In my current position, this is a new experience for me as I have never worked in an open office space before and the article is spot on in describing its effects (as they relate to me). I consider myself to be a high-producer who is focused and effective, however I find my current work space to be stressful, noisy, counter-productive, and distruptive to my attention span. To be honest, I struggle the most with having a simple private phone call. There are very limited spaces for anyone to take or make a phone call and I find myself getting very frustrated with trying to call my doctor for a prescription or even calling my husband to have a quick midday chat. The idea of an open office environment for collaboration is nice, but in order to be effective, businesses should limit open work spaces for small team discussions and collaboration rather than cube spaces for every worker.
This phrase from the article sums up my perspective pretty well ... "researchers found that the ability to control the environment had a significant effect on team cohesion and satisfaction".
The Open-Office Trap
What do you think?
