Why Do People Love Open Offices?
Some people just need an audience
Most of us are facing the reality that someday, somehow, we will have to return to an office.
A few lucky people work at places that have decided to go 100% remote, but for those of us whose employers don’t follow as many #VanLife Instagram accounts, we’re slowly coming to terms with the idea of leaving our cozy little standing desk in the living room and rejoining the huddled masses at our standing desk in a much larger room. At least this one has exposed beams.
It will be nice to see colleagues in 3D again, but what about productivity? Open office plans worked for the industrial weaving process 30 years ago when your company’s headquarters was a blanket factory, but it’s less conducive to the work you’re doing today.
It’s loud. There are distractions. People wander around and make eye contact and engage you in conversation when you very clearly have Stack Overflow Googling to do. But some people seem to thrive in this environment.
Why do some people love open offices?
Maybe they need an audience.
The idea of social facilitation, first discussed in 1965 by Robert Zajonc, indicates that people perform differently when working with others than when alone…
