December 4, 2007
‘Should I kick up a fuss about losing my office in an open-plan revolution?’
I work for a TV company which is in the process of refurbishing its building. For the last ten years I have had my own office, but now I am told that the new layout will be open plan. The chief executive will have his own office (as well as a desk on the floor) but all the other directors will no longer have any private spaces. I feel really upset about this. I stopped working open plan 10 years ago, and I need the privacy of my office. I hold constant meetings with clients, and I don’t see why my PA should spend her entire life booking meeting rooms. Moreover I feel too old and experienced to sit surrounded by 20 year olds.
My question is this: should I kick up a huge fuss? I think I have a reasonable chance of getting my own way. But at what cost? I am concerned that the six other directors are pretending to welcome open plan, and if I am the only one who protests might I seem like a status conscious dinosaur? Also if I decide to fight but lose the battle then my card might be marked as far as my boss is concerned. But equally this is an issue that matters to me and to lie down and take it seems, frankly, feeble.
TV executive, male, 52
make sure you have a corner office
Posted by: mark | December 4th, 2007 at 3:15 pm | Report this commentWork from home my son.
Posted by: 20 something | December 4th, 2007 at 4:55 pm | Report this commentYou’re on your way out anyhow.
Change happens. Why are you so upset about this particular change? The best managers I have worked with love to be in the thick of it, working with the staff, driving performance. The worst tend to like to sit behind closed doors and pretend to be working.
A stereotype maybe…but are you really leading this company?
Posted by: Liam | December 4th, 2007 at 5:06 pm | Report this commentThis is a classic case of choosing your battles. Ask yourself why you’re so against this. If it is simply because you don’t want to sit with the “plebs”, well then tough luck, this is the Brave New World of office sitting. You may benefit from being closer to your team (if only to make sure they are not messing up your department). I would also say meetings with clients are actually best held in a (wait for it) MEETING ROOM, rather than your office.
If however you have real issues, eg: confidential information on your PC screen, confidential phone calls etc, then I would certainly raise that as an issue (I find it almost impossible to write up appraisals in an open plan office). At the very least you and the rest of the directors should request to be in a separate section from the rest of the gimps. Any additional fuss will make you look a little bit like a git!
Posted by: Sun King -Mgr 34 | December 4th, 2007 at 6:19 pm | Report this commentI am sorry for you because this sounds tough for you but I have lived through a number of similar revolutions and they never worked for anyone except the CEO who retained an office and the bulding services manager being rewarded based on how much he could reduce the costs of office space. Anyone who likes working open plan clearly doesn’t have to do anything requiring concentration because it is usually too noisy and there are lots of distractions. I think you need to grin and bear it. Get your PA to book you plenty of time in advance in the meeting rooms and if anyone questions your need for a room on your own tell them you have a confidential call to make or similar. Make sure that you do all your conference calls in the meeting rooms and any discussions with your PA on diary etc. It is hard to object to you using the meeting rooms if you have agreed to the open plan strategy. Hold as many meetings offsite as you can to avoid actually having to have meetings in those rooms, which in my experience are often poky glass boxes with poor sound insulation. Finally, look like you are embracing change and enjoying it so that people like Liam have no excuse to fire you and good luck!
Posted by: Louise, 44, consultant | December 4th, 2007 at 6:20 pm | Report this commentThe problem seems to be with frequently having to meet clients and open spaces. Perhaps you could ask for a few meeting rooms to be bookable only by the directors and other people requiring frequent meetings with clients. It would certainly make this earsier for your PA and yourself.
Posted by: Christian | December 4th, 2007 at 6:27 pm | Report this commentsound the other directors and see if you can manouvre them into agreeing with you. they are highly likely to be against it too. a proposal coming from all of you will have much more weight.
Posted by: Red | December 4th, 2007 at 6:47 pm | Report this commentTwo words:
AGORA PHOBIA
Get yourself clinically diagnosed and declare this to your bosses. If it all ends with you being chucked out, you can claim disability discrimination (ker-ching!)
