Why your open office isn’t working for employees—and how to fix it
After eighteen months sequestered at home, many employees don’t covet modern, open-concept offices as they once did.
By now, it’s become clear employees have strong feelings about remote work—namely, many of them prefer it. There’s a particularly noticeable gap in generational opinions, with younger employees eager to stay home indefinitely.
Meanwhile, 72% of more than 1,100 surveyed American adults are ready to return to the office and 70% of business leaders plan to have employees back in the office to some degree. So how do we bridge the divide/?
Why we have open offices, and why they’re problematic
Before the pandemic, co-working companies like WeWork reigned supreme. The concept of open office setups made sense in theory: when we ditch cubicle walls and closed-off offices, we foster creativity and collaboration. The open flow of conversation is made possible at every turn. These were, we thought at the time, the workplaces of the future.
But after eighteen months sequestered at home, many employees don’t covet modern, open-concept offices as they once did—and for good reason. Here are a few:
1. Health and safety concerns
Navigating COVID-19 made us all more cognizant of how easily germs travel from person to person. Many employees have lingering, valid concerns about the potential risks of close-proximity work with their teammates. Without cubicles or closed doors, open offices don’t offer much in the way of seclusion from our coworkers’ germs—and as COVID’s variants continue to spread, many employees are fearful of returning to open-office workspaces.
2. Barriers to focused productivity
Open offices were built to encourage the constant flow of collaboration and brainstorming among teammates—which is wonderful in theory, but potentially distracting in practice. For employees whose roles require complete focus, the inability to enter a private space where one can go undisturbed can be detrimental. For employees who prefer to work—and are most efficient—in isolation, returning to an open office can feel counter-productive.
3. Interruptions and noise
Perhaps the key benefit of working from home is the complete control employees have over their work environment. They’re the masters of the thermostat, the lighting and the snacks stocked in the fridge. And perhaps most importantly, they control the noise. Whether you focus best listening to classical music, world news or absolute silence, the choice is left to you. In an open office, by contrast, employees must find a way to focus amidst office chatter and unplanned interruptions—and this kind of open-office noise has been shown to increase negative moods by at least 25%. This boosts workday stress considerably—and, in turn, impacts team members’ performance and wellbeing.
Finding a happy medium
With employers eager to reunite their teams and employees split on how to reenter the in-person workforce, how do we bridge the divide? Leaders want to foster team culture and collaboration, and employees want the freedom to work how they’re most comfortable.
Motivating team members to return to open-office floorplans requires accommodation and flexibility to ensure every employee has the resources they need to be happy and productive at work. This can start with offering remote-work options, so employees who prefer their at-home setups feel supported and heard. And in the moments when teams are required to show up in-person, adjustments can be made to make open-office arrangements feel a bit more private and manageable.
To foster productivity and focus, team leaders can consider quiet breakout rooms for group meetings, to minimize open-floorplan chatter and noise. Call rooms where employees can jump on the phone not only offer privacy for conferences, but reduce distractions in the main workspace. And at-the-desk solutions like ergonomic desk domes alter employees’ individual workspaces to make them feel more private and protected, replicating the experience of at-home work.
Many companies are pushing their return-to-office dates to 2022, which gives us all a little more time to find in-office solutions that work for diverse teams full of varying preferences. But to make employees feel heard, valued, and respected, physical adaptations to workspaces can go a long way. It’s time for leaders to be proactive toward making their employees feel safe, comfortable, and motivated to get back to the office.
Barry Carson is CEO of MojoDesk.