Nice article from our friend Brian out in Vancouver… 1-800-GOT-JUNK? is a Plank Client. We currently work in a very open environment and would suffer if we had private offices… plus the level of joking and day-to-day harassment would go way down !! Even the new “half wall’s” we are building are slatted so you can hear/see through them.
“Have you ever considered an open-concept office environment? Some of the world’s fastest-growing companies have made the strategic decision against private offices — Amazon, Bloomberg and CNN, to name a few.
Our decision to join the open-concept club was strategic, but it didn’t start off that way. Back in 1996, we employed eight people in a 500-square-foot room. (It was purely a cost-saving mechanism, since rent is a significant overhead for any new business.) When we outgrew our space, we moved into 1,700 square feet. This meant I could finally have my own office, which offered privacy, a distraction-free zone and a place for holding a meeting anytime. Nice!
But it didn’t take long for me to miss being out in the open. I felt disconnected from the team, and always seemed to hear news a lot later than I was used to. The pros of my own private space were quickly being outweighed by the cons.”