\n\nThe original rationale for the open-plan office, aside from saving space and money, was to foster communication among workers, the better to coax them to collaborate and innovate. But it turned out that too much communication sometimes had the opposite effect: a loss of privacy, plus the urgent desire to throttle one\u00e2\u0080\u0099s neighbor.
\n\u00e2\u0080\u009cMany studies show that people have shorter and more superficial conversations in open offices because they\u00e2\u0080\u0099re self-conscious about being overheard,\u00e2\u0080\u009d said Anne-Laure Fayard, a professor of management at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University who has studied open offices. \u00e2\u0080\u009cEveryone is still experimenting with ways to balance the need for collaboration and the need for privacy.\u00e2\u0080\u009d
\nTake Mr. Udeshi\u00e2\u0080\u0099s office, at the N.Y.U.-Poly business incubator, a SoHo loft with dozens of start-up companies housed in low cubicles. The entrepreneurs there say they sometimes get useful ideas from overheard conversations but also find themselves retreating to a bathroom or a broom closet for private chats. When they have to discuss a delicate matter with someone sitting next to them, they often use e-mail or instant messaging.
\n\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou talk to more people in an open office, but I think you have fewer meaningful conversations,\u00e2\u0080\u009d said Jonathan McClelland, an energy consultant working in the loft. \u00e2\u0080\u009cYou end up getting interrupted a lot by people\u00e2\u0080\u0099s random thoughts.\u00e2\u0080\u009d
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via From Cubicles, Cry for Quiet Pierces Office Buzz - NYTimes.com.
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