Problem sorted, ’nuff said.
Posted by: Boinky, 28, PhD student | December 4th, 2007 at 7:20 pm | Report this commentDon’t make me laugh. You write as if you were some ancient greybeard who has only just got the hang of answering your own telephone. At 52, you could well have been dropping acid listening to Jimi Hendrix back in the days (and if not, why not..?).
People have the amazing ability to puff themselves up when faced with losing ‘privileges’. You are not old enough to get sacked without a full pension. Get used to it.
Posted by: frideswide | December 4th, 2007 at 8:43 pm | Report this commentThere’s no question about it: this a major psychological battle that has to be fought. It involves loss of status and loss of privacy as well as serious humiliation.
It might be worth expressing your true feelings to your boss and using the occasion as a bargaining tool. You could argue that you need a day to work at home where there are no interruptions. You could also ask for a higher expenses account to entertain clients etc.
Posted by: Edward Bressan | December 4th, 2007 at 9:13 pm | Report this commentPresent the CEO with real statistics that show closed offices make you (and everyone else) 15-20% more effective.
Of course this won’t work—who listens to facts after the others have made up their mind?
Hey, the guaranteed jobs of the 1950’s are long over as well as having any control of your career, much less your own office space.
Sad, but true: It’s a Darwinian capitalistic world out there and a fight over your own office just isn’t worth it.
So have a brief discussion with your boss about the matter (mention those stats)—he will say “no” and then accept it or move on.
Posted by: Dan | December 4th, 2007 at 10:12 pm | Report this commentWork-stations are ideal for financial dealing rooms, or similar intensely interactive and loud functions but they are useless for anything, including phone conversation, that is even occasionally confidential. The best thing to do is to maximise meeting room bookings and meetings held on client premises to the full extent that you and your colleagues find necessary. This should prompt phase 2 of the office refurbishment (more meeting rooms and home working support) which is reasonably tolerable and functional. You then need to evaluate the acceptability of this phase to decide whether you really want phase 3 which is the conversion of some of the meeting rooms into individual offices, because the assumption will be that if the resident exec isn’t there, his or her office is a meeting room and that might be less acceptable than phase 2.
In your industry, if an individual office is an absolute necessity, you could consider loud espousal of the regional staffing recommendations of the 2006 Ofcom television production sector review, which imposed “outside the M25” staffing targets for TV production. You would however have to balance the relative attractions of a sumptuous office within a hopeful office development providing either urban regeneration or live target practice dependant upon the degree of regenerative success against whatever success you can make of the existing arrangements.
Posted by: Ironybrew: Male, 57, Retired | December 4th, 2007 at 10:23 pm | Report this commentI recently had to move from an office to open plan and resented the loss of privacy. But after a few days in the “mosh pit” I started to learn things about my team that I would never have found out from my office… who actually works hard and who doesn’t… inefficient work practices. Best of all I began to have meaningful conversations about their lives, rather than the usual office pap
Posted by: Grubber, 43, CFO | December 4th, 2007 at 10:38 pm | Report this comment“Frideswide” states that “You are not old enough to get sacked without a full pension. Get used to it.” This is probably a reference to the “defined contribution” pension schemes that are part of the “work till you drop” ethos of modern pension provision and he, or mythically she, is right unless you are in a defined benefit pension scheme. If the latter is the case hang on in employment because it’s more fun than retirement, annoys the living daylights out of the actuaries and is more important than office facilities.
Posted by: Ironybrew: Male, 57, Retired | December 5th, 2007 at 1:49 am | Report this commentBook a meeting room for days. Work from there.
Posted by: Been-there-done-that, 40, Corp. Mgr | December 5th, 2007 at 4:08 am | Report this commentSooner or later it will become your office.
