Office space

Lab 3 - Assignment 2a
Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Office space: Case study review
By: Jen Serdetchnaia
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Background: Opening and closing space 2
The problem: Distracting open space 2
Analytical framework 3
Cases in favour of open space 4
Case 1: Facebook employee 4
Case 2: Mayor Bloomberg’s “Bullpen” office 5
Case 3: The Bridgespan Group 6
Case 4: W&P Design in Brooklyn 6
Cases against open space 7
Case 1: Senior writer at an ad agency based in New York City 7
Case 2: Reddit thread in response to Joel Polsky’s interview 8
Case 3: Game Developer magazine study 8
Case 4: My personal experience 9
Conclusion: The future of office space and the future of my research 9
Appendix 10
Background: Opening and closing space 10
Analytical framework tables 13
Table 2: Tanner Christensen at Facebook 13
Table 3: Bloomberg at the “Bullpen” 14
Table 4: The Bridgespan Group new office 14
Table 5: W&P Brooklyn office 15
Table 6: New York City ad agency 15
Table 7: Coders on Reddit 16
Table 8: Game Developer magazine study 17
Table 9: My personal experience 17
References 18
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Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Introduction
In the cyclical history of office space layouts, this past decade saw the most recent rise of the open office design
spearheaded by Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google, as a symbol of collaboration and
egalitarianism. Open office design has since been adopted by a reported 70% of all organizations in North America
(Mann 2017) to improve collaboration, create a sense of community, and, not of least importance, cut costs for
rent and structure.
Almost as quickly as the open office design was adopted, reports began to surface that the new layout was not
living up to the hype—something that should have come as no surprise to those of us who pay attention to history
and are aware of the oppressive connotation that haunted the open offices of the 1950’s (Entis 2016). Workers are
suffering from broken concentration and lacking privacy. Perhaps the greatest irony is that this time around, the
open office pioneers are some of the world’s largest employers of developers—who arguably require the greatest
affordance for concentration.
Are the benefits of an open office layout worth the challenges? Are private offices the answer? How can businesses
meet their bottom line goals while enhancing worker happiness and productivity? What does the future of the
office look like?
In this paper, I take a look at a series of short cases in two categories: one that describes the benefits of open office
space, and another that describes the drawbacks. Although I am interested specifically in the technology and
creative industries, the scope of how a space can impact workers can be broadened to the entirety of the
knowledge worker body. I then provide insight into how I will further incorporate my findings both in favour and
against open space in my further research.
Background: Opening and closing space
See Appendix.
The problem: Distracting open space
My hypothesis is that open office space is detrimental to worker satisfaction and to quality of output, especially for
workers that require extended periods of focus, such as those in the technology and creative industries. My goal is
to present an analytical framework to evaluate cases that both support and oppose my hypothesis. I plan to take
the learnings from analyzing these cases within a framework and apply them to my broader Major Research
Project (MRP), which focuses on the affordances of public shared spaces in empowering entrepreneurs,
freelancers, students, remote workers and others without traditional office space in completing tasks.
Countless research studies and my personal experience suggest that complex challenges take more than a few
minutes to solve. Constant conversation, interruption and distraction may generate great ideas, but it can prevent
the focused down time required to bring some of those great ideas to fruition. Too much distraction may prevent
the workers from having sustained periods of time to think and to work, reducing both creativity and productivity.
Furthermore, research shows that although open space can create a sense of cohesion and friendship, that sense of
cohesion can actually mask the true negative impacts of the frustrations that come with open office environments
(Konnikova 2014).
Nearly half of the workers surveyed in open space environments identified the lack of sound privacy as a problem,
and a third of the workers also identified visual privacy as a problem (Kaufman 2014). Researchers stated that
“the loss of productivity due to noise distraction … was doubled in open-plan offices compared to private offices”
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November 12, 2017
(Kaufman 2014). It is ironic that the main issue that open offices aim to solve—communication—has been
identified as a problem by fewer than 10% of all workers in any type of office (Kaufman 2014). Even more
ironically—workers in private offices were less likely to identify communication as a problem (Kaufman 2014).
Proponents of open environments argue that in order for us to fairly evaluate the performance of an open space
office compared to a private office, we need to redefine the productivity. According to Gallup, while it is true that
reduced privacy and increased interruption may lead to lower levels of code or visual output, it may increase the
rate of relevant output and reduce the amount of rework due to miscommunication (Mann 2014).
