All the human resource department expects of staff is to produce their work on time — whether they work at home or in open plan spaces at the office does not matter.
Referring to each other by their first names and their casual attire make the workplace informal space where an open plan office works for all, including the boss.
Your employer must have had a good reason to adopt the closed office plan.
My employer recently re-designed the office and introduced confined work stations. I feel that my performance has dropped due to this new arrangement compared to the old open office plan. Is this psychological?”
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Your question seems fairly straight forward. The issue of open versus confined offices has preoccupied management teams all over the world for many years.
There cannot be a simple yes or no answer and so let us go back to basics.
Why did your employer decide to change from one office plan to another? Is it because the open plan office was not working?
If it was not working for the organisation, what were the reasons for this problem? Was it the nature of the business or was it due to the type of staff.
Might it have something to do with confidentiality issues where different members of staff work on such sensitive projects that other staff pose a risk to security? The other possibility is that staff members may have been noted spending endless hours gossiping.
The company might have decided to change the office plan as a way of doing away with gossip.
We simply do not know why the company has adopted this more expensive way of utilising space.
You also seek to know if different personality types perform well or badly depending on the type of office they work in.
The answer is that introverted people find it hard to work in open plan offices because they are disturbed by the “noise” that is often created by their colleagues at work. If such an introvert is an accounts clerk who deals mainly with audit, he might welcome an office in which he works alone without any form of disturbance.
An extrovert whose job entails a great deal of consultations with colleagues in sales, marketing and design teams could see an enclosed office as a type of prison.
This brings us to the corner office and who occupies that space.
In traditional company structures the boss is a well-known person whose title could be CEO. Other occupiers of the corner office could be the chief financial officer or chief operating officer.
In companies with vertical structures these people have personal offices where they deal with day to day as well as confidential matters of the company.
It is in these offices where discussions and decisions to change from open to closed office plans are made.
In recent times some companies, especially in the information technology sector, have adopted more flat structures where the boss is no longer Mr Okoth. The 50-year-old CEO is simply James or Ciru. He comes to work in a T-shirt and jeans and like Steve Jobs he does not wear socks and prefers to be barefoot.
Ciru works flexi time and is often at home where she finds it easiest “to think”.
Casual attire
All the human resource department expects of staff is to produce their work on time — whether they work at home or in open plan spaces at the office does not matter.
Referring to each other by their first names and their casual attire make the workplace informal space where an open plan office works for all, including the boss.
Your employer must have had a good reason to adopt the closed office plan. For the above reasons, it is impossible for us to tell if you have a psychological challenge in your new office or not.
It is possible that in time you will enjoy the new working arrangement.
If, on the other hand, it is difficult to find peace at the workplace it might be wise to consult an expert.
If you find both the workplace and social space stressful, then you might be going through early stages of depression.