You make 2 statements:
1) You haven’t been in open plan in 10 years, and you need your private space for confidential calls, meetings with clients. (This is especially a problem if you often receive calls that need a certain level of discretion, since you can’t control when and by who you are called).
2) You feel too old to be surrounded by 20 year olds.
Statement number 1 is functional (your role, tasks and responsibilities require a private environment). That the nauture of your work requires privacy is a valid argument to ask the CEO to reconsider and allow for private offices. Especially if you can get the other directors on your team as a previous poster mentionned, then you stand a chance. If you don’t win the “battle” to retain your private office, then work together with the other directors and the CEO to find a solution for your need of privacy.
Statement number 2 is personnal. You feel uncomfortable being surrounded by the younger employees? Why? Because you can’t relate to them or socialize with them? Because you wan’t to keep a certain distance as a manager towards his team? Or just because you resent having to give up a perk which seperated (elevated) you (the established senior) from the “normal people”? Whichever the reason, you can not use this as an argument to get a private office, since it is not a functional, work-related reason. Keep this argument to yourself if you choose to plead your case with the CEO, but you should think about your feelings on the open plan concept. The answer will allow you to learn something about yourself as a manager and as a person, which in turn should help you cope with the open plan evironment is you can plead your case with the CEO based on the argument in point 1.
Good luck!
Posted by: 26yrs and in an open plan environment | December 5th, 2007 at 9:51 am | Report this commentGood grief! Grow up. You sound like a petulant 12 year old who believes he or she is the centre of the universe and at focus of all eyes. There’s a psychological term for that, but we won’t go down that route. The everyday description is childish. (And, by the way, if you think you’re old at 52, God help you.)
Posted by: Robin | December 5th, 2007 at 10:46 am | Report this commentI have a certain amount of sympathy. I love the open plan scenario for project work. However I have been working from home for over 5 years now and find that going into the office to do a “normal” day’s work is just too distracting -the noise is unbearable having got used to the quiet at home.
Perhaps you should work at home unless meeting clients and then you should do that in a nice restaurant!
Posted by: Anonymous | December 5th, 2007 at 10:48 am | Report this commentI notice that the head of SAS, an IT firm, provides offices for all staff as he strongly believes it improves performance (has your boss thought this through?) - see article in The Economist.
Posted by: Michael | December 5th, 2007 at 1:04 pm | Report this commentI newly struggle with the same thing. But choices are limited. In my case, I interpret it as a hierarchy/control thing on the part of the senior bosses to have everyone but them in a typing pool, and also a cheap way to avoid too much surfing/personal calls. But for real concentrated effort the only substitute is to up sticks and find a meeting room (i.e. office) or work from home. Get used to the walk between the meeting room and wherever your files are - if those havent been removed already. Expect your stress levels to soar and have valium handy - although that depends a little on the acoustics of the place. Also a key choice in the open plan is the precise location - some seats are like magnets for noise, and others are relatively quiet.
If you are feeling bold, wealthy or marketable enough, why not say you will resign without an office?
I had to do this a while back upon joining a company, after many years working for myself (thus having enjoyed privacy etc). It is not as bad as you think. The valid points already made about getting to know your team better are spot on. If you need privacy, leave the office and make calls from a cafe/hotel - it’s good to have a change of scene and a walk. Quick private calls: presumably you have a mobile and a corridor. PAs book meeting rooms, it’s one of their functions. If you can’t stand it, go and see a headhunter, check your pension entitlements and investment portfolio, or investigate an entirely different career. Good luck.
Posted by: Julian | December 5th, 2007 at 2:58 pm | Report this commentRecognise that this is a major change and embrace it. Did the CEO and Buildings Manager decide on open plan without involving the directors/leadership team in this major decision about ways of working? What other changes in behaviour are required of the leadership and staff? How are all the staff going to understand the impact of changes on them? Has anyone asked how the staff will react to sitting with the directors?
