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Original poster

Open plan offices for academics

70 replies

Poofus · 15/10/2015 15:25

My whole department is being threatened with being moved into a massive open plan office, with 65 people, with desks in "cubicles" (not fully walled off from the open space). I think it sounds horrendous and am panicking, but I'd love to hear of others' experiences. Does anyone work in this kind of layout? Any tips or thoughts on how to cope with this?

OP posts:
BigSmileForTheCamera · 15/10/2015 17:14

Sorry, that's not very supportive to OP, is it? I wonder if there is any scope for exceptions based on nature of research being carried out? I'm sure there will be provision for side rooms for pastoral care though.

MultiShirking · 15/10/2015 17:37

Well I'd have thought some research by an acknowledged expert about the problems with open plan offices would be very useful for the OP.

Husbanddoestheironing · 15/10/2015 17:52

Yes but I expect the university powers that be won't be interested in any of the research that has found people are less productive in open-plan offices because it won't support their view (or is that just the case where I work?!) I would feel sorry for my colleagues having to listen to me explaining a calculation for the 150th time by the 4th week of term. IMO open plan offices for academics only works where there are spare rooms available at all times to use for upset students, or even just students who don't want everyone to know how bad their essay was, and most HE establishments don't have this. Bit mad when it ends up actually more private to sit and talk in the canteen. Also how do you write exam papers securely when lots of students are in and out all the time, walking past desks, pcs etc?

TooMuchRain · 15/10/2015 18:02

I'm sorry if I sounded unsupportive OP, I just meant that I couldn't work effectively in that situation. I think it is terrible that they could leave you without space for your books and notes etc. - surely they know that not everything is/can be digitised.

I don't understand the thing about good behaviour, I don't think I behave badly in my office Confused and nor do I get the arguments that other people work in poor conditions, why would that legitimise making more people work in poor conditions?

StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 18:33

Op is there no process for you to feed your questions and concerns in m

Booboostwo · 15/10/2015 19:06

I was in an open plan office with 7 other colleagues. One was a research fellow, she wore earplugs and got on with it. The other six were admin staff and had to talk to Escher and on the phone a lot - it was a nightmare for me.

Pastoral care was impossible and you never know why a student might turn up to see you or what might come up in a discussion. We were supposed to have a room for meetings but it soon turned into a cupboard for QA files. Doing anything that required concentration like writing, preparing lectures, reading or marking was impossible.

My desk was right by the door so I often had to give directions to people who were lost or have to take notes for people who were absent.

Booboostwo · 15/10/2015 19:06

They had to talk to each other, I have no idea who Escher is!

ibbydibby · 15/10/2015 19:55

Where I work was built as open plan office. (new building in not so new university).

It has now been partitioned into smaller offices, as the open plan-ness didn't work.

Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:11

Thanks v much for all the comments, and the link to research - all very helpful!

Believe it or not, I'm at a well-respected research-intensive place. I'm not sure how the management thinks we get research done, as we have very little time, facilities or support for it, but REF 2020 is very much on everyone's minds. I do worry though, that MultiShirking says, that open plan is likely to be counter-productive for REF. And surely a drop in research income would make the move to open plan not so cost-saving after all...

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 20:18

What makes research specifically so unsuited to open plan working?

Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:41

What makes research specifically so unsuited to open plan working?

Well, first the need for real quiet I guess. I spend a lot of my (limited) research time just thinking and reading, and that's hard to do in a room with 65 people. Plus the need not to be overheard/overlooked if research is on a sensitive matter that can't really be shared with many other people.

But, in space terms, also the need for lots of books and papers (I currently have about 300 books in my office), as well as files of material in the case of my research. With no permanent desk, no shelves, no cupboards, what do we do with all of that stuff? Not to mention student-related documents, many of which are confidential - but that's not research.

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 20:43

But there are plenty of jobs in open plan offices thay require thinking and working on sensitive data. I suspect it's about careful positioning of desks, ie not mixing the people whose work mainly involves sitting and thinking with people whose jobs require them to be on the phone a lot.

Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:46

I guess I think of research as not something I can do in 20 minutes here and an hour or so there. I need sustained quiet for several hours in order to do anything worthwhile. I have an image of a shared office as a place where people will always be popping past, saying hi, starting conversations, phones will be ringing, people will be eating, seeing students...there will be noise.

Also each cubicle is only going to be about 2m wide, so where do we put anything while doing research? I have large numbers of papers etc all spread out across my office while I'm doing some of my research. And that's without even mentioning the problem of storage of all that paper! Am I supposed to take it with me everyday on my journey to work (via 3 different forms of transport)?

OP posts:
Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:47

But they're not assigning us desks. It will be hot desks. So I don't think it will be the same on a day-to-day basis.

OP posts:
Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:49

Maybe I'm just getting old and not keen on change! But I think this is going to be very tricky indeed. And not positive for either staff, or students. And perhaps not even cost-saving.

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 20:55

" . I need sustained quiet for several hours in order to do anything worthwhile."
Yes me too. I don't actually mind a little noise and bustle around me, I can work vert effectively on a train . I can't cope with broken up days other than to squeeze in some small jobs and admin if I have 'proper' work to do I need to know I can get in the zone at x o clock and won't be disturbed again for the rest of the day. Everyone's different I suppose.
Your blocks of time would have been just as broken up by students before, presumably, unless you used to shut your door.

Original poster
Poofus · 15/10/2015 20:56

Yes I used to shut my door! Grin

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 20:58

Ooh well you need an equivalent. A sign or a blanket over your head or something :o
You also need to cultivate a persona of being someone you don't bother without good reason.

MultiShirking · 15/10/2015 21:06

I don't think it's reasonable or sustainable to ecpect you to do research under those conditions, Poofus. If you don't have a permanent desk where do you keep research materis, notes, books, papers,? Or student files? Or teaching materials? I'd be scattering stuff over considerably more space than a 2m cubicle.

Where's the union in this?

BigSmileForTheCamera · 15/10/2015 21:15

TooMuchRain, I hope you didn't think I meant you? I was talking about my own post, which I thought didn't sound too helpful. :-)

DamnCommandments · 15/10/2015 21:20

Hot desking requires a lot of IT support. I hot desked for one semester and spent several hours a week on the phone to IT support trying to get access to particular pieces of (statistical) software at particular PCs. I did, however, get a lockable filing cabinet for keeping my research notes safe. No idea how that would work for an academic of longstanding with years and years worth of notes, though... Maybe as well as extra IT support, the budget needs to cover funding for a student to scan in old files.

Grazia1984 · 15/10/2015 21:22

I very against open plan. It's horrendous. I was talking to my daughter about it yesterday (we are both lawyers and she has to work open plan but with her own allocated desk and with a place she can go to to concentrate). It is absolutely dreadful - you sit there trying to think really hard about something difficult (which lawyers (and academics) do all the time ) and if 64 people are around it is ias if you're in a call centre only expected to read from a script. I don't know how anyone can get anythnig done. I work in my own office in total silence with the door shut.

My daughter had the same problems in a different company before to where they shared with the IT department who put on music. None of the other lawyers dared to speak up about it but she charged over and had them shut up. Yes headphones must help people a bit but why should you endure having to wear them and lose all privacy? What if you want to pull your knickers down or adjust your bra. I am just so so glad I have never had open plan forced on me. It's all about saving money no matter what they try to con you into thinking it improves work.

StealthPolarBear · 15/10/2015 21:51

What if call centre workers need to pull their knickers down?

timelytess · 15/10/2015 21:54

What if you want to pull your knickers down or adjust your bra
Go to the bathroom. Find a cubicle. Lock the door.

Grazia1984 · 15/10/2015 21:56

Yes, indeed. There is nothing special about academics' knickers.....
I just meant they sit there and read a script all day and even loo breaks are fixed for them and instead being an academic (or lawyer) does require silence to study although the personal side of having your own office is also relevant. Not nice to lose privacy.