Open office vs small cabinets

[McLaren]

What do you prefer? Open space office or small cabinets?

I see that there are lot of good companies with open spaced offices. But I like small cabinets because of privacy. And especially it makes me tired when the tables are such that you sit in front of other worker. You have no privacy - he will see if you are happy or if you are sad or whatever. But people usually think that by default you always should be happy. And starts wondering if you look not happy. And this makes pressure to look happy. And pressure makes you tired.

Why do others like open space offices?

Some arguments are that its good for experience sharing - more discussion happens when there are no walls.

I think that might be true but still does not outhweight the lack of privacy.

Another thing what might be - companies might try to sell open spaced office by telling you will be more productive, experience sharing, but actually what they want to do - to have more cheaper space. Walls take space.

But then if you are good employee, who worked hard to reach your goal, and you spend huge amount of time - are you not deserved to get the best?

Or maybe its just my illusion that many good companies have such open space offices, maybe there are various companies?

[jwenting]

open plan offices were heavily promoted in the 1970s and '80s as being "better" than individual offices, and many companies to them like fish to water because it's much cheaper to do things that way and shift people around.

It's now been found that it's less effective than smaller rooms, with say 3-4 people to a room that work together closely. But many companies still sit in those big open plan buildings and more such buildings keep being built, except now they're marketed as "flex work environments", hailed as the next big thing where people no longer have their own desk at all, allowing the company to do away with numerous desks especially if they have a fixed percentage of remote workers (say everyone works remotely one day a week, they can now get away with 20% less floor space).

Cubicles are just a way to partition the open plan office into smaller cells. Few of the benefits of individual offices, few of the benefits of open plan as well.

[vegaseat]

I can not imagine working in one of those open office spaces. There are simply too many distractions to think properly.

[Reverend Jim]

Manitoba Hydro built a state-of-the-art head office in downtown Winnipeg a few years ago using the open office paradigm. They soon found that the noise from adjacent areas was too distracting and had to extend the walls around the meeting areas to the ceiling, which disrupted the airflow which relied on there being no walls.

[jwenting]

sounds typical of office buildings across Europe, Jim...
Of course the managers, HR, and facilities management always get their own floor with real offices, indicating their special status in the company as compared to the worker bees.

[Reverend Jim]

Of course they do. When my older son was about to enter school, the closest English school was built on the open-area concept because, of course, everyone knows that young children are never distracted by what's happening in other areas around them, right? We put our boys in French Immersion instead (but not just for that reason). That school has long since been revamped to eliminate the open areas.

i prefer a small cabinet or cubicle. There is less chance of me getting distracted by other people or other people interrupting me.

[mike_2000_17]

I think the best is offices for 2-4 people. It's private, yet social. That's my 2 cents.

[strikeymate]

I like my privacy... if you know what I mean :)

[sneekula]

I like those small cubicles, you can decorate them to your likes.