The Problems With The Office
Did you know that the cubicle was created in 1967 because studies showed that a completely open office with no privacy actually reduced communication between employees? Open plan offices have actually been called the “dumbest management fad of all time,” and yet they still persist. Is it because they’re the most cost effective use of corporate real estate or is it that making workers more visible to each other should on its face generate more collaboration? Yet the opposite has been proven true. So why would someone want to leave, what in many cases may amount to a private office in their home, to try and work from a place that is full of distractions?
The biggest complaint of those that have returned to the office is that it can be difficult to find quiet places to work in the office. With there being even more calls taking place at desks, 61% of people claim loud colleagues as their biggest distraction. Work done by Sabine Kastner, a professor at Princeton who studies visual perception, attention, and awareness, shows that for many an open office can make it nearly impossible to concentrate as our brains are drawn to visual movement. So while you will see lots of headphones in the current open office, there’s no way for workers to easily block out visual distractions.
Since the main purpose of return-to-office mandates is to promote increased collaboration and the sharing of information, teams frequently schedule meetings for in-office days, which leads to a greater demand for meeting rooms and areas dedicated to collaboration. In addition, 80% of employees encounter wasted time because of technical challenges during online meetings. With less than 10% of conference rooms globally even being equipped for web conferencing and 88% of meetings having at least one remote participant, it’s a wonder we even still call most of them “conference” rooms! According to one respondent to a survey by XY Sense, “I won’t force my team to come in if there is no place for us to get our work done.” Another respondent said, “even though our rate of occupancy is lower than before the pandemic, our meeting room demand is now higher than ever. The biggest complaint I get is that the mandate is supposed to encourage more collaboration, but on some days there is nowhere to collaborate!”
So is the office itself the main problem with convincing employees to return to the office? Why would an office worker choose to work in a place full of distractions that isn’t actually conducive to getting his or her work done and doesn’t have the actual space or tools needed to collaborate with colleagues? Can we create an office environment that solves these problems and increases productivity and efficiency?