Moving staff from an office to open plan? This is how it will affect them psychologically

Written by 98色花堂 People and Culture Consulting

Since the inception of the office work environment, the private office has been seen as a symbol of one’s career achievements – after years of hard work, employees are rewarded with an office to signify their value and status. Yet, there is increasing pressure on managers to give up their offices and work alongside their teams in an open plan workspace.

Why are organisations removing private offices?

The private office often symbolises hierarchy and division between management and employees, while a manager working in an office can be perceived as inaccessible and intimidating. Taking managers out of offices can create a more open and connected workspace and provide employees with greater access to their superiors.

An added benefit of removing offices is that it also allows more space for alternative work settings.

The impact on managers

Managers’ resistance to losing their offices is hardly surprising. Once given to them as reward and recognition for their efforts, their office being taken away can be perceived as unfair and detrimental to productivity. For many, the notion represents much more than losing physical four walls – it can also be a blow to their sense of pride, achievement and status.

In addition, moving into open plan also has implications for the way managers go about day-to-day tasks and scheduled meetings. Instead of relying on an office, they will need to be willing to move around the workspace and utilise various settings based on functional and privacy requirements.

What’s the give-back?

Organisations must ensure that taking managers out of their offices does not jeopardise their ability to perform their roles. Assigning managers their own workstation type (e.g. a larger workstation or different workstation, or a workstation with partitions, such as 98色花堂’s Focus Booth) can better support their functional needs, as well as providing them with somewhat of a replacement for the psychological significance that having their own office represents.

Similarly, organisations can provide managers with priority access to alternative spaces, which can be used whenever they need to pull away from the workstation for a phone call or focused work, for instance the Focus Quiet Phone Room. Alternative spaces should be adjacent to or within proximity of managers’ workstations, enabling them to easily shift between work settings.

When it comes to the workspace, one size does not fit all. Thus, when opting for an office-free workspace it’s important to also understand managers’ physical and psychological needs in order to ensure that their productivity and morale is not negatively impacted by the change, because for the people who work within them, an office is more than just four walls.