Open Plan Office Space? If You're Going to Do It, Do It Right: A Fourteen-Month Longitudinal Case Study

Abstract

There are compelling findings that open-plan office environments are associated with declines in employee wellbeing. In spite of this, the move towards shared office environments continues; yet there is a lack of research describing open-plan offices that have positive outcomes for workers. We describe a “best practice” open-plan fit-out of a law firm and provide data from occupants relating to their performance, well-being, and collegial relationships. Six months after moving to an open-plan office, staff were anonymously surveyed, and 24 were interviewed. Fourteen months later, occupants responded to a follow-up survey. Positive outcomes relating to aesthetics, collegiality, and communication were achieved through good technical design and thoughtful ergonomic assessment of the needs of employees and the requirements of their tasks. A gender difference emerged whereby female, but not male, workers in this environment reported feeling observed. This has implications for the relatively different impact these environments may have on workers. Thus, by following ergonomic principles to create open-plan offices that are ‘safe by design’ organizations can ameliorate many of the negative consequences associated with these environments.