Open Plan Office - good idea or big mistake?

[PanamaPattie]

My employer (NHS) has made the decision to take down walls and make our office space open plan. Over 100 people will be sharing. Hot desks and lockers will replace the current arrangement of individual desks and drawers.

I don't like this idea at all - I imagine fighting over desks, lack of privacy, heat (we're losing the air con), noise, no eating or drinking at desks.

It sounds like utter misery.

AIBU?

[siobhan0710]

I'm NHS and have just moved into an office like this. We share with social work. It can get really noisy at times I must admit, and has taken a lot of getting used to. It is nice though to have a nice bright space as opposed to the dingy old offices we were used to. There are break out rooms as well if we need some quiet time to work on something.

[Grace212]

"The NHS doesn't have money to waste on individual offices or people who can't cope with change or work in a modern environment."

but in OP case, they are wasting money knocking down walls and installing lockers etc. I'd be willing to bet they are spending a fortune on it as well. Are you getting new desks OP?

[Grace212]

Also I don't see open plan offices as "modern" - the first one I worked in was 26 years ago!

[Poloshot]

It's now modern offices tend to be. Breaks down barriers and is quite pleasant in my experience

[maxelly]

Another vote here for it being completely normal, I'd now be surprised to work for a company that didn't have open plan rather than vice versa as a few years ago. If there are good ground rules and the space is reasonably well designed then it works fine, at my current place on every floor there are designated 'quiet alleys' situated apart from other desks where the etiquette is for quiet working, no talking or phone calls, plus various sized meeting room spaces, booths and pods which people can use for phonecalls, chats with colleagues or 'proper' meetings, so you have the choice of how noisy an area you want to work in depending on your preference. We don't have a huge staff/break room (certainly not enough for everyone on the floor to be in there at once) but it doesn't seem to be a problem, technically the 'rule' is no food at desks but generally everyone seems to interpret this as cold/non smelly food like sandwiches is OK so long as you clear up after yourself whereas hot food is eaten in staffroom, or we have an open plan meeting table that sometimes gets used as an overflow at lunchtimes if the staffroom is busy. Given that a % go out for lunch anyway and not everyone eats at the same time you should be OK with a medium sized staffroom...

I remember the days of small shared offices being much more of a nightmare TBH, if you had a noisy/smelly/annoying/oversharer/nose picker/smelly food eater/heavy smoker (shows my age) for a room sharer you were stuck and could never get away from them whereas at least in open plan you can avoid easily and without giving offense, plus I actually find it much easier to get proper quiet time with current set up than when always having to listen to the noise of 3-5 colleagues!

I do keep wipes/sanitiser on me and give my chosen desk a bit of a wipedown when I first sit down plus it's a bit of a PITA having to keep your stuff in a locker rather than a pedestal but those are the only downsides really IMO...

[maxelly]

Oh and forgot to say that for the people who mentioned hot desking as being problematic for people with mobility or vision issues or for other reasons needing their desk set up a certain way, we easily get around that by giving these people the option to be exempt from hot desking and have a certain desk which is theirs, unless they aren't in in which case it becomes a normal hotdesk, usually with a little note asking the person using it to please not adjust the screen or chair... seems to work fine!

[TeachesOfPeaches]

I'm 33 and have worked in open plan offices my entries career. I thought it was just an American thing to have 'cubicle' style individual offices.

It's horrendous listening to the sounds of other people breathing, eating, sniffing, coughing, making personal calls, boring chat etc. However, hot desking sounds even worse.

[ginghamstarfish]

My DH works in an open plan office and says he'd get much more work done if he had a quiet space ... too much talking, too many distractions. It's not for everyone.

[SerenDippitty]

I’ve worked in open plan areas the size of football pitches and hated it. Right now I’m in an open plan with 11 other people and it’s fab.

[SabineUndine]

I don't like open plan, but it's the norm these days. To me it cuts down on the opportunity to have a quiet gossip, so you never hear what's going on unless you go to the pub at lunchtime or after work.

[EnolaAlone]

My office has been open plan for years and it's mainly okay. We have lockers, a break out area and kitchen area. We also hot desk and get an email on Fridays with the seating plan for the following week, which stops the fighting over desks. It can be quite noisy though.