Analytical framework
My research question is what kind of environment best supports workers? As previously stated, my hypothesis is
that open office spaces are detrimental to workers based on parameters that define worker satisfaction and
success. I based these parameters on reading a number of cases and reviews. I am interested in the ability of a
space to sufficiently meet workers’ requirements in the following parameters:
● Sustained focus, concentration and attention
● Productivity and output
● Creative thinking
● Satisfaction
● Community and team cohesion
● Identifying with organizational, team or project mission and vision
● Identity as a worker
● Avoiding illness
I am curious about how these framework impacts workers across a number of senses, including:
● Sound
● Vision
● Tactile
● Smell
Table 1: Analytical framework to examine how space impacts worker
Think of the y-axis as the message, and the x-axis as the medium.
Sound Vision Tactile Smell
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Productivity and
output
Creative thinking
Satisfaction
Community and team
cohesion
Identifying with
organizational, team
or project mission and
vision
Identity as a worker
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November 12, 2017
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
Privacy
I acknowledge that everyone works differently, so the affordances of a space will not impact two people alike. My
MRP research dives deeper into reviewing how individual differences and personal habits are accommodated
differently by different spaces. From this analysis, I am curious to learn about common threads in how people
work, while acknowledging that there is no average.
Cases in favour of open space
Cases in favour of open space are defined as the case studies that highlight the positives of working in an open
space.
Case 1: Facebook employee
Facebook boasts the world’s largest single open office layout, with the sole room housing 2,800 employees
(Frankel 2015). Of those employees, the majority are engineers. The space was designed by architect Frank
Gehry (Frankel 2015).
Figure 1: Frank Gehry-designed open concept office at Facebook
Source:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/facebooks-new-headquarters-where-ope
n-plan-is-king-and-frictionless-working-is-the-aim-a6756426.html
One employee took to an Inc. Magazine column to defend the social networking giant. The defendant is Facebook
Product Designer Tanner Christensen, who has also written extensively on creativity (Christensen 2016). In
support of Facebook’s open concept office, Christensen lauds the focus on mobility and flexibility and the
provision of multiple types of working spaces available to any employee with a laptop. He highlights the
prominence of “Work from home Wednesdays”, a day reserved for few meetings when workers are permitted to
work from home for some heads-down time (Christensen 2016). He then states that noise-cancelling headphones
and 27-inch monitors are provided by the company on request—and that the tools can be viewed as visual and
auditory cues to avoid distracting the worker (Christensen 2016). Most importantly, the cues are minded and
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November 12, 2017
respected within the office culture. Finally, Christensen highlights the most commonly cited benefit of open
offices: chance encounters that offer cross-pollination of ideas and solutions.
In analyzing the source, I think I can be somewhat skeptical of Christensen’s case, as he may have felt there could
be career incentive in writing as positively as possible about his current employer.
See analytical framework Table 2 for Case 1 in Appendix.
Case 2: Mayor Bloomberg’s “Bullpen” office
Michael Bloomberg famously redesigned the New York City Mayor’s office when he became Mayor in the fall of
2001 (Barbaro 2013). He knocked down walls to create an open space likened to the trading floors where he began
his career (Barbaro 2013). Fifty cubicles with low dividers are fit into the small space, allowing for little privacy
but for maximum accessibility to Bloomberg (Barbaro 2013).
Bloomberg believes that being accessible to his chief executives is a defining leadership characteristic and is
symbolic of opening the government up for transparency (Barbaro 2013). He was a proponent of a more open
environment that is less focused on hierarchy, and he felt that the open office was the best design representation
of that (Barbaro 2013). His subordinates who enjoyed working in the open office layout cited the more
old-fashioned reason of being able to know what co-workers were doing as a bonus (Barbaro 2013).
Figure 4: Mayor Bloomberg’s “bullpen”
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/nyregion/bloombergs-bullpen-candidates-debate-its-future.html
As Bloomberg transitioned out of office, mayoral candidates showed their distaste for the open space, pointing out
that it’s difficult to concentrate in, that it may actually isolate the Mayor via too much noise, and that it confuses
the hierarchy and command structure (Barbaro 2013). Bloomberg resolutely disputed these claims, saying nothing
can be more important than being available, accessible, and open, and that that is the only way to run a successful
organization (Barbaro 2013).