Posted by: Rob | December 5th, 2007 at 3:46 pm | Report this commentBeing a 52 year old “director”, I thoroughly enjoy sitting with the team - shut away in an office you miss many opportunities to understand the issues which the team face on a daily basis. Does my efficiency suffer - maybe, but I am involved in developing the team and the team delivers efficiently together.
You quickly develop methods of handling sensitive client calls and client meetings. Open plan works well provided the space design includes meeting rooms, phone boxes and break-out spaces.
As a Finance Director I prefer to work in the middle of my team - we have open plan offices and the CEO is the same. If we need privacy or quiet we have offices that we can use at any time. If an informal meeting goes on for more than 5 minutes or involves more than 3 people then it moves to a meeting room. All our client and supplier meetings are held in meeting rooms set up with digital projectors and conference calling facilities. We think that this all does three things:
Posted by: Robert | December 5th, 2007 at 4:23 pm | Report this comment1. People have a form of equality in their working conditions
2. Meetings in the quiet of the meeting rooms are unexceptional events
3. Meetings with outsiders have no distractions of people’s private offices
I am 60, I work at home sometimes if I want peace and quiet for a day or half day. But I enjoy the team atmosphere and buzz of the open plan environment when I am there. I suggest that you find ways of being better informed and effective than the CEO by being in the open plan!
Are you part of the management team? Will your exposure in the pooled office make you privvy to the general gossip of reportees? If so you unwittingly become the mole for management, undermining your working relationships. That in itself is good enough reason to retain your office.
Posted by: Garry | December 5th, 2007 at 4:32 pm | Report this commentThere are three possible ways of arguing through this. Don’t worry about the childrens’ carping - when they are old enough to have real responsibility, they will see the necessity of an office as well.
1. There are offices and there are offices. See if you can get the other directors to agree that (a) the old-fashioned, “closed” type offices are indeed bad for business and that (b) smaller, glass-sided “work stations” [AKA offices] are an efficient compromise between fully open-plan and closed offices and that (c) it’s important that the CEO shows his commitment to embracing the open plan culture by agreeing that no one should have an office (including him) but that a small number of glass-sided “work stations” are acceptable. In other words, show that you are all prepared to compromise, but he has to as well. You might mention that this form of layout is now favoured by most high-value, professional services companies.
2. The un-open plan space. Open plan offices are typically filled to a very high density. Fine for some types of work (especially where generating a “buzz” is important), but not appropriate for more complex work. You could see if you can arrange an area for the directors with a very very low open-plan density that’s split up into separate spaces by filing and screens. Not as good as an office or “work station” but better than fully open plan.
3. The Martin Lukes effect. Open offices are simply last century’s solution, enthusiastically embraced by such success stories as Martin. The world has moved on in very many ways, including the realisation that open plan is not a one-size fits all solution and something more grown up is required - a mix of open plan and closed offices, in fact.
Hope some mix of these three arguments works out for you.
Posted by: Chris Director | December 5th, 2007 at 5:08 pm | Report this commentGet over it! Moving to open plan when I managed a large creative team in a similar environment, was the best thing I ever did, for all the reasons given by grubber. You might even learn something new from those 20 year olds. Quite how they will feel about having you in their midst is another thing altogether
Posted by: 48 year old consultant | December 5th, 2007 at 5:37 pm | Report this commentDemanding your own office implies that you really want to spend most of the day surfing the web or calling your wife, or generally, it conjures up a sinister motive for doing so.
We have ‘team offices’ around a large trading floor with around 4-6 people sharing an office (we also have meeting rooms) and that way private or client conversations can generally be worked out without requiring dedicated real-estate all day every day.
Sounds like you need to deal with it and can’t let it lie, so you need to be positive - focus on what you need the space for, get some consensus from your co-workers in similar situations and propose it to the top-dog. Then just use the shared space as you see fit, and if that means you are in there a lot and others start to suffer, you will simply have proved the point that it’s unworkable without being the whinger. If it does work, you can be happy that you were part of moving forward constructively.
