These days, as more and more companies favour open-space designs over arranging separate rooms of work, people question whether this planning of office space is actually beneficial for the employees. This essay will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of open-space design.
On the one hand, there are plenty of advantages that come with implementing this design. First of all, it results in more communication between the workers. This is crucial because this contributes to a friendlier working environment, boosts employees’ productivity and engagement. Workers learn how collaborate and work as a team, developing their social skills. Furthermore, companies prefer open-space planning as it is cheaper than making separate rooms for the employees.
On the other hand, not all people enjoy working in this kind of environment. Not so extraverted could feel uncomfortable as they are distracted from doing their job and rather focus on how they look or what they do so that no one will find them weird. This is why being able to communicate and collaborate is a common requirement to get hired to work for most companies. However, constant talking could also interrupt others, and the employees should find balance between communicating and working.
To sum up, it takes time for everyone to get along with each other, before that the atmosphere might be pressuring. But from my point of view, sooner or later advantages are bound to outweigh the disadvantages.