You read that right - according to Peopleware: productive projects and teams, most organizations are guilty of taking their office space and layout for granted and for “half-assing” and “cube-stacking” people at the expense of productivity to save a few lousy dollars; unfortunately, these companies are NOT saving any money at all - in fact, they are losing money. Greedy bastards :0)

In a study of 92 organizations, companies were ranked and categorized into four quartiles of performance. The top performing quartile of companies (the top 25%) worked 11.1 times faster than the last quartile of companies. What was the major difference? Besides the fact that high performers like to hang out with other high performers, it was office space. That’s right: office space.

High performing companies (i) had larger work areas, (ii) is acceptably quiet, and (iii) is acceptably private among other things.

Moreover, Peopleware estimates that interruptions (i.e. phone calls) can sap up to 20 minutes of productive time. How? Disruption of flow. It can take up to 15 to 20 minutes for someone to get back into the “zone” or the “flow” of things. For example, let’s say that you’re a programmer and your boss constantly walks in on you throughout the day, how much time and mental might did it take to get back to doing what you were doing before the interruption? 15 to 20 minutes or longer, right?

The study also looked at work modes which is basically how people organize their day. The study found that most organizations are not laid out to facilitate the three work modes. For example, most people have three work modes: (i.) working alone (30%), (ii.) working with one other person (40%), and (iii.) working in a team of three or more (30%). So, office space and the layout of the environment should reflect the work modes, but most organizations are organized like gigantic cubicle farms, horizontally flushed and vertically stacked to save space.
So, what should we do about it? Is there no hope? If you work in a large organization you’re pretty much screwed and must tolerate your current work environment and pathetic cubicle and workspace unless you know someone in HR or upper management to champion your plea for more productive space.

To help you with your argument, you can use the following rules of thumb in negotiating what space you need.

(a) People prefer to have their back facing the wall
(b) For crying out loud, give people a window view!!
(c) 80 to 100 sqft. of office space and a minimum of 30 sqft. of work space
(d) Reduce music and noise; music inhibits right brain functionality which can sap creativity - so save the music for the commute home. The right part of the brain is where “creativity” apparently lives and is the side of the brain that is stimulated by music which inhibits innovation
(d) Have private (for one person) and common rooms

(e) Eat lunch together at least once a week in a common area; the common area should have group artifacts (i.e. pictures)
(f) Managers should be out on the floor with their staff - not in their office; the office should be reserved to entertain other guests; unfortunately, offices create barriers to the very people that managers are suppose to be accessible to
(g) Cluster people together based on interaction frequency

(h) If you must answer your phone, answer it in private area

(i) Dividing walls should be at least 6′ feet high

I did a “before” and “after” design of our future office space:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 1:30 am and is filed under Organizational Behavior. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.