Posted by: H - Director - Male - 32 | December 5th, 2007 at 5:58 pm | Report this commentYou sound like someone who has been asked to adapt to one too many changes, and you are trying to maintain what you feel are important standards essential to the success of the firm.
Don’t fight this change in any way. Give it positive spin, and find reasons to re-frame the issue in any way you can accept. Drop your defense of the existing, successful status-quo. Remember, it was not your decision. Get on side.
This is not an office problem. It’s about your adaptability, and emotional survival when faced with inevitability.
Support the idiot at the top, smile, be a booster, even if at first you feel like a fraud.
Breath deeply and think: “Ah nuts!”
You will sleep better and not end up popping tranks and investing in a shrink’s pension plan.
Posted by: bib thar dun that - Retired Male- 64 | December 5th, 2007 at 8:00 pm | Report this commentUnfortunately, it is an unavoidable change. I have worked with the German chemical firm BASF for 37 years, as research chemist, production manager, project leader for IT projects. For 35 years, I had my own office. For the last two years, my colleagues and I had to move into offices with several people (not open plan). This was not welcomed by anyone and you really don’t get fully used to it. But the company has decided to save on office rents. Some people had to change to open plan, but this is a factor for many to look for work in places without open plan.
It should be mentioned that consultants from IBM with which I have worked don’t have any fixed office desk at all. Every time they are not working on the client’s premises, they have to look for a suitable place to put their things.
These are changes one has to put up with, they save money for the company, and there is nothing really you can do about it.
Posted by: Hans Henrici | December 6th, 2007 at 2:03 am | Report this commentYou have to face the open floor
And make the scene your stage
You DO sound like a dinosaur
Who whinges for a wage!
Get up and quit your safe cocoon
And share your expertise
You’re acting like an old buffoon
With just yourself to please
Your P.A maybe needs to go
If she gets filled with gloom
And it affects her status quo
To simply book a room!
It sounds as though your whole routine
Needs kicking into touch
If you’re in “constant” meetings
Then you’re not producing much!
Hold your badge of status high
But show it through your skills
Wear the cloak of ‘flexi guy’
Forget the ‘war of wills’
Your bosses need an ‘action man’
To star in their ‘new movie’
So get your head round open plan
Be 52 and GROOVY!!
HATT
Posted by: HATTIE, SEMI RETIRED L.G.O & Part time ('giz a job') writer | December 7th, 2007 at 2:56 pm | Report this commentYou have to face the open floor
And make the scene your stage
You DO sound like a dinosaur
Who whinges for a wage!
Get up and quit your safe cocoon
And share your expertise
You’re acting like an old buffoon
With just yourself to please
Your P.A maybe needs to go
If she gets filled with gloom
And it affects her status quo
To simply book a room!
It sounds as though your whole routine
Needs kicking into touch
If you’re in “constant” meetings
Then you’re not producing much!
Hold your badge of status high
But show it through your skills
Wear the cloak of ‘flexi guy’
Forget the ‘war of wills’
Your bosses need an ‘action man’
To star in their ‘new movie’
So get your head round open plan
Be 52 and GROOVY!!
HATT
Posted by: HATTIE, SEMI RETIRED L.G.O & Part time ('giz a job') writer | December 7th, 2007 at 2:56 pm | Report this commentTell your boss what a fantastic idea it is.
Explain that you think it’s marvellous that the high ups should be on the floor, ‘down and dirty’, mixing with the hoi paloi.
Then say you think it is such a fabulous idea that (invent trusted trade journal here) have said it makes the CEO much more efficient and approachable and he should think about going open plan.
The seperate offices will be back on the agenda within the week.
