Office Design – Enclosed Offices vs. Cube Farm
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Office Types:
- Enclosed Offices
- Open Space Concept
- Cubicle Farms
- Alternative
Why Getting Out of Offices is Great:
- More and better communication amongst team members
- More direct contact – you end up knowing people better
- Space can be modified quickly and easily
- Usually people have more access to natural light
- Some companies have found it reduces cost because you can put more cubes per floor than offices. (Cisco reduced costs by 37%)
- It’s harder for employees to slack off
Why it Sucks:
- Reinforces negative notions of hierarchy when some are in cubes, and others in offices
- It’s not possible to close a door for privacy
- Meeting in your “office” is more difficult
- Constant noise and disturbances
- To do it well, isn’t really any cheaper than building offices
- It lowers morale and productivity
- Unless the work environment requires a high level of interaction with others, the lack of privacy is a distraction that negatively impacts productivity
Making it Work:
- Over communicate any office-space change. This is a very big deal to people
- Be very clear about your reasons for making a change, and make sure you consider the pro’s and con’s
- You need much more meeting space in an open concept than with offices
- Hire someone to help you through the transition
- Ensure white-noise
- If you go open – everyone must go, from the CEO on down
- Research it well – there is no shortage of information arguing both for and against open office space
One Solution:
- If employees spend the majority of their time working individually, put them in offices
- If employees spend a great deal of time collaborating, put them in an open office configuration. Perhaps in offices of four to eight people.
- If you want you employees to spend most of their time reading Dilbert, put them in cubicles.
Last Word from Robert Probst:
- Before his death, the inventor of the cubicle apologized for his contribution to “monolithic insanity”
Learn More About ‘Office Design’
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- Listen to the ‘Office Design’ Podcast (15 minutes)
- Download the ‘Office Design’ Audio (mp3)
- Download the ‘Office Design’ Slides (ppt)
- Print or save the ‘Office Design’ Cheat Sheet (pdf)
- Click through to Related Topics:
- Time and Priority Management
- Tools to Lead Change
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Become a Wily Manager member and get instant access to even more information about Office Design. And don’t forget to sign up for our FREEManagement Cheat Sheet Collection