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 wh

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.