This one is for your Boss

I was doing my mourning readings when I found this post on Joel Spolsky's Blog (Fog Creek, Joel's company, recently changed to a new office, were every one gets its own private space).

For the ones that work on an Open-plan and don't like to, follow this article to your boss.

What does it says?

It talks about some scientific study from the Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (what a large name!) from Australia. They concluded that switching to the modern open-plan offices led to lower productivity and higher worker stress.

Take a look on what they said (I think this is no novelty for the ones that work on open-plan offices, but now there's a scientific study to use as support)

"The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.''

"The problem is that employers are always looking for ways to cut costs, and using open-plan designs can save 20 per cent on construction.''