Open-plan workplaces make people sick

It’s Official: Open-Plan Offices are Now the Dumbest Management Fad of All Time” says columnist Geoffrey James in a 2018 Inc. post that went viral.

In the 1950s, open-plan offices, where groups of people share the same space, were designed literally to knock down walls that supposedly hinder communication, thus enhancing productivity and innovation. And in no small part, because fewer walls mean fewer costs, open-plan offices have become the norm worldwide.

But the promise does not live up to the hype, as confirmed in a 2018 study by Harvard’s Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban.

READ: Working long hours does not equate to productivity

Rather than increasing face-to-face communication, the open setup actually hampers it.

“Contrary to common belief, the volume of face-to-face interaction decreased significantly (approximately 70 percent) … with an associated increase in electronic interaction,” they said.

Our human desire for privacy is fundamental. If thwarted by open workspaces, then employees shift to other ways to preserve privacy, such as sending emails.

Open offices are often “overstimulating,” said Bernstein and Turban, harming focus and decreasing productivity. Many employees wear earphones while working to protect against noise.

Distractions are not just aural though—visual ones are harder to deal with.

“Myriad unavoidable distractors can come into an employee’s field of vision, causing their concentration to falter and their eyes to avert [to] their screens,” said Ian McRae and Adrian Furnham in the book, “Myths of Work.”

“On average, workers will be distracted every 11 minutes during their day. This makes it (even) harder to multitask and focus, especially while reading or writing.”

Worst of all, open-plan offices literally make people sick.

A national survey of more than 2,000 office employees in Denmark concluded that “occupants sharing an office and occupants in open-plan offices had significantly more days of sickness absence than occupants in cellular offices [with one person in the room].”

Jan Pejtersen, Helene Feveile, Karl Christensen and Herman Burr in Copenhagen’s National Research Centre for the Working Environment gave troubling data: “Sickness absence was significantly related to having a greater number of occupants in the office … Compared to cellular offices, occupants in 2-person offices had 50 percent more days of sickness absence … occupants in 3-6-person offices had 36 percent more days of sickness absence … and occupants in open-plan offices (>6 persons) had 62 percent more days of sickness absence.”

The study was conducted in 2011, way before the pandemic. As we struggled to adjust to the new normal, companies began using Plexiglas or even plastic wrap as dividers to contain the spread in the office, often to little avail.

“People are aware of the risk of germs in the restroom, but areas like break rooms have not received the same degree of attention,” microbiologist Charles Gerba told Vanity Fair in 2020.

In 2012, Gerba and his colleagues studied the speed with which a virus can contaminate an average office. More than half of commonly touched surfaces were contaminated within four hours, and all were compromised at the end of the day.

In the 1970s, employees in the US were allotted 500 to 700 square feet per person. Due to the popularity of open plans and cubicles, in 2010, the average was 225, plummeting to 200 in 2020, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After the pandemic, “people … want more space,” said business reporter Rani Molla in Vox.

“That could mean more private spaces or personal offices for individuals, and more distance between desks. Rather than desk setups that face each other or are right next to each other, we might now be positioned to our colleague’s backs with more space between us. A conference room that normally fit 10 people might now only hold chairs for five. Expect greater spacing and fewer seating options in communal areas like kitchens as well,” she said.

In short, a reversal of the open-plan workplace.

Queena N. Lee-Chua is with the board of directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or the ebook at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at [email protected].