[tealandteal]

I work for the NHS too and our office is open plan but we have a mix of fixed desks and hot desks. We also have laptops and docking stations so all your computer stuff comes with you.

[e1y1]

Used to work in a 2000 seat call centre (air craft hangar type) that was open plan, it was fine.

Each team (about 15) had their own pod of (15) desks and you hot desked within that pod, it was fine - more often than not you got the same desk each day and in a lot of teams the manager had a seating plan so you pretty much always had the same desk but was always understood if you had to sit at another seat then you did - you may have had a mini moan but no it deal.

Work in a much smaller office now and is still open plan - I couldn't imagine the alternative.

[PanamaPattie]

Grace212 - yes total refurbishment - walls down, new IT, telecoms, redecoration, new floors, ceilings, lighting, new desks, chairs, lockers etc. I don't see how it will save money The same staff in a open plan office rather than in several smaller offices. The managers will keep their space of course.

[Grace212]

OP - I knew it! don't why pp made that comment. They will be spending a fortune on this.

[jellycatspyjamas]

I don’t like open plan and have left jobs rather than hot desk. The trend for creating work spaces with a fraction of the number of desks per head count, assuming folk can sit anywhere and be productive completely devalues collegiate and collaborative working within teams.

One job I left, they moved from an enclosed office space accommodating at team of 14 people working on the same, very sensitive, project to a pod of 8 desks in the middle of an open plan office with folk from completely different parts of the business who could now overhear some very delicate conversations about our service. Managers had nowhere private to talk to staff on an ad hoc basis because meeting rooms needed to be booked in advance and while there weren’t enough desks for everyone, there was also no capacity to work from home.

Badly planned, badly executed and badly implemented. I now work inna small office with 7 of us all involved in the sane type of work. Much better.

[SurgeHopper]

Air con is going because it isn't "green".

^

The shit they pull
fuck me

[SwedishEdith]

To me it cuts down on the opportunity to have a quiet gossip, so you never hear what's going on unless you go to the pub at lunchtime or after work.

That's so true! The only real conversations happen later in the day as people have started to go home.

[RainbowMum11]

It completely depends on the number of people and the type of work they are doing.
If it's largely phone based, it's crap for everyone else.
Sometimes It does aide a more cohesive working environment as there is much less snidey chat - people are all together.

[Isleepinahedgefund]

Open plan is fine, it's the norm now and I'd rather not have the walls myself. It does mean you realise how irritating some people can be, but generally it's good.

Where I work, the only person in the whole organisation allowed their own office is the Chief Exec for confidentiality reasons, and even she spends most of her time sitting in with the general staff.

Hot desking, however, is the work of the devil and must have been introduced as a brilliant idea by the same people who invented soft play. Fucking awful. Fortunately in my office even though we are supposed to book a desk every day no one has to because we're massively over accommodated at present.

[bumblingbovine49]

I really don't mind open plan. I currently work in an office.with around 120 people.in it. We don't hot desk though which I absolutely loathe.

[Digestive28]

Open plan is fine but hot desking is awful! Esp in NHS where, depending on the job, you may build up a collection of helpful resources (and stash of stationary!)

[malmi]

Hot desking is great. Every day I have a whole room full of pristine, clutter free desks to choose from. If I want a view,I sit near the window. If I want to work quietly, I sit in the designated 'no phones or chat' area. If I don't like the company I just move. I'm not in the office most days so I've not had an allocated desk for a long time. I don't care.

[Lyricallie]

I’ve worked in both and pros and cons to each. I liked open plan as it meant everyone could get along and help each other if need be but each team had its own pod.

I absolutely hated hot desking I used to do that when I worked back shift at (2 different) call centres and would have to hover around someone until they finished because there wasn’t enough desks and if you didn’t log on on time you’d get into trouble.

Then in my current job I’ve been in a mix a wee office with two of us evict was nice but could get a bit lonely as I didn’t know the rest of the people on the plant. Then the office I’m in now which is almost open planned which is an office with 6 of us which is quite nice but gets a bit stuffy and I’m a 26yo women and they’re all mid 50s men so they don’t really talk to me which is a shame,

So yea open office I can live with. Hot desking never again, luckily I work with confidential stuff so I have to my own lockable drawers and filling cabinet etc.

[Sarcelle]

Eventually most mid to large offices will move to hot desking. It cuts down on office space.