TIL my office's open layout is actually killing our productivity

I visited a client site in Austin last Thursday and noticed their whole operations floor was split into small pods with half-walls. Everyone had headphones on but nobody was talking. My company just redid our space with zero barriers and glass everywhere... and people say it encourages collaboration. But I saw real numbers from that Austin office: their ticket resolution time was 40% faster than ours. I think we got sold on the trendy open concept without asking if it actually works for getting stuff done. Has anyone else seen a company move back to private setups and see real improvement?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_allen1mo ago

Has your company actually measured productivity before and after the layout change? Ngl, I’ve seen this exact thing happen at a place I used to work. We switched from cubicles to an open plan and everyone hated it, but management claimed it was more collaborative. The weird part was, our team started finishing projects slower, not faster. People couldn’t focus with all the chatter and glass walls. After six months, they actually put some of the half-walls back in certain zones, and our output went up noticeably. Tbh, it’s not about what looks trendy, it’s about what lets people actually do their work without constant distraction.

aaron6771mo ago

You make some fair points but I wonder if the difference is really all about the layout. Maybe that Austin office has better management or a different type of work culture. Plenty of studies show open offices can be noisy and distracting for sure but lots of people also thrive with a little background buzz. It might be that your company just has different kinds of tasks or expectations. Hard to pin it all on the walls or lack of them.

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