To hate open-plan working?!

[treacletree]

Does anyone else hate open plan offices? I don’t understand why companies seem to think they are such a great idea. I work on a very large open plan floor and I can hear people around chatting, eating, typing so loud, having standup meetings all day and I find it makes me feel very on edge and it is hard to concentrate. My job frequently involves long stints of working with complex spreadsheets and I find it so hard in this environment. I get so anxious (or something) that I often need to go and sit in a meeting room for a few minutes to feel like I can breathe and not jsut be constantly on show.
Now I have long suspected that I may be autistic (although I’m pretty high functioning and mask very well), I guess I want to know if other people cope fine with open plan. I suspect my reaction is pretty extreme. I enjoy my work and when the office is quieter I find it much easier to get things done, but at the moment we are near capacity and pretty much every day I just want to escape to a room on my own.
Aibu??

I am totally in agreement.

I am currently WFH (well, mostly!) as I have a filthy cold and know I would have been told to go home if I had gone in - too easy to share the germs in a massive space.

Mostly, though, I get endlessly frustrated with the distractions - I work on documents, too, and I need to concentrate. But some people are SO loud! And interrupt me to ask me stuff! I just want to be left alone to get on. Fortunately, using headphones is acceptable - sometimes I just put them on as a signal not to be disturbed and don't even put any music on!!

So, definitely not BU in my opinion!

No, but you need to find a solution that works for you. In an old place I worked, I moved from one floor which housed about 8 people in a separate office to a fully open plan office which housed 100. I hated it at first - and still hated when I had long complex (and confidential) pieces of work to complete.

Noise cancelling headphones are great - you don't have to listen to music - just switch the noise-cancelling function on. It also acted as a signal to colleagues that I shouldn't be disturbed. I also had to get a screen shield so people couldn't see what I was working.

I also changed my hours so I started at least 1.5 hours before colleagues so I had some focussed quiet time early in the day.

I hate the noise and interruptions as well. When I sat in front of the printer the constant coming and going along with the noise of the printer stressed me out to the point where I would have to leave my desk. Currently, opposite me in the office is a woman who is just so BLOODY LOUD and for some reason, the second I put my headset on to jump on a call she decides that is the right time to start shouting to someone sitting behind me. Don't even get me started on when I was on an important call and everyone decided to have cake standing at the desk next to mine and not one, but THREE people tapped me, while I was clearly wearing my headset and SPEAKING, asking loudly why I wasn't joining in with cake. I felt violent feelings.

I'm also not a fan, I read this recently which was interesting: theconversation.com/amp/how-womens-life-long-experiences-of-being-judged-by-their-appearance-affect-how-they-feel-in-open-plan-offices-124765?__twitter_impression=true

Basically hatred of open plan offices is a gendered problem, which I can well believe.

My desk is right by the door into reception. Every single colleague who comes in talks to me about something. Quite often they stand at the door and shout over my head to someone across the room. I have a job where I need to make sure that what I'm writing is accurate. I get absolutely fuck all done unless I put earphones in and use music to block it all out, but then my colleagues all worry that I'm angry or upset about something and start tapping me on the shoulder to ask what's wrong. 🤯

YANBU at all, OP. My last employer had huge, open plan offices, with a cafeteria in the middle, kitchen spaces dotted around and break areas close to desks. I hated it with a passion. The noise, smells, distractions etc were very frustrating.

The worst thing for me was lack of space for private HR matters. I was on capability proceedings because of my disabilities and, if we couldn't get the lone private room, my team manager would always ask if we could do the meetings, return to works etc at her desk, with everyone nearby able to listen in. She got short shrift from me. It's just not appropriate.

In my first job I had my own office, to my surprise and delight, and when I moved into a new job and had an assistant in my office, I didn't enjoy it. I'd hate an open plan office - like the OP my job involved getting my head down and evaluating the figures in front of me. Then 1-1s with clients. My job wasn't working as part of a team and I didn't need to be put into an environment which "fostered team work".

I can tolerate open-plan for a couple of hours "hot desking" (and even then it's open plan with a dozen people. not one of these vast open plan warehouses), but real work gets done on my own at home.

So OP, you're not alone.

Interesting article Spurious. I basically nodded throughout.

We have to traipse through a waiting room of the general public to get to the toilets (hiding a tampon up your sleeve if you need one and are wearing a pocket-less dress).

My much-hated desk-by-the-door also exposes me to the gaze of curious children in the waiting room (glass panel in the door) and it faces the wall, so I can't see any of my colleagues unless I physically turn right round, whereas half of them can see me without moving.

One particular colleague always pauses on his way out of the door to give my computer screen a good scrutinise (never anything un-work related) and he's not the only one.

No wonder I just want to be in a room on my own by lunch time.

Me too. Fortunately I WFH most of the week but on the day I have to go in to the office I hate it. I'm a bit noise phobic anyway, so EVERYTHING bugs me. That colleague with the loose bracelet that constantly taps on the desk, the one who eats all day but can't chew quietly, those that feel they have to shout whenever they have a phone call, the one who thinks they have to thump their keyboard to get the keys to work. I hate the lot of them!

No. I would feel isolated and lonely if I was in an office on my own. Although I am pretty lucky that we are all considerate of each other.

