Contents 1 next to the keyboard 2, “walks Works alone” 3 “A single room can also make it quite lonely at the top” On a page to read
celebrating The large office, as most know it today, this year, its 60. Birthday. In 1958, the German furniture manufacturer, Wolfgang and Eberhard Schnelle, a so-called “office landscape”. Instead of the previously usual Desk offices for executives series for employees and the individual you outsourced the space to work and communication because of: plants and room dividers from separating the sections from each other. Today, such office to be landscapes rather Open-Space Office. Not only Tech companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft to create single rooms for the most part and replace it with open office areas for team work, spaces for Meetings and Seating areas. Also, traditional German companies such as Lufthansa, Adidas and Siemens are experimenting with the concept. In April of this year, Commerzbank has moved its Berlin headquarters to a new building. Unlike on the old site there will be hardly any separate offices and fixed desks and more. Instead, the employees will search for a place. This is the future of the world of work – or just awful? Here are two author’s are arguing inside on whether open plan offices are a disgrace. Or even more democratic and inclusive than the single room.
“open-plan offices are good for the company – but not for those who sit in it,” says Lydia Krüger.
The biggest Fans of open-plan offices are the ones that don’t have to work for it. Because if in a company, the first plans are forged, the employees on an area caged up, calling for the managers themselves to be individual offices. Why? Quite simply, open-plan offices are a disgrace.
Lydia Krüger
has worked for years as a journalist at the table Islands and now enjoys her home office. In a Job you sat in a single office with doors to the neighboring offices, which was also quite good.
From a business perspective, there are good reasons for the open spaces. An Argument is, to save on expensive rental space. Because the use of space in the office is more flexible: there is also a new Intern, is simply a table. And even if Teams re-organise itself, or there is a new project, is it easier to rebuild. Some of the companies and may even lead to a rotation principle, in which not every employee gets a permanent job. Shared Desk that is then, or Clean Desk, if the employees have to search every day a new place. Thus, the company can distribute the places of employees who are on vacation or in a home office to other. Plus: In the office the boss has all employees.
The official reason why large offices are to be introduced, of course, is quite different: Shorter communication paths! Community! Teamwork! The glorification of the Teams started with the Internet: the networking of people around the world impressive Open-Source-projects like Wikipedia, Linux or Mozilla. Suddenly, the swarm was considered the last word on the subject. And it is true: The virtual network that spans the world, is impressive and innovative and has shown what can be achieved by team work. But that means that you break down in the real world, walls and privacy must be abolished? A wall is not only a barrier, but also a protection – something that creates structure and safety.
Complex, creative work that requires silence
Ironically, the sizes of the Internet loner: from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg. Steve Wozniak designed the prototypes of the Apple computer alone in the Cubicle to his employer, Hewlett-Packard. (Cubicles are mainly in the USA, widespread Kabuffs, the performance in studies is even worse than the office.) “The Woz” made in a huge office at its heart the project, however, outside of work hours, as no one could interfere.
That of all creative people need constant replacement, is a myth. You especially need to rest. Just mental work, when it comes to solving complex problems, to be creative and to make decisions, requires concentration. Wozniak praises in his memoirs, the productivity of the alone working. The only way to keep control over the result. And anyway, never anything Revolutionary by any Commission, had been invented.
If there are many people sitting in a room, but suffers from not only the concentration, but also the health: viruses and bacteria spread faster. Anyone who works in the office, report sick more often – researchers at the University of Lucerne found in a study of 1,230 workers out. While half of the in a single office-working respondents who have within one year, and never due to illness, missed, were it in office from 16 persons 30 percent.
the volume of the noise in the office can’t be good for the health: it is measurements show that on average between 60 and 70 decibels. For comparison: A vacuum cleaner at one Meter distance brings it to 70 decibels. One often sees employees with headphones or even earmuffs to sit in front of the computer. Who wants to use the phone, withdraws in the best case, in a specially designed sound-insulated phone booth, in the worst case, go to the bathroom. The person can get used to a uniform background noise such as street traffic, but in the office there is this one Person with the piercing voice and the human ear is on language processing has been trimmed, you can hide talks bad. Unwanted noise leads to Annoyance, Stress, sleep disorders and impaired cognitive performance. The researchers from the centre for cardiology of the Mainz University medical center found. In the worst case, could cause noise to seizures, high blood pressure and stroke, they write.