In analyzing the source, I can appreciate that Michael Bloomberg is very much influenced by his background as a
trader and his experience working in the environment of a trading floor. I can also note that a lot of the benefit
that Bloomberg cited of the open space is symbolic, and not necessarily focused on impact to output.
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Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Case 3: The Bridgespan Group
The Bridgespan Group is a non-profit consulting group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Two executives from the
Group’s Boston office detail in The Harvard Business Review that after careful review of the challenges with open
office space, they went ahead and designed an office space anyway—and succeeded (Rosenberg & Campbell
2014).
The Group tackled the office redesign as a co-design challenge, involving employees from across the company, and
using the best and worst of open layout results as guidelines for what to do and what not to do (Rosenberg &
Campbell 2014). Six months prior to the writing of the article, the 70-person office was moved from two floors of
cubicles to a single top-floor open design (Rosenberg & Campbell 2014). The Group’s goal was to tear down
hierarchies, provide a more flexible working environment, and save on costs (Rosenberg & Campbell 2014). They
report that after six months in their new space, they are experiencing a greater amount of productivity, energy and
connectedness (Rosenberg & Campbell 2014).
In analyzing the source, I can point out that as executives at the Group who had significant input into the design of
the office and significant responsibility over recruitment, the partners are incentivized to provide a favourable
view. Additionally, this case is different in pertaining to a small organization and a small office (70 people
compared to the aforementioned 2,000+), with people working on tasks where cross-pollination of ideas may be
crucial (consulting compared to coding).
Figure 5: New office for The Bridgespan Group
Source: https://hbr.org/2014/10/an-open-office-experiment-that-actually-worked
Case 4: W&P Design in Brooklyn
W&P Design is an early-stage start-up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with 12 workers (Entis 2016). Although it is
definitely noisy, co-founders Eric Prum and Josh Williams state they think it’s the only way to work given that
their “workflow depends on collaboration” (Entis 2016). One example of this workflow success is when two
co-workers discussed the possibility of shutting down the concept for a Nacho cookbook (Entis 2016).
Eavesdropping colleagues turned around and convinced the others it was a good idea, and the group had an
impromptu brainstorming session for recipes (Entis 2016). The book was set for production as of the writing of
the article, permitted by the affordances of open space (Entis 2016).
In analyzing the source, I like this kind of case because it provides concrete proof for the benefit of an open office
layout, and acknowledges the important role that company context plays in office design.
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Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Figure 7: W&P open plan office
Source: http://fortune.com/2016/05/12/the-open-office-concept-is-dead/
Cases against open space
Cases against open space are defined as the case studies that highlight the negatives of working in an open space.
Case 1: Senior writer at an ad agency based in New York City
One senior writer at a New York City ad agency had the following to say about her move from a private office to a
shared space:
“Our new, modern Tribeca office was beautifully airy, and yet remarkably oppressive. Nothing
was private. On the first day, I took my seat at the table assigned to our creative department, next
to a nice woman who I suspect was an air horn in a former life. All day, there was constant
shuffling, yelling, and laughing, along with loud music piped through a PA system. As an
excessive water drinker, I feared my co-workers were tallying my frequent bathroom trips. At
day’s end, I bid adieu to the 12 pairs of eyes I felt judging my 5:04 p.m. departure time. I beelined
to the Beats store to purchase their best noise-cancelling headphones in an unmistakably visible
neon blue.” (Kaufman 2014)
On her very first day in an open office space, Kaufman sees a number of immediate problems with her new space.
Those problems included interrupted concentration through noise distraction, and fear of judgment and lack of
privacy from her co-workers.
In analyzing the source, I can say that Lindsey Kaufman is a writer in the advertising industry and has been
working in New York City for about a decade. This would indicate that she began her career during cubicle office
culture, and recently had to make the transition to open office space.
