A pair of Fast Company editors debate the office space that defines their days
Maybe you spend your workdays inside a wood-paneled, book-lined chamber with your feet propped up on a Cadillac-size desk. But probably not. These days, you're more likely to toil in a huge communal room packed with rows of keyboard-tapping, phone-yakking colleagues. To some, this is a fantastic development, allowing for easier collaboration and smoother workflow. For others, it signifies the death of privacy, concentration, and dignity.
Who's right?
Jason Feifer: We both work at desks that sit out in a large, open-air pit. But we're across the floor from each other, so let me tell you what I see: The colleagues who are nearest to me are all silent, with their earphones on. I witness an inability to concentrate, a lack of privacy, and absent sense of ownership. But the business community insists this is good for me.
Supposedly, by all of us being mushed together, we're to form a beating heart of collaboration. And yet, because we're sitting together, we're doing everything we can to create the sense that we're apart. It's incontrovertible proof, that the open-office movement has the opposite of its intended effect. It's time for the business world to admit this and spare employees the condescension: Open offices may save money, but they're not for employees' benefit.
Anjali Mullany: I think the success of an open office depends in large part on what kind of work one does. Though we are both editors, we do different jobs. It would not make sense to assume that the same office layout is going to work just as well for both of us. Where I sit, we don't wear headphones very often, and my team interacts a lot. When we do wear headphones, we take it as a sign that the person doesn't want to be disturbed unless it's urgent. The system works.
Vocabulary Focus
communal adj.
belonging to or used by a group of people rather than one single person
mushed v.
to squeeze people or things together into a tight space
incontrovertible adj.
impossible to doubt because obviously true
condescension n.
behavior which shows that you consider yourself to be better or more intelligent than other people
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