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Open Plan Offices Kill Productivity. Here's What to Do Instead.

22 points| walterbell | 6 years ago |readwrite.com | reply

10 comments

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[+] edisonchee|6 years ago|reply
> Thankfully, you don’t have to play the guessing game when it comes to your team’s productivity. Time-tracking software like Time Doctor lets you keep a watchful eye on your employees from afar. This software monitors workplace activity by tracking time use, taking screenshots of employee computers and providing analytics on potential poor time use. Through this data, you can glean insights into your team’s productivity and even monitor your workers – without paying for an office.

Earlier on the author cited research that open office architecture makes everyone more observable or 'transparent', which dampens office productivity. And then suddenly this? I couldn't take the author seriously after I got to this part.

[+] hc91|6 years ago|reply
Completely agree.
[+] julianlam|6 years ago|reply
Working from home is not a silver bullet for solving the "open office problem", sufficient privacy afforded to employees is, although for individual employees, flex time and WFH days have their advantages.

For small businesses without offices, what would an appropriate solution be, cubicles?

I'm personally not someone who can work from home every single day. I enjoy going into the office and often get more done despite losing two hours to public transit.

[+] eldelshell|6 years ago|reply
The best office space I worked at was divided in 6-8 persons rooms. Each team had their own conference room isolated from the rest. It was kind of a mix between cubicles and open space. It isolated us from other parts of the business (sales, management, etc) but allowed fast & easy collaboration between team members.
[+] stunt|6 years ago|reply
The article is mentioning remote work as the solution. But I was expecting to see an office design solution after reading the title.
[+] TheChaplain|6 years ago|reply
How about letting employees choose themselves?

Certainly there are those who are super-productive in open-space, and those who are more efficient in closed offices, cubicles or working from home.

This is 2019, we have and enormous selection of tools that makes it possible to work from just about anywhere.

[+] sicnus|6 years ago|reply
This felt like a sly advert for Time Doctor.