Do open plan offices really work?

  By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com

• It was common practice in Madison Avenue well into the 00s to give every employee their own office.
• Not only senior execs, some mid-level and junior ones got one too.
• At Y&R, for instance, even art director + copywriter teams had each a separate office.
• Contiguous most of the time, but separate.
• Nests of various shapes and sizes with family photos, travel souvenirs, tchothckes, the works.
• I can’t say I saw people drinking scotch at their desks but I am pretty sure that a lot of power napping took place.
• Some were tiny, just little holes in the wall.
• Others were huge and airy, probably larger than the average New York apartment.
• The good old days.
• Speaking of which: I read an article once about this big shot who dwelled in a cavernous SoHo loft.
• He was an unabashed womanizer, he had no qualms at admitting that his loft was a bachelor pad carefully designed to “entertain”.
• In fact, he described it as a “big bedroom that happens to have a kitchen in it”.
• I don’t necessary approve of his lifestyle, which I found to be a possible manifestation of deep sexual insecurities.
• However, his candor was refreshing and the analogy he used to describe his abodes was an insightful figure of speech.
• At least he didn’t sugarcoat his intentions.
• He didn’t beat around the bush.
• He told it like it is.
• Which brings us to “open plan offices”.
• Nothing new, I know.
• Chiat Day spearheaded the movement in the mid 90s.*
• They’ve been around for quite some time.
• Silicon Valley loooooves them.
• Facebook, Google, Apple operate from huge open plan office HQs.
• They’re all about collaboration.
• The new buzzword.
• Really?
• Are open plan offices truly about teamwork?
• Or are they a management maneuver to monitor and control the comings and goings of staff?
• The same way a big loft is just the owner’s oversize bedroom I tend to believe that open plan office spaces are simply an oversize CEO office where you happen to crash during business hours for the duration of your employment.
• An office the size of his or her ego.
• The advantages are clear.
• Saves a lot of squandered square footage.
• And it’s cheaper than installing CCTV cameras in every office.
• Not to mention less intimidating.
• Big brotherhood with a hoodie and Birkenstocks.
• It’s Mark Zuckerberg’s world, we just live in it.
• To be continued next week.

* The inventor of the open office: the story of the man who came up with the idea to tear down cubicle walls.