![]() ![]() It is regularly frowned upon by the French, who contend that it should be avoided at all cost. In an ultimate irony for a configuration that was supposed to foster communication, the open-plan layout is accused of reducing performance and productivity. In this silent play, employees were able to express themselves only in onomatopoeias, as if the fear of being judged by their co-workers had silenced them. In 2014 on the stage of the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris, the play Open Space by Mathilda May made fun of the possible effects these workplaces could have on workers’ behaviour. In his book L’Open-space m’a tué, (Open plan killed me) published in 2008, Alexandre des Isnards closely examines the damaging effects of open-plan arrangements that were the rule in business: noise nuisance, stress, problems of concentration and feeling of constant control over employees. But industrial sociologists and employees alike gradually started to criticize these vast, standardized offices that produced many deleterious effects. Its modern, flexible configuration reflected the new managerial approach, centred on transparency and employee interaction. In the 1980s companies made a cult of open-plan layout and sometimes packed employees into immense floor plates with no partitions. The open-plan office quickly won companies over by its ability to increase the surface area of the workspace at a low cost, and it became an established feature in service firms, insurance companies, banks and architectural firms. ![]() Open-plan layout: a cult eventually called into question But it was not until 1968 that their designer Robert Probst devised the cubicle, an office with removable partitions 1.5 metres high that provided office workers with privacy while giving them an overview of the other offices if they stood up. In 1964, the American company Herman Miller marketed Action Office Series 1, the first modular offices made up of panels and workspaces of varying heights that could be adapted to employees’ diverse activities, making their movements and interactions more fluid. The idea of an open workspace emerged in the 1950s in Germany, where two consultants, brothers Eberhard and Wolfang Schnelle, devised the “office landscape”, a space without any partitions, furnished unobtrusively and decorated with green plants to foster communication within the company. In contrast, the space and flexibility of open plans were believed to allow employees to break free from the narrow confines of their small offices.Īfter the Second World War, strong economic growth and the gradual development of the tertiary sectors were coupled with a new perspective on the office. ![]() The history of the collective open office has its roots in the early 20th century, when the proliferation of partitions and cubicles was perceived by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright as a “fascist, totalitarian” trend. Only 34% of employees work in partitioned offices, according to the study conducted in 2015 for the observatory of quality of life at the office (known by its French acronym as Actineo). Today in France individual offices are in a minority in the business world. It is a philosophy that reconnects with its creators’ initial intentions. Today, the open-plan offices that were once imposed on workers and submitted to passively are giving way to multi-spaces designed by and for workers. They also encourage employees to move around and foster collaboration. ![]() Often accused of being a source of noise nuisance and stress, open working spaces do however offer many advantages, including luminosity. Open plan offices first appeared in the 1960s, and the concept became firmly established in companies the world over. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |