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??

YANBU I hate it too. Really despise it. I can't concentrate. I feel like I'm constantly being watched. My anxiety goes through the roof.

I’m lucky enough to have my own office but I have to walk through two open plan offices to get to the toilets, kitchen or leave the building. I’ve got used to it now but when I first started I felt very awkward and like all eyes were watching me. Totally agree with pp on the period issue - also a nightmare if you have a uti and have to go to the toilet frequently, you feel as if you are constantly trekking back and forth and that people will notice and think it odd.

It’s never really bothered me until this job but I think before I’ve worked in small open plan (max 10 people, all in my team, so I felt comfortable/at home with them, plus we were often out at appointments so rarely all 10 in at once) or massive (100) so you felt more anonymous walking through.

I am grateful for my own office but even with that, because I have to walk through all the open plan areas and am always stopping to talk or getting called over I do feel fatigued by always being ‘on’ at work and crave my one day a week working from home peacefully! My ideal would be a 3/2 split with 2 days from home. I occasionally do it and feel so much less stressed.

My current office is open plan for about 20 desks, no hot desking as we sit in teams. The other office has about 70-80 desks, and although much bigger, the noise level isn't massively higher, just a bit. But as I mentioned earlier, colleagues can occasionally be loud, but in general we are all respectful of each other. We have a few rooms for meetings, privacy, etc, which we can book online.

I am moderately introverted, but cope perfectly fine. I think it's down to how respectful and considerate your colleagues are, as to how well you get on.

I think I must be incredibly lucky because where I work is nothing like how most posters have described their experiencess of open plan offices.

My office set up sounds exactly the same as yours MulticolourMophead.

I agree and find it harder to be creative, have a discussion or approach people when there are 20 other people around.

I absolutely hate it! Walking through to my desk makes me feel like I’m on a cat walk as everyone stares at you! The constant noise also drives me crazy and don’t get me started on the sneezes and coughs that everyone has all the time- because we are all sharing germs I constantly feel a bit under the weather

I hate the coughing - people will happily cough away for 3 months before considering going to the doctors for antibiotics....which make it go away in a week. Or even taking cough mix!

I'm not a fan of the noise BUT having people around me forces me to work. WFH is a day off for me, I can't get anything done without being in a "work" setting. I was the same at uni, could only work in library.

I work in an open plan office of about 65 people. Each and every person is lovely, we all greet each other every morning, there are ‘treats’ on each bank of desks that everyone can help themselves too. There’s great banter amongst the different teams too. On a Friday we have the 5pm ‘tune of the week’. Everyone puts a song request in the box and one gets picked. Last week we sung along to Shotgun, previous weeks we’ve had Ernie the Milkman. It’s great fun and I’d miss the companionship and fun we all have if I was in a smaller shut off office. I accept not all open offices are like this but it seems to me that it’s not the open plan bit that’s the real problem, but rather the people working there.
As for periods, I too never take my bag but discreetly stick what I need in my pocket and tootle off to the lav when needed. One of my colleagues recently changed roles from being out ‘on the floor’ to a role where she’s enclosed in a small office with one other person (think HR stuff) and she hates it.

there are ‘treats’ on each bank of desks that everyone can help themselves too

This is a good thing?

I like an open plan office. I find that much more relaxing than a small room with only a few people. I don't feel like I'm under scrutiny like I would when there's less people. I like the friendly buzz around me, and I use headphones to cut it down to a comfortable level.

I prefer a small room with just me in it.