to their team, which might not seem like an office-layout issue. But who knows if they might have gelled better with their team if they weren't all sitting around with noise-cancelling headphones on, or glaring at each other for turning the lights on/off, or taking too many phone calls, or all the other annoyances of an open office.
commandlinefan 8y ago
Part of the problem here is the title: "U.S. workers hate 'open' office spaces". The CEO in the corner office lighting cigars off of $100 bills doesn't care what the workers hate - in fact, he probably sees this as a net positive, because it reminds the workers who they are and who he is. And in reality, it's _not_ important what U.S. workers "hate" and that they hate it isn't really the problem with open offices - the problem is that everybody working in them is working at half capacity because they're wasting at least half of their concentration trying to block out all of the (completely unnecessary) distractions they're surrounded by.

acct1771 8y ago

"You can call me a rich bastard in the press all you want, as long as I'm still rich."

toomuchtodo 8y ago

Articles won’t matter. People will have to refuse jobs in open office environments or quit when they’re proposed or implemented for change to occur.

organsnyder 8y ago

I mentioned the open office to my former manager as one of my reasons for leaving (yes, I know some people think it's never a good idea to give exit feedback, but IMHO it depends on the context). I knew my manager was already not a fan of open offices, so I figured I'd give him a bit of ammunition.

Kadin 8y ago

Who cares what articles say, if a company can still recruit employees? When good candidates start turning down positions because of the office layout, that might create some pressure to change, though. But I think one of the problems is that bad office layouts tend to exacerbate problems. They may be the ultimate underlying cause of retention problems, but they're typically not the proximate cause, and thus don't get the blame they're due. Someone might leave because of interpersonal conflicts or just "not fitting in" to their team, which might not seem like an office-layout issue. But who knows if they might have gelled better with their team if they weren't all sitting around with noise-cancelling headphones on, or glaring at each other for turning the lights on/off, or taking too many phone calls, or all the other annoyances of an open office.

commandlinefan 8y ago

Part of the problem here is the title: "U.S. workers hate 'open' office spaces". The CEO in the corner office lighting cigars off of $100 bills doesn't care what the workers hate - in fact, he probably sees this as a net positive, because it reminds the workers who they are and who he is. And in reality, it's _not_ important what U.S. workers "hate" and that they hate it isn't really the problem with open offices - the problem is that everybody working in them is working at half capacity because they're wasting at least half of their concentration trying to block out all of the (completely unnecessary) distractions they're surrounded by.