Digital correspondence rose almost as much as chatting in person fell, according to their study published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.īut this sharp drop in human interaction may be due to the style of open office observed in the study, which offers clues into what managers should consider when designing the best workspace for their employees. Employees made up for the lost chatter by turning to online communications (email and instant messaging). Though the sample size is small, the team found open office layouts dramatically cut employees’ face-to-face conversations at these companies - by as much as 70 percent. Now, two behavior researchers from Harvard University have tackled this problem head on, by directly measuring more than 100,000 face-to-face conversations at two Fortune 500 companies - before and after their global headquarters switched to open office layouts. But while open offices have existed since the mid-1960s, there is little evidence to support these widespread claims - and some surveys show the opposite: declines in employee satisfaction and productivity. Like bees in a hive, the theory goes, it should promote social intelligence. The basic logic behind the open offices is that tearing down physical barriers inspires communication and collective creativity. The contrast showcases the divided feelings inherent to open office layouts. But catty-corner from me, our news assistant works in complete peace, undistracted by the exposure to it all.

I feel like someone is constantly creeping up on my workstation, and the softest chatter from across the room makes the hairs on my neck tense up.

Don’t tell my boss, but our open office is slowly driving me nuts.

Openoffice space between table