With the latest office space trends primarily aimed at open-plan offices and hot-desking, office space design is something that has experienced radical change over the last 50 years or so.
The ‘googleification’ trend of office space design that started in the early to mid-2000s was by far the biggest modification that the industry has ever experienced.
If you want to get in on this particular trend of office spacing you’ll have to create an open space filled with quirky designs and practice hot-desking – a situation where employees do not have a fixed workstation, rather they choose where they will sit each morning.
Is it time to re-configure your office space? If yes, is this an option that you’d like to further explore? Does this revolutionary office trend actually work? Let’s see what the research suggests.
Office Partitioning Experts
A recent study on office spaces highlights that this casual approach to work stations can in fact decrease productivity. The findings state that although open-plan office space offer numerous benefits such as easier communication and teamwork possibilities, it does have the disadvantages of lack of privacy, distraction and the constant struggle of workspace cleanliness.
The study highlighted that although providing larger desks may seem like the obvious solution to increase communication between employees, 30% of workers in partition-less offices complain about the lack of space and the need to have some breathing room.
Furthermore, this same study showed that occupant’s satisfaction on the issue of interaction was actually higher among employees that work in private offices. It concluded that although there is an increase in overall workspace satisfaction among open-plan office workers, the factors that caused this failed to offset the widespread negative impacts of limited privacy and high noise levels.
Having read the above, how do you feel about open-plan offices and the hot new trend of hot-desking? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
First Floors Mezzanine (UK) Ltd specialise in all aspects of mezzanine floors & flooring, including mezzanine floor design, manufacture and installation, suspended ceilings and partitioning.
