Open Plan Offices - The new ways of working. The advantages and disadvantages of open office space

KEY FINDINGS Open office spaces are introduced for the following reason: - Saving costs on real estate. Real estate expenses are the second largest costs for a company. By creating more workplaces in the same amount of square meters costs can be reduced on buildings and maintenance. - Increase communication. If people are in closer proximity from one another and move around freely communication will increase. - Improve team work. As teams are now sharing the same space knowledge sharing will increase both within the same team and across different teams. The following arguments oppose the introduction of open office spaces: - Loss of productivity. Employees are distracted faster because of noise or colleagues moving around. It takes on average 25 minutes to resume a task after distraction. In an open office space employees are distracted faster because of phone calls, people walking by or nearby conversations. - Problems with noise, temperature and fatigue. As said before, noise is one of the main distractions in an open office space. Temperature is managed centrally and it could therefore be too cold of one person and too warm for another. Fatigue is a side effect from noise and temperature and the fact that people have a constant overload of information with the introduction of multiple screens like phone, tablets and computer. - Increase of sickness. As employees are in closer proximity of one another diseases can spread faster. The spread of diseases raise the amount of sick days taken in a company. - Decrease of overall well-being of employees. The main cause for the diminishing of well-being is the level of stress. The idea of being watched all the time increases the levels of stress in an open office space.