My first work experience was as an intern at Hewlett Packard in Sant Cugat del Vallès while I studied engineering. Hewlett Packard had a factory and design center. Most engineers sat in cubicles next to the production lines and so did I. It was like having a