The problem is that it meets managerial needs very well: * awareness -- you can see who's there, what they're doing, and have kindof a feel of the tempo of the

The problem is that it meets managerial needs very well: * awareness -- you can see who's there, what they're doing, and have kindof a feel of the tempo of the office * "collaborative" -- managerial work is mostly meetings, it's easy to see conversation/crosstalk as productivity * less furniture / divided space is probably cost efficient Add that to the This Is How We Do Things Now(TM) cultural momentum (you don't want to be using cubes like those stale corporations of the 90s, do you?). Then throw in the idea that management doesn't necessarily want employees to be maximally productive; it's better if they're productive enough but pliable and fungible. Open plan might well be with us for a while.