Corporate Office Market Pulling Away from Fully Open-Plan Environments

New York, NY, October 3, 2016—The corporate office market is pulling back from the open-office environment somewhat, according to a Wall Street Journal article called Open Offices Are Losing Some of Their Openness.

“Many studies show how open-plan office spaces can have negative effects on employees and productivity,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “As a result, companies are adding soundproof rooms, creating quiet zones and rearranging floor plans to appeal to employees eager to escape disruptions at their desk.”

Companies are “not providing sufficient variety in spaces,” says David Lehrer, a researcher at the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley. Lehrer studies the impact of office designs on employees, and lack of “speech privacy” is currently a significant problem, he says.

Companies are stopping short, however, of actually returning to traditional-style offices; instead, they are looking for ways to create privacy zones amid otherwise open-office plans.

The full article is available here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/open-offices-are-losing-some-of-their-openness-1475460662.