If it’s any consolation I recently made the opposite move from open plan modern office to dark dingy little seperate offices and I hate it! :o(
Posted by: FD | December 7th, 2007 at 9:21 pm | Report this commentIf you had the foresight and really wanted an office you would have made CEO by now. Just accept this shit like all the opther aspects of getting and, like baldness and a tubby wasitline. If you play it right, the 20’s will respect you as an elder statesman and the immediate scenery will be improved. Working next to younger more beautiful people can be invigorating. If meeting rooms are difficult, have meetings near your desk in shared space - you will soon find the immediate adjacent desks vacated - or you have the perfect excuse to meet off-site and have more busienss lunches. Look on the bright side!
Posted by: chael | December 11th, 2007 at 8:54 am | Report this commentIf you had the foresight and really wanted an office you would have made CEO by now. Just accept this sh*t like all the opther aspects of getting and, like baldness and a tubby wasitline. If you play it right, the 20’s will respect you as an elder statesman and the immediate scenery will be improved. Working next to younger more beautiful people can be invigorating. If meeting rooms are difficult, have meetings near your desk in shared space - you will soon find the immediate adjacent desks vacated - or you have the perfect excuse to meet off-site and have more busienss lunches. Look on the bright side!
Posted by: chael | December 11th, 2007 at 8:55 am | Report this commentBEWARE: From your level looking up, you think you deserve the privilege of a private office. From the chief executive’s eyes looking down, he will still have six other directors left after getting rid of the one ‘kicking up a fuss’ because he refuses to mix in with his peers and subordinates.
Posted by: J Michael, private banker, 39 | December 12th, 2007 at 12:44 am | Report this commentIf you actually thought about uttering the second reason, you could get sued for age discrimination! I am not sure what’s wrong with the old people in the business world! Most 20+ year olds are smarter, they work harder for cheaper and they do not wine about not having their own office. They are too busy making money for their firm! Maybe you should be around them more often, they might have a good influence on you.
Posted by: DDH | December 12th, 2007 at 7:56 pm | Report this commentThe boss won’t care as much as the other staff will. What you’re saying is you’re too good to sit amongst them. If you really are, then that’s fine. But if not then you’re sowing seeds of trouble.
Posted by: TK, Banker, Male, 35 | December 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am | Report this commentYour instincts are right - you will look like a dinosaur if you kick up a fuss (and we all know what happened to them…)
Posted by: GLH | December 13th, 2007 at 11:32 am | Report this commenti think you should’t kick up a fuss .because it will make you different from your team.this is a tough problem to solve .but as far as i concerned ,you can send a email to your boss in the private way .and maybe you should keep silence afterall.
Posted by: sisihong | December 14th, 2007 at 9:07 am | Report this commentI am 52 also, in the US. Currently we have 140+ applicants for a new position, including Ph.D.s from Caltech, Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard,…
It has done wonders for my work attitude.
Posted by: PJ | December 14th, 2007 at 6:59 pm | Report this commentI would accept the decision graciously.
The fact that you were not involved in the decion-making process indicates two things to me:
1.) You are not as important as you think you are (or perhaps once was? (or should that be were?))
and /or 2.)Your company is not a very consultative organisation (or you weren’t there that day?)
If 1), hang in there as long as you can and cruise, work on your pension, minimise stress, chat to the pretty girls, dress down and learn from the younger guys.
Posted by: AreJayEl | December 18th, 2007 at 7:58 am | Report this commentor if 2), same as 1, or quit and find an old fashioned firm to work for (if you can)
If this decision goes ahead
Your style, they will be cramping
So why not buy a a folding bed
And tell them you’ll be camping!
Then get your daft to book
The biggest meeting space
Imagine how cool you will look
With stubble on your face
Chair all your eetings lying down
Eccentric is in fashion
They’ll soon agree your barmy frown
Is tied up with your passion
No one will want to sit with you
On public floors
With equal opps, the worst they’ll do
Is keep you behind doors!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Posted by: HATTIE, SEMI RETIRED L.G.O & Part time ('giz a job') writer | December 18th, 2007 at 7:04 pm | Report this commentIf this decision goes ahead
Your style, they will be cramping
So why not buy a a folding bed
And tell them you’ll be camping!
