Open-plano-phobic?

I worked from home for 12 years. The isolation nearly drove me crazy.

I was hugely productive (I’d rather write stories than put on a load of washing any day) and it was incredibly convenient from the point of view of childcare but returning to work in the office was a big relief.

It seems counter-intuitive. After all, I lived in a beachside town. My home office, a dedicated space, overlooked the waves crashing on the beach, the ever-changing skies. The walk to my daughter’s childcare centre was three minutes and as soon as I finished my work day, I was ready to relax with her and her mates at home or in the local park. (Actually, it was pretty good!)

After a few years, I discovered I was out of touch. I didn’t overhear my colleagues’ casual conversations – with the juicy and often relevant titbits of information – that enriched my stories and contacts. I missed the casual social contact with other adults that work provides – the chats, the laughs, whinging about editors and other managers. I missed opportunities, assignments, promotions. I lost touch what people wear day-to-day in the office or to evening events.

Offices are about collaboration, which is why the trend towards open-plan (although cutting costs is also a factor).

However, collaboration does not happen because people sit together in a big space with linked desks and low dividers between them. Lack of privacy can actually inhibit collaboration, new research shows. In a feature in Harvard Business Review, “Who Moved My Cube” the authors assert that “privacy” is a key element of fostering informal office collaboration.

The other two crucial elements (also starting with P) are “proximity” of shared spaces to hubs of activity and “permission” from managers for staff to chat, exchange ideas, and form stronger bonds.

Separate offices with doors and locks are not the answer ... it’s about alcoves, or nooks where people can shift when a casual coffee-making conversation becomes more private, more intense. We want privacy, but we also want to know who can see us talking, who is approaching. Maybe we will break from our collaboration to keep it private, or to include the person approaching us.

Photocopiers are great collaborative tools. No-one understands how to use them, so conversations start and some deepen. Having the mindless and mechanical process of photocopying in the background helps give us permission to chat.

No leader can legislate collaboration; sharing is a choice. Common spaces where conversations are overhead by managers don’t work. Simple rituals that evolve organically, such as a group afternoon tea, can create just the right mix of social and professional exchange.

Now I understand how sometimes whole days go by at the office without me saying much to my colleagues, despite the fact that I can see the tops of their skulls over the office partition. There is plenty of space for us to chat – and it’s a lovely office – but the common spaces are not all that they could be. There is just a little privacy, a little permission and a little proximity and it results in just a little collaboration.

On the other hand, our building’s coffee shop, The Hub, is a model of collaborative design. Bench tables allow for eating alone, possibly chatting to your neighbour, or reading the paper. Tables with armchairs are great for meetings or interviews. There is a coffee-fuelled buzz of ideas and interactions. There is a nook on a mezzanine quiet enough to tape an interview, and tables and seats even further away as quiet as a library.

So let’s not bag open-plan offices. Let’s make sure they are designed really well and they will make our work life more fun and create opportunities and friendships we never thought possible.

Do you agree? Write and tell me your views.

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