This is an advert for WeekDone, a piece of status-reporting software. The pithy "fixes" named are rarely going to solve the underlying problem. For software an

This is an advert for WeekDone, a piece of status-reporting software. The pithy "fixes" named are rarely going to solve the underlying problem. For software and product work, the answer is obvious: open allocation. For radically different kinds of work (e.g. factory-floor manufacturing) I'm not so confident; it's not my expertise. But I don't think the OP knows either. "20% Time" policies don't really work, because if your manager is supportive you don't need them, and if your manager's a jerk, they don't offer real protection. I agree on open-plan offices, because open-back visibility causes useless, counterproductive stress. The noise is a small issue; being visible from behind fucks with people's fight-or-flight systems. But if you can't afford to have everyone in an office (and, in some jobs, you can't; it would be a disaster on a trading floor) you could probably achieve it with booth-style seating. Also, no boss wakes up and decides to "micromanage" and few people intentionally schedule "useless meetings". Those things happen and they're really unpleasant, but you can't just say "Don't do that" and expect the behavior to stop. You need constitutional guarantees, like an Employee Bill of Rights that requires an employee majority to amend it and guarantees certain protections (i.e. any criticism of an employee must be delivered to that person with as small an audience as possible, and he has the right to defend himself; any employee can transfer at any time unless there is an immediate business justification for not allowing him). The problem with "20% time" policies and the "No Asshole Rule" (point #5 about "Negative People") is that they rarely have any real teeth; they just become the new language used to justify business-as-usual.