Then get your daft to book
The biggest meeting space
Imagine how cool you will look
With stubble on your face
Chair all your eetings lying down
Eccentric is in fashion
They’ll soon agree your barmy frown
Is tied up with your passion
No one will want to sit with you
On public floors
With equal opps, the worst they’ll do
Is keep you behind doors!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Posted by: HATTIE, SEMI RETIRED L.G.O & Part time ('giz a job') writer | December 18th, 2007 at 7:04 pm | Report this commentUnfortunately, open-plan office is quite a common thing in media, TV or newspaper houses.
I should know best, as I work at similar posts for 15 years.
The CEO’s are clearly thinking it makes communication easier so ideas spread around more effectively. Maybe it’s also a way to control the labor force & keep people under surveillance.
I am extremely productive when the office is empty, but can merely concentrate on the job with 10 people around me (to make things worse, it is a small space).
I am very much distracted by noise and by all the comments and phone talks around, some of the people even make or take private calls in a very loud manner! I find it extremely disturbing yet I also don’t know how to cope. I am not important enough to be given my own office, which as I guessed isn’t a case for you - you are a high-profiled media executive and should be regarded as such.
The funny thing is, our chief editor doesn’t want to move in to the empty office next door, where there is a place available. I guess she wants to stay close as it makes the process of making a newspaper easier.
But as a writer, who needs a clear mind and a sharp focus most of the time (a part of my job is reporting on international markets and M&A’s), I find it utterly disturbing to bear all the noise. To make things worse, only two of the people in our office are journalists (me and my colleague), other people are secretary, sales & marketing ppl and two designers. They don’t need to be very concentrated in the given moment, they all like to chat and comment on everything their mind gets across, so they don’t understand my frustration and think I am a bully when I finally lose my nerves (every 2 weeks or so) and ask them to stop the small talk as I need to focus. I am usually forced to stay longer in the evening when the office is empty just to be able to finish my job!
This thing is getting nowhere so I am thinking about changing the redaction I work for.
I think you should be very frank about your problem and tell your bosses you can’t cope with people around you, especially with 20-something overtly aggressive, wild and dynamic young people, who act as they can conquer the world in split second and are usually so full of themselves (it’s the type of the breed TV stations usually hire as to my previous experience).
As we get older, our need for privacy and peace usually grows. We need a quiet working and living place. You are by all means entitled to some decent working conditions and they shouldn’t change it.
If the open-office type doesn’t suit you, tell your bosses and demand to keep the privacy of your own space. If not, move on.
Best of luck and merry X-mas to you and your family.
Posted by: journalist/deputy editor, 35 | December 18th, 2007 at 7:50 pm | Report this commentI’ve worked in an open plan office for 2 years now and I really like it. Individual noises tend to be less distracting when there is already ambient noise around you and the sense of industry when I have a difficult task to do - even if it is quite technical and involves a high level of concentration - is heartening. So my first piece of advice is that it may not be as bad as you think.
Desk positioning is very important in an open plan environment. If you’re worried about distractions, you want to be in the corner so you can look out over the workspace but have your back to the wall. You’ll want a window on one side for good light and a spare/hot desk on the other so there is always a spare chair to hand. If you can be close to the heating controls, that is a bonus. Proximity to the kitchen/toilets is a distinct disadvantage.
I keep coming back to the fact that the CEO still gets his/her own office, which suggests that this is more about the CEO setting his/her status above the rest of you than creating the best working environment for everyone involved on a principled basis. Our CEO and Chairman both sit in the open plan area and I agree with the FD’s advice on how you should challenge this discrepancy.
An alternative is to seek a desk near to people you know to be noise sensitive. Develop a very noisy telephone voice and conduct regular lively internal meetings at your desk. Complaints regarding excessive noise about you may get you an office sooner than complaints from you.
