Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 20:40:32 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] Open-plan offices were devised by Satan in the deepest caverns of
 hell
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

But would upper management listen to us? Nooo, it's the Latest Fad In
Abusing Employees....

Excerpt:
In case you still needed persuading that open-plan offices were devised b=
y
Satan himself in one of the deepest caverns of hell, the Harvard Business=

Review delves into new research showing just how frustrating people find
them =96 and just how paltry, on the other side of the scale, are the
benefits they bring. Using data from surveys of 42,700 American office
workers, researchers Jungsoo Kim and Richard de Dear conclude that it=92s=

not other people=92s mess that bothers us the most, nor lack of personal
space, nor even noise level per se, so much as a =93lack of sound privacy=
=94 =96
hearing other people=92s conversations, and perhaps equally crucially,
knowing that other people can hear yours.

Anyone who=92s experienced the paralysing self-consciousness of trying to=

conduct a sensitive phone call in the knowledge that four or five
colleagues can follow every word won't be surprised by the results: almos=
t
60% of cubicle workers and half of all those in fully open-plan offices
cited lack of sound privacy as a frustration, making it the most prevalen=
t
annoyance by far. That cubicle-dwellers are even more likely to be
bothered than their =93partition-less=94 colleagues suggests it=92s even =
worse
when you can=92t see who=92s talking =96 or who might be listening in.

We already know that open-plan offices have been associated with less
persistence at challenging tasks, lower motivation, higher stress and
blood pressure, and more. But Kim and Dear=92s work, published in the
December 2013 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology, puts paid=

to any suggestion that the benefits of easy communication between workers=

=96 effortless exchange of information, useful chance conversations spark=
ing
new ideas =96 outweighs these irritations.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/18/open-plan-offices-bad-harvar=
d-business-review>

      mark