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Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Case 2: Reddit thread in response to Joel Polsky’s interview
Stack Overflow CEO Joel Polsky’s interview on the importance of privacy and concentration for worker
satisfaction and output inspired a lively thread on the site Reddit from developers supporting his claim:
● “The foosball table is right next to my desk in our office. Like, 10 meters away. I feel like I’m slowly going
crazy.” (Collins 2016)
● “Went from home, to private office, to open floor plan and it’s more difficult, for me at least, to
concentrate. Generally there’s a nerf war once a day, too.” (Collins 2016)
● “Currently quitting a job at an open plan office. My work rate is lower than when I worked at home with
my 6 month old daughter.” (Collins 2016)
● “I’ll take an open floor plan if I didn’t have to attend so many meetings that have nothing to do with me,
but my attendance is mandatory.” (Collins 2016)
● “Headphones give me a headache. Earplugs disorient me. Office noise—especially scrum meetings or half
a dozen people on the phone at the same time—make it difficult for me to think. Interruptions kill my
productivity because it can take me 10-15 minutes to get back to same mental state in the code that I had
before the interruption.” (Collins 2016)
In analyzing the source, I feel confident in assuming the validity of the claims, as most Reddit contributors assume
anonymous identities and can count on their confidentiality. They speak without repercussion. While anonymity
has the power to feed the negativity of Internet trolling, in this case, their comments are likely honest and accurate
to their experiences.
Case 3: Game Developer magazine study
The Game Developer magazine study came at the issue of interruption from a scientific approach, looking at the
cost of being interrupted and then quantifying that cost in a typical open office environment. The study found that
a programmer takes an average of 10 to 15 minutes to resume the work they were doing prior to an interruption
(Parnin 2013). Based on a typical open office setting, that would mean a programmer may get just a single
uninterrupted two-hour session daily (Parnin 2013).
Figure 3: Tracking the change in pupil diameter over time for individuals given tasks of varying difficulty
Source: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/190891/programmer_interrupted.php
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In analyzing the source, I think using biological science to make against the distractions of an open office layout is
an interesting alternative approach.
Case 4: My personal experience
I’m personally inspired to conduct this research as an introvert who works as a designer in an open space layout. I
find that in addition to the constant interruptions that pull me out of “deep work” (Newport 2016), I find myself
drained after a day of interacting and interfacing with people (instead of ideas). This impacts more than my
personal well-being—it also impacts my output. As a designer, I need heads-down time to think through solutions
and ideas in order to present them coherently. I find the open office layout prompts me to prioritize immediacy
over importance day after day. For that reason, I get my best and most important work done outside of working
hours.
Conclusion: The future of office space and the future of
my research
I conclude that the first and foremost most important aspect of designing efficient space is context. What may
work for one company, may not work for another. This is part of the problem with the recent trend toward blindly
accepting any innovation from San Francisco—it may work in the Bay area market, but it may not work in ours.
The case studies examined showed that open floor layouts may work in specific cases, where the office is small or a
start-up, and very much dependent on collaboration to define a workflow. It also seems to work with a different
definition of production: open office may be less helpful where the workers are required for traditional outputs,
like those of designers and coders, and more helpful where the workers are required for ideas, like consultants and
strategists.
This distinction begs that we ask the definition of production. Is production the lines of code written and the
wireframes produced, or is it a shift in the strategic direction of the company? Again, this comes down to context.
In fact, I think defining production at a strategic level often makes more sense for smaller, newer organizations
where employees sitting around their desks in an office can still bear impact on those kinds of decisions.
Regardless of the egalitarian vibe that large tech companies try to create with their vibe, it is still unlikely that
every developer will have the determining votes in the strategy of Facebook, as if it were a democracy.
This brings me to my next point: much of the benefit of open space seems to be symbolic. It is the symbolism of
egalitarianism, openness, transparency, community and collaboration that open spaces promote. That symbolism
is not without advantages, as studies prove that open offices do boost workers’ positive feelings (Konnikova 2014).
The issue, of course, is that there is yet to be a link proven between this positivity and any quantifiable outcome to
the company.
The quantification comes in with cost savings. It is undeniable in any of the cases laid out that one of the
motivators for the move toward open office was the relative cost saving of reduced square footage and less
structural build out. The question remains whether the cost-savings are worth the certain drop in output and job
satisfaction from workers, which can also lead to higher attrition.
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November 12, 2017
Christensen’s defense of the Facebook office space almost implicates it more than absolves it. In my analysis,
Christensen lauding “Work from home Wednesday” at his Facebook office and the flexibility to come in earlier or
stay later when it’s quiet is an admission of the company’s failure in providing sufficient quiet space at the office. I
feel similarly about his emphasizing the availability of 27-inch monitors and noise-cancelling headphones to act
both as personal concentration aides and as social cues to co-workers: sounds like a last attempt to do work
amidst chaos.
The office of the future will likely have a flexible, hybrid layout with a mixture of cubicles, offices and open space.
