Does your workplace make you stupid?

I was wandering around in a client's office recently and was simply overwhelmed by the number of people who were "hot desking" on one floor.  That is, most of these people have no permanent home in the office, they simply come in and pick up any materials and go to the first open desk.  Many actually work from home and come in for meetings or other events.  They all had access to a PC, a computer monitor and about three feet of desk space, but the partitions were only about 3 feet high and there were people on the left and the right within three or four feet.  Conversations on the phone had to be taken in other areas since the people were so close together.

I recognize that flexible design and smart allocation of floor space is all the rage.  Permanent offices gave way to cubicles, which are now giving way to working from home or hot desking.  However, these trends don't portend well for knowledge workers.  I think in many cases these office situations create difficulties in working together and in coherent organized thought.

Right now I am writing this is a hotel room and can clearly hear the conversation in the next room.  It is hard to keep a clear train of thought even though the voices are muffled.  In many offices, including my own, people who work in cubicles wear headphones to listen to music or simply block out the surrounding noise.  There are two issues with this - cubicles and hot desks were supposed to make the "free flow" of information and communication easier.  Since so much of our work is caught up in communication, many of us have to actively  block out all the conversation around us.  And, as we block it out, we become less aware to what's going on.  Additionally, if you want to have a private conversation, you almost have to go outside or in the hallway to speak to someone without everyone else overhearing your call, so this just distracts individuals from work.

We often ask people for their best thoughts and best thinking, yet we place them in work situations - cubes, hot desks and conference rooms - that are not meant to promote good thinking.  Cubes and hot desks were developed more for space planning and flexibility, not for quiet contemplation or thinking.  Conference rooms, however, probably belong in one of Dante's levels of hell.  Who can get anything done in most conference rooms?  Too often they are too small, too poorly lit and nothing seems to work in any of the conference rooms I've been in.  Going into some conference rooms is almost like entering a jail cell.

Next, consider the decoration and personalization of the office space.  In one client's space I was in recently, the client noted that individuals had two choices about their cubes - whether or not to have a specific shelf or a coat hook.  Everything else was defined in advance.  Everything was dull gray, every cube like every other cube.  A vista of sameness distinguished only by random shelves or coat hooks.  The wall are beige or grey, with drop ceiling tiles.  Little natural light.  Must  escape  dullness ....

As managers we ask people to commit a significant portion of their time and their thinking to the benefit of our firms, yet we stick them in work situations and environments that are more attuned to prison cells that creative workspaces that inspire new thinking.  I saw a great ad by HSBC that asks - if we all think alike, how will anything ever change?  I guess the concept in workspace planning is - if we all work in exactly the same dull workspace, we won't risk creativity or new ideas.

Would it hurt to give people who need to think and create the ability to design their workspace?  How about a little color on the walls?  Or a quiet place to ponder and generate ideas that isn't like solitary confinement?  Instead of overcoming our work environments, they should be places that draw us in and stimulate our thinking. 

Comments

[Craig March]

I think that most employees are never in the position to question their working environment. For instance, if your relatively new to a company you don't want to cause a problem during your probationary period (not that you should be sacked for something like that, but you don't want to put the impression in your colleagues heads that you awkward). It's also very tricky to have any control over your environment in an open plan office when it's not clear where your area begins and ends. You also have to consider your colleagues and all in all it becomes such a mess you decide to stick with what you've got.

Management on the other hand...