The last years I have seen a growing number of open office spacing and better yet office spaces that have been adapted to the working together and collaboration we nowadays need. But what can we say about open office space, is it good for the productivity or collaboration?
Well it is a know fact that the productivity for many individuals takes a small hit because of the growing number of distractions in an open office space. I guess here we can also find some compensation for the higher level of being checked by your surroundings and you cannot sit and do your facebook all day without getting at least some eyes pointed at you. However in general I believe that for work where concentration is required there is a big loss. I can recognise myself that if I really need to get some work done I actually work from home as it would be impossible to sit at my desk for 1 to 2 hours without being called for something else.
Personally I have always believed that the loss in productivity is somehow compensated by a higher collaboration with my colleagues as it must be easier to find collaboration and reaching out for a quick discussion is easier albeit also a distraction. Now the interesting part is that Harvard has recently published a study that debunks this fact as research has shown that there is on average less collaboration and in fact people resort to emailing their colleagues in the open space as they do not want to disturb the others or the message is not for everybody’s ears. So if collaboration is not really improved then why do companies opt for open spaces?
Maybe the most cynical answer would be that it is most likely the most cost efficient option from a spacing and rental point of view. If this would be the logic from the facility departments in the companies that opt for this then it would of course require a bigger discussion as the lower rental cost might not be the only thing that should be looked into. If the productivity takes a hit and maybe the collaboration would not be improved then maybe this is not the best option. The reality is however that both productivity and collaboration does not hit the P&L as explicitly as the rental cost and it takes therefore a visionary leap of faith to do something else than all other companies. One thing that could be said though is that working from home is actually cheaper and you can still email your colleagues like you do in the open space but that is maybe also not the way to go all of the time.
