B2 reading: The trouble with open-plan offices

1 When open-plan offices became fashionable, the promise was clear. Take down the walls, put everyone in one large room, and people will talk more, share ideas and work better together. Managers liked the idea for another reason too: without separate rooms, a company could fit more desks into less space and cut its rent.

2 Decades later, the open-plan office is everywhere, from banks to start-ups. Yet many of the people who work in them are far from enthusiastic. Surveys regularly put noise at the top of employees' complaints, closely followed by a lack of privacy. "It's impossible to concentrate when three people around you are on the phone," says Lee, a software developer who works in an office of more than two hundred people. "Half the team wears headphones all day, which rather defeats the object."

3 Research suggests that Lee's experience is common. In one well-known study, researchers followed employees at two companies before and after they moved from traditional offices into open-plan spaces. Rather than talking more, the employees spent around seventy per cent less time in face-to-face conversations, and sent considerably more emails and messages. The researchers concluded that when people feel constantly watched, they tend to withdraw rather than open up.

4 That does not mean the old model of private offices and long corridors was perfect. Closed offices can make managers seem distant, and they can slow down simple decisions, since a quick question becomes a formal meeting. What many workers seem to want is not a return to the past but a choice.

5 This is the idea behind so-called activity-based working. Instead of having a fixed desk, employees choose where to work according to what they are doing. A quiet zone, where phone calls and conversations are not allowed, is used for work that needs deep concentration. Small rooms can be booked for calls or private conversations, while larger shared areas are kept for team work and informal meetings. Some companies that have tried this approach report fewer complaints about noise and better use of space.

6 Critics point out, however, that activity-based working can become another way of saving money. If a company provides only eight desks for every ten employees, on the assumption that some will be at home or in meetings, people who arrive late may find nowhere to sit. Others dislike having no place of their own for a family photo or a plant.

7 Perhaps the real lesson is that no single design suits every task or every person. A salesperson who spends the day on the phone and a writer who needs silence have very different needs. The most successful offices may be the ones that recognise this, and that ask their employees what they need before the builders arrive.