Open Offices Reduce Productivity and Increase Stress

It seems like there’s finally some scientific proof to back up what I’ve been saying for a while now: offices, especially “modern,” open office plans actually make you sick.

You can read more about this in a news.com.au article covering a recent Australian study, but here’s the gist:

“In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.

“The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.”

A lot of people tell me that they love working in an open office, that it leads to better communication, sharing of ideas, and an increased flow of creativity.

My own experience is in line with this study. The open offices I’ve worked in—and some were otherwise great places to work—usually lead to distraction, decreased productivity, and low morale in myself and the people I’ve worked with.

For the record, I think offices when used as places to meet, to share ideas, or to bust out code in a 2-week sprint are great. But as an everyday environment, open offices come at a price.

It’ll be interesting to see if more businesses foster the creation of personal Creativity Zones in order to push through the recession and cut costs.

13 Jan 2009 • 11 Comments • Tags: creativity, offices, workplace

Comments

11 Comments.

I agree entirely with the results of this study. I used to think that I loved the open office setup, but the longer that I worked in that environment, the more I craved the quiet of a private office.

Garrett Dimon • 13 January 2009 • 05:01 PM

I love the idea of an open office, but at the end of the day, none of my creative work gets done until I've been alone for a few hours. I need isolation to work.

Judson Collier • 13 January 2009 • 05:01 PM

Recently the company I work for moved into a new office space that our team got to design from scratch. We designed it as what would be considered an open office space. There was much debate about whether this was the right thing to do, as most of us have never worked in an open space before we wanted to try something different and knew we didn't want a cube farm. The consensus was that because we use Scrum as our development methodology AND have cross functional teams working on the same sprint, we would design an environment that fosters collaboration and communication. BUT if you need quiet and want to get away from people, we have rooms available for "shut door" time (and a lounge with a 52" tv, leather couch, and comfy chairs). We've been in the space a little over a month now and in that time executed 3 sprints. To date they've been our most productive. I guess only time will tell if our productivity is an anomaly but for now it's all good.

Pictures of the space I'm referring to:
http://flickr.com/photos/cassandmattvasquez/sets/72157610960744243/

Matt Vasquez • 13 Jan 2009 • 06:01 PM

Wow, this is great news for all of us who like to step into the zone. As much as I enjoy the constant interaction with others in an open office -- or even a cubicle situation -- nothing boosts my productivity like an uninterrupted three hours.

Spencer Alexander • 13 January 2009 • 07:01 PM

I think Jason Fried of 37signals once said (paraphasing here) "The office is where you go to get distracted."

Fred Lee • 13 January 2009 • 08:01 PM

I have been working for one year in an open office. While I admit I'm deaf and not affected by the noise I do experience high stress. Open office is a great way for team work. But like the article said there is high stress.

Many of us has has had colleagues who interfere which others their work, you can't have a conversation(about work) with another colleagues without people interfering unasked and some spend their day checking what you are doing on your computer, they forget they themselves aren't working while they spend their day spying on others.

So I guess a lot of the stress factor depends of the people you work with.

Darice de Cuba • 14 January 2009 • 12:01 AM

I can definitely see this as true. I've got the benefit of relative quiet and solitude when needed working at home (at least when I turn Twitter off), but my wife's office layout is totally open - her whole team is crammed into loft, one on top of the other.

I don't know how they get anything done in that environment—though it looks "cool".

Tom Carmony • 14 January 2009 • 04:01 AM

This is so true. And the larger the open office, the more the distractions increase. (There's always someone really loud.) But if a team has to work together on projects, can this be achieved if they are in separate offices? Not that I don't long for one myself.

Also when I saw the title of this post I thought for a millisecond that it read "Open Office Reduces Productivity and Increase Stress". So much for free software! :-D

Chris Hester • 14 January 2009 • 09:01 AM

For a while now, I've felt that there's no real benefit to a (web) company working together in an office other than to justify the money that's been spent on it - it's all about the image.

Throw me into an atmosphere like this and it feels like judging eyes watching my every move. I'm so painfully aware of everything that's happening that my mind isn't able to focus on the task at hand.

Instead, leave me settled in a secluded corner accompanied only by some good music, and I'll produce amazing work.

Mr. Darcy Murphy • 14 January 2009 • 04:01 PM

I wholeheartedly agree with the findings of the study. Apart from my home office, I have yet to NOT work in an open environment. The most outstanding work i've done to date has happened either at home, or very early in the morning when no one is in the office yet.

I worked for a global ad agency recently and the Internet department had just adopted an "open floor plan". It was one of the worst environments I'd ever been in, considering the level of jackassery you find in that business. What's worse, they're moving the whole office into a new building and EVERYONE will be working that way.

If offices aren't a possibility, I recommend the mid-height (4-ft?) cube walls. Those lend enough privacy to your space that it took lots of the edge off from the day-to-day nonsense.

Rob • 15 January 2009 • 08:01 AM

We have a rather open layout—a hip/rustic worn brick loft style place, with "cubes" made of gappy roughly hewn planks. While it looks fantastic and cool, you can hear anything and more importantly *everything* that is said. The noise is horrific, yet the layout is lauded as it is "office buzz" and "aids in communication." I will say calling meetings is generally a lot easier, but really the only answer you get when you mention the noise levels is "can't you put your headphones on?" I like music, but I'm not sure Wilco have a song that cancels out all outside noise and allow me to concentrate.

The layout, as mentioned, has some supposed benefit for Scrum setups, but I have to say I doubt the process would suffer from a few closed offices.

Perhaps the worst aspect isn't speech, but less than controllable aspects. You can hear the rack servers—loudly—from anywhere in the office. When the grounds people reprogram alarms or crank up the leaf blowers just outside the door, the sounds reverberate around the space. And worst of all, dogs are allowed and almost encouraged, which leads to some days being filled with amplified barking.

Hardly conducive to focus.

gb • 15 Jan 2009 • 01:01 PM