The Economist May 1st 2021 pp57 |Business|Bartleby| “When the boss is behind you” “The costs of office-less executives outweigh the benefits”
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No surprise to anyone having to work in an office with an open design, Bartleby and no doubt countless others are highlighting the shortcomings and the ultimate motive for employing such a design. The initial idea of an open office design was that such a workplace layout would foster more collaboration amongst workers and managers on the same and different teams. What most have experienced though is a set of unintended consequences ranging from “babble of others talking can make it hard to concentrate”, stifling the creativity of some and that “managers may find themselves constantly being approached by team members with questions and problems for them to solve.” In a natural response to such an environment, free of cubicle enclosures or offices, people have resorted to putting up walls in other ways, like wearing noise-cancelling headphones, using oft-putting facial expressions or “curt replies to questions” when approached on an ad-hoc basis. Anecdotal for sure but “studies of open-plan offices have shown that they do not create the hoped-for collaborative effects” with one study suggesting that “face-to-face interactions fell by 70%.”
So, the idea surfacing now that C-suite executives join in the hotdesking trend practiced by Reed Hastings (Netflix) and others is likely to raise eyebrows. How will executives have frequently-needed confidential discussions out in the open? And will there be a daily jockeying for position by staffers and managers to sit by or even as far away as possible from executives? And how will having executives pop-in to hot desk have on the usual office banter, socialization and cross-fertilzation of ideas to the extent that remains?
What is true, top floor C-suites and corner offices are expensive, and often are unoccupied as executives travel frequently. So, removing dedicated executive offices, as HSBC plans, and replacing them with more conference space makes some sense-save money and create more reservable space for face-to-face and video conferences for staff and executive teams. Bartleby notes “in practice, the main benefit for companies of adopting an open-plan design is to save money by cramming more employees in the same space.” “This explains the willingness of some companies to allow working from home.” “HSBC will have 1,200 staff, mainly in call centres, [work from home] permanently. And changes in their executive-office shift “is part of a plant that aims to save 40% of head-office costs.”