The office of the future will also likely promote a culture where workers can take advantage or privacy or
collaboration as needed, and where taking social cues will be encouraged. As identified in some of these cases, it’s
not alway that there is no available private space—it’s also that when everyone expects to see everyone all the
time, it can be frowned upon to remove yourself from the situation; similarly, it’s not always that headphones and
monitors don’t work to block out the distraction, it’s that co-workers ignore the social cues and interrupt you via
tactility anyway. These points emphasize the importance of a culture, which we can call the system, being built
around the office, which we can call the feature.
My further research for my Major Research Project will examine how freelancers, entrepreneurs, students and
remote workers are accommodated in the shared public spaces where people commonly work in Toronto, and look
at the greater impact that the availability of shared space has on both individual worker satisfaction and also on
the greater economy. I will use the learnings from these case studies on the affordances of different types of spaces
as a framework to inform my analysis of the shared spaces.
Appendix
Background: Opening and closing space
The style of office layouts is almost as cyclical as the style for denim, but arguably more impactful. Most recently,
the open space layout has been ushered in by Silicon Valley tech giants in favour of collaboration and rebellion
against “The Man”. Like many Bay area innovations, the open space layout has subsequently been adopted by over
70% of all companies in North America; and like many Bay area innovations, applying the innovation outside of
the Bay area context does not create the same kind of solution. Ironically, the open office solution makes perhaps
the least sense in the Bay area, where whiz technologists require hours of heads-down time free from interruption
to execute on the cutting-edge technology.
The problem that open offices attempt to address is collaboration and communication among co-workers, which
strategists say can lead to cross-pollination of great ideas, shortcuts in execution, and scrapping bad ideas earlier.
However, collaboration was identified as a problem among a relatively minimal 10% of the workers surveyed in all
kinds of offices, with the number ironically being lower for workers in private offices as compared to their
counterparts in open space offices (Kaufman 2014).
When Facebook opened the world’s then largest open concept office to house 2,800 developers, industry leaders
criticized the design (Frankel 2015). Joel Spolsky, CEO of Stack Overflow said:
“I think Facebook was very pleased with themselves, that they had built what they thought was
the ultimate, most amazing place for developers,” he said. “And if you went to Hacker News and
read the comments, 99.98% of the comments said, ‘I would hate to work there.” (Collins 2016)
Spolsky said that at his three companies—Stack Overflow, Trello and Fog Creek Software—developers are able to
work from home or have private offices with natural sunlight (Collins 2016).
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Figure 2: CEO of Stack Overflow discusses why open office space doesn’t work for developers
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=R1V8OUOb-Hw
Apple has outdone Facebook with its new headquarters, Apple Park, which houses 12,000 people, a lot of it in the
open space layout (Marks 2017).
Figure 1: Apple Campus 2
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2017/08/16/some-apple-employees-may-quit-
over-new-open-office-floor-plan/?utm_term=.383c9bf72f5b
Nonetheless, open office layouts are attractive for reasons beyond their affordances for collaboration: they offer
cost savings to companies of up to 50% per employee, as they save on both space and structural build-out (Dizik
2016). The economic recession of 2008 sped up the transition toward open spaces, as organizations looked for
every possible cost-saving (Dizik 2016). In his blog, developer Nathan Marz surfaced a lower but still impressive
number of an average of 9.2% cost saving per employee in an open space (Marz 2014). He, however, argued that if
employee productivity fell more than 10% as a result of being distracted in an open save, than the cost-saving
becomes merely a cost (Marz 2014).
The concept for the open office was officially conceived in the 1950s by a team in Hamburg, Germany, (Konnikova
2014), but in reality, the open office space has been around longer than that. Post offices in the 1920s were open
offices, as were many other working spaces.
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Figure 1: Washington, 1923. "Stamp Division, Post Office."
Source: http://www.shorpy.com/node/4322
In its day, it was the cubicle that served as the antidote to the issues found in the open offices prevalent in the
1950s. The cubicle was invented in 1964 as an ‘action office’ by Robert Propst, chief executive at Herman Miller
(Entis 2014). The action office was meant to address the stark lack of privacy suffered by junior employees and the
lack of autonomy and control they felt over their environment (Entis 2014). Propst hoped that the action office
would liberate employees from scrutiny and allow them to choose their posture and position throughout the day
(Entis 2014). His prototype was made from high-quality adjustable panels that allowed workers to choose to sit or
stand (Entis 2014).
