Our mgmt is convinced that an open layout will help the company because it breaks down silos and creates an open environment for better collaboration. There are 2500 workers at HQ with about 100-200 per floor. We also have 8 buildings. They want to squeeze us all in 6 buildings with an open layout. And not all is engineering - even program managers, project managers, regular managers, IT, customer focals will be mixed in due to losing 2 buildings. It has been only rolled out to 1 floor in 1 building and we already had a fist fight break out. No joke. Apparently one coworker was being too loud when talking to a customer on the phone ( most likely oversees ) and the other could not stand it. Sighs.
Fist fight? Do tell more:)
No
Cut the "collaboration" b.s. Your mgmt does this cause it's cheaper and they want to WATCH you all. That's it.
Bingo!
It is bullshit. Open office save $ in rent. Collaboration actually decreases.
There are many recent serious research studies showing that actually open layout decreases the collbaration significantly. People tend to talk less to teammates due to the exact reasons of the fist fight that talking to people in open office may interfere others. Also, they tend to be less relaxed and more stressfull overall because bosses/coworkers/even 'strangers' from different teams are sitting/watching nearby. Open office is not a great replacement of individual offices in terms of work productivity, but is 100% great to save rentals.
It depends on how it's done. We have open office at most building at Amazon but it has walls / partitions. So basically 10-12 people sit in one section and this way most apart from a few unlucky sods get to sit with a wall / window next / behind them. It's better than full cubicles as I hate the quietness it encourages.
Reasons not to open plan: - collaboration - team building - breaking silos - fostering communication Reasons for open plan: - cram more workers into smaller space where you can monitor their ass-in-seat time more efficiently.
Main points have already been made, but I chuckled when you said it would "break down silos." Organizational silos are unrelated to and likely exacerbated in a negative way by that layout - what tribal manager will seriously be suddenly open to cross-pollination just because the walls are gone? Lol if anything they'll be less trusting
This is lip-service and 'bias for action' in action! Offices are better for everything!
It’s coming to our office. I think overall it will be good. Short cube walls keep employees honest.
OCI already has open layout.
This is news to me. Which campus?