Can't you wear a noise cancelling headset?

In theory I like open planned offices, but it depends entirely on who sits near you. The office I'm in at the moment is reasonably open planned, with my department seated alongside another one. My department is absolutely fine, we chat here and there but largely get on with our work.

The other department is horrific - constantly talking about football, singing football chants, making racist/homophobic/sexist remarks, making fun of mental illnesses - list goes on. I've complained to their management repeatedly but nothing is ever done.

I've become very reliant on headphones.

Totally agreed - I was in open plan for yrs and find it hard. Also suspect autistic traits, but darent go to the doctor - i usually feel dismissed by ppl and can't communicate my needs. Now hopefully returning to work in the next year or so - you're making me nervous 🙂 and yy to being judged on appearance - it's another distraction men don't have to deal with.

I’m retired now but YANBU. People calling me from across the room - I found it bloody rude and never did it to anyone else, I’d get up and go to anyone I wanted to talk to unless they were on an adjoining desk. People having long chats/stand up meetings next to my desk - couldn’t say anything as they were senior. Bloody loud people generally. The person in the office next to my desk who turned on a horrible air freshener every time they came back from a fag so anyone going in would not smell smoke. Also suspect autism/ADD, went to GP but was told there was not much point seeking a label at my time of life!

Noise cancelling headphones as above.

Also my office set up a couple of breakout areas (hate the name!), but just a couple of areas with tables and chairs that you can go to for impromptu meetings/discussions. Rather than shouting at each other in the main area or trying to have a more private conversation. Can you suggest this to your bosses?

I absolutely loathe open plan. It stops me from doing anything like the amount of work I could do.

Companies like it because it’s cheaper. I think it is damaging to mental health and the one size fits all from employers is so short sighted. I need a degree of peace and privacy to do my best work, as do many people.

Noise cancelling headphones would have been a no no as were all expected to listen out for and answer other people’s phones - not allowed voicemail.

Yes I have been in open plan offices pretty much my whole working life. The one I am currently in is awful. I am surrounded by people who constantly chat and the noise level is incredible.

Like op I have a job involving spreadsheets and numbers and cross checking and I have to be accurate. Between yelled conversations about last night's TV, meetings, printers and both sides of Skype phone conversations I feel like I am going mad.

I have been DX with ADHD in the last few years.

My last job I worked alone in an office. I hated it.

I generally much prefer open plan but it is up to management to ensure it isn't disruptive.

It's really annoying. I worked in an office of 6 people with a large number of drop ins for several years. I found the constant interruptions so frustrating. Simple tasks would take ages just because I couldn't maintain an hour's solid concentration.

Since I've changed jobs and have my own space, my work days fly by now. I can get engrossed in a task, put the radio on quietly and feel much more in control of my workload.

“I'm also not a fan, I read this recently which was interesting: theconversation.com/amp/how-womens-life-long-experiences-of-being-judged-by-their-appearance-affect-how-they-feel-in-open-plan-offices-124765?__twitter_impression=true

Basically hatred of open plan offices is a gendered problem, which I can well believe.“

Without exception, the people who judge others in their appearance in my workplace are the women. The men simply do not care.

I also know not one male colleague who likes open plan.

I've only ever worked in open-plan or semi-open-plan offices. It doesn't suit everyone, and there are times when I find it a bit frustrating myself, but it's pretty much the norm these days so you will need to find some coping mechanisms. If stand-up meetings etc are an ingrained part of your company's culture, you can't really ask people not to do them - and a bit of chatting, eating lunch and 'typing so loud' are very normal behaviour for an office.

Noise-cancelling headphones are definitely a good idea. Everyone in my team uses them now and again if they want to block out noise/chat around them and it is accepted by everyone that this is OK and that people aren't being rude by using them.

If you have meeting rooms readily available (you mention going to sit in one for some peace) could you look into booking one for a couple of hours now and again for when you really need to focus? Have you spoken to your boss about how difficult it is for you to concentrate on a complicated spreadsheet when there's a lot of chat going on? Is some homeworking an option?

Is part of the issue that you are seated with a team who do a largely different type of work to yours? For example, I work in a field where talking in the office is a) considered normal and b) necessary for a lot of the work that we do, and for a while we were seated next to a three people who did a very different job and were used to working in a very different way and complained a lot about the distraction of us basically just doing our jobs. I sympathised with them, but we couldn't really do our jobs properly in silence, so the solution was for them to be relocated to a different bit of the office.

We have to traipse through a waiting room of the general public to get to the toilets (hiding a tampon up your sleeve if you need one and are wearing a pocket-less dress).

Do you not own a bag?

I’ve only ever worked in open plan offices. Love it and would hate to be sat alone in an office on my own

I hate open plan offices. No idea how anyone can concentrate in these. My best work is done in absolute silence.

The thing that makes open plan working even worse now is the constant digital distraction that sits alongside it.

Constant emails
Constant Skype/Lync messages
Skype calls from colleagues
Meeting notifications and an update for every tiny change
Microsoft Teams
Desk phones
Mobile messages
WhatsApp
LinkedIn messages

All that combined with open plan working is totally out of hand and can’t be productive.