Figure 4: ‘Action office’ concept that became the cubicle
Source: http://fortune.com/2016/05/12/the-open-office-concept-is-dead/
Propst’s prototype became the cubicle when interpreted for mass production, becoming a different kind of symbol
for oppression over the years, inspiring iconic stories like Mike Judge’s 1999 cult classic Office Space, set in a
bleak cubicle environment.
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Figure 6: Scene from Office Space, breaking out of the cubicle trap
Source: Office Space
So goes the trend cycle.
Analytical framework tables
Table 2: Tanner Christensen at Facebook
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Good -
noise-cancelling
headphones
Fair - 27-inch monitor
Productivity and
output
Creative thinking Good -
cross-pollination of
ideas due to chance
encounters
Satisfaction High
Community and team
cohesion
High
Identifying with
vision
High
Avoiding illness Able to work from
home when feeling
under the weather
Autonomy and
control over
environment
“Work from home
Wednesday’s”
Privacy None None
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Table 3: Bloomberg at the “Bullpen”
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Loud No privacy
Productivity and
output
Difficult to
concentrate
Creative thinking Access to a lot of
different officials
Satisfaction High - Open
government
Community and team
cohesion
High - Team
camaraderie
Identifying with
vision
High
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
Low
Privacy None None None
Table 4: The Bridgespan Group new office
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Flexible layout
Productivity and
output
Flexible layout
Creative thinking More impromptu
meetings and
collaboration
Satisfaction High - Open
government
Community and team
cohesion
High - Team
camaraderie
Identifying with
High
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November 12, 2017
vision
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
Significant - flexible
work spaces
Privacy
Table 5: W&P Brooklyn office
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Noisy
Productivity and
output
Creative thinking More impromptu
ideas and effective
cross-pollination
Satisfaction
Community and team
cohesion
High
Identifying with
vision
High
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
Limited Limited
Privacy Lacking Lacking
Table 6: New York City ad agency
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Constant shuffling,
yelling and laughing,
along with loud music
piped through the PA
system
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Jen Serdetchnaia
November 12, 2017
Productivity and
output
Creative thinking
Satisfaction Low
Community and team
cohesion
Fear of judgment
Identifying with
vision
High
Identity as a worker Lack of privacy
impacts identity
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
None None
Table 7: Coders on Reddit
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Headphones are
insufficient, social
cues ignored
Screens are
insufficient, social
cues ignored
Constant physical
interruptions
Productivity and
output
Decreasing Decreasing
Creative thinking Takes time to get back
to creative
problem-solving after
interrupted
Satisfaction Low Low Low
Community and team
cohesion
Indifferent
Identifying with
vision
Indifferent
Identity as a worker Lack of privacy
impacts identity
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
None None
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Table 8: Game Developer magazine study
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Breaks focus Breaks focus Breaks focus
Productivity and
output
Drops significantly Drops significantly
Creative thinking Takes 10-15 minutes
to get back to output
levels
Satisfaction Low Low Low
Community and team
cohesion
Indifferent
Identifying with
vision
Indifferent
Avoiding illness
Autonomy and
control over
environment
Privacy
Table 9: My personal experience
Sustained focus,
concentration and
attention
Conversations Interruptions
Productivity and
output
Drops significantly Drops significantly
Creative thinking Some benefit from
side conversations
Satisfaction
Community and team
cohesion
Increased Increased
Identifying with
vision
Increased
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Jen Serdetchnaia
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Avoiding illness Sick more often
Autonomy and
control over
environment
None
Privacy Low Low Low
References
Barbaro, Michael. “The bullpen Bloomberg built: Candidates debate its future.” 22 Mar 2013. The New York Times. Accessed
20 Oct 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/nyregion/bloombergs-bullpen-candidates-debate-its-future.html
Christensen, Tanner. “How Facebook keeps employees happy in the world’s largest open office.” 9 Mar 2016. Inc. Accessed 25
Oct 2017.
https://www.inc.com/tanner-christensen/how-facebook-keeps-employees-happy-in-the-worlds-largest-open-office.html
Collins, Keith. “Programmers really hate open floor plans.” 12 Oct 2016. Quartz. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.
https://qz.com/806583/programmers-hate-open-floor-plans/
Dizik, Alina. “Open offices are losing some of their openness.” 2 Oct 2016. The Wall Street Journal. Accessed 2 Nov 2017.
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