Don’t Get Too Comfortable at That Desk
- 7 years ago
Don’t Get Too Comfortable at That Desk
Since 2014, IBM has spent $380 million renovating its work spaces in the United States, which now bear all the hallmarks
of the new hybrid design — open spaces, whiteboard walls, no offices, sit-or-stand desks, huddle rooms and phone rooms.
IBM, for example, recently called 5,000 of its at-home employees back to offices, though
one in five workers in North America still work from home full time, the company said.
A diversity of spaces, experts say, is more productive,
and the new concept is called “activity-based workplace design,” tailoring spaces for the kind of work done.
Too much openness can cause workers to “do a turtle,” researchers say,
and retrench and communicate less — colleagues who retreat into their headphones all day, for example
Today, there are more private spaces, and the team areas hold only eight to 12 engineers.
The contrast with the cavernous offices and silent hallways of the old headquarters in suburban Connecticut
could scarcely be more striking — open spaces, sit-or-stand desks, and no parking spaces.
“When used as a generic answer for work space design, it’s terrible,” said David Lathrop, a researcher at Steelcase, a big office furniture maker.
But the hybrid design saves less than entirely open designs, which usually have workbench settings
and in which the amount of space can drop to as low as 60 square feet per worker.
Since 2014, IBM has spent $380 million renovating its work spaces in the United States, which now bear all the hallmarks
of the new hybrid design — open spaces, whiteboard walls, no offices, sit-or-stand desks, huddle rooms and phone rooms.
IBM, for example, recently called 5,000 of its at-home employees back to offices, though
one in five workers in North America still work from home full time, the company said.
A diversity of spaces, experts say, is more productive,
and the new concept is called “activity-based workplace design,” tailoring spaces for the kind of work done.
Too much openness can cause workers to “do a turtle,” researchers say,
and retrench and communicate less — colleagues who retreat into their headphones all day, for example
Today, there are more private spaces, and the team areas hold only eight to 12 engineers.
The contrast with the cavernous offices and silent hallways of the old headquarters in suburban Connecticut
could scarcely be more striking — open spaces, sit-or-stand desks, and no parking spaces.
“When used as a generic answer for work space design, it’s terrible,” said David Lathrop, a researcher at Steelcase, a big office furniture maker.
But the hybrid design saves less than entirely open designs, which usually have workbench settings
and in which the amount of space can drop to as low as 60 square feet per worker.