Conducting brief internal meetings in meeting rooms wastes everyone’s time and is a real downside to open plan working. There’s some good advice above about designating a meeting room for directors - but beware: most open plan offices make woefully inadequate provision for meeting rooms. Your colleagues will notice (and probably complain) if you monopolise one when not actually conducting meetings in it and you will frequently find even designated ‘directors only’ spaces occupied by people making private calls on mobile phones. You may also find that your colleagues are baffled as to what all these meetings can be about and wonder whether you can be doing any actual work at all when you are in meetings so much of the time. Meet clients at restaurants or their offices instead.
Posted by: Female lawyer, 34 | December 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm | Report this commentThe best advice given here is to team with the other senior people and express your concern, then if it doesn’t go your way you won’t be out in the cold. If you have a real case for needing an office of your own, ie you have frequent confidential discussions, ask for guidance as to how to proceed. Then live with the new order. One of two things will happen - productivity will suffer and the situation will change again or people will like it and it will continue. You will adapt as necessary, no need to fight it head on. Although I do understand that the loss of privacy and status is an issue for you, which is normal. One final comment - why is it so many people commenting don’t know how to spell SEPARATE?!
Posted by: Suzanne | December 31st, 2007 at 12:43 pm | Report this commentI empathise with you immensely. I cherish my privacy and tranquility, and I’m completely unable to get any meaningful work done with other people buzzing around me.
If I were you I WOULD kick up a fuss. There is ample evidence to suggest that workers who are given private offices have higher morale, and are more productive than those in open space: your grievances are legitimate! You would not be acting merely in your own interests but in those of your company.
And if the company does move to open space offices, you should not allow yourself to spend miserable days working in an environment that makes you unhappy. So quit.
I did it, to start my own business, and it was the best decision I ever made.
Posted by: LeoDV | January 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pm | Report this commentTo ‘Boinky’…
You obviously have NO idea what agoraphobia is like. I find it hard to believe that you will ever achieve a Phd in anything. IF the gentleman did indeed suffer from agoraphobia, he wouldn’t be able to work in such a high profile position in the first place. And to suggest that he fake a disorder as horrible as agoraphobia, in order to draw disablitity, is the ultimate kick in the teeth to people that really do suffer with it. Perhaps you should add a course in psychology to your quest for knowledge. Either that, or become a ’shock jock.’
Posted by: Layla | January 8th, 2008 at 10:13 pm | Report this comment‘
its not as bad as it sounds , you will find you get used to it very quickly and your relationship with your team will surely improve as you get to know them better.
Posted by: jonathan_europe | January 9th, 2008 at 3:50 pm | Report this commentI think that there’s a saying about this relating to what happens to a neck that sticks out too far.
Posted by: j.brown | January 13th, 2008 at 2:13 am | Report this commentIt sounds like things aren’t set in stone, though change is definitely in store. Just tell your boss that the plan is not to your liking as you’d definitely like to have an office, and see what he says.
Pause and Listen.
Then give your boss your strongest reason for having your own office.
Posted by: Steve | January 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 am | Report this comment30 years late your firm is moving to open plan. There is still clearly huge scope for removing dead wood in the media business. Communication has clearly not been a requirement for many years. (oh and what is a PA? In IT manufacture they were TA’s before they were abolished sometime around 1985).
Praise the Lord that you are not in a competitive business where the opposition eat rice.
Posted by: Volga Pirate, 56, Male, Entrepreneur | January 24th, 2008 at 5:33 pm | Report this commentOpen plan working is exhausting and time-wasting. I have just moved universities from an open plan environment (where I got practically nothing of value done due to constant interruptions and high noise levels) back to a private office (where I am whizzing through my workload, and making a lot more money for my organisation). Open plan only really suits space planners, office furniture companies and finance people. Plead data protection issues or tinnitus as reasons for keeping your own office at all costs.
Posted by: Claire, 40, female, lecturer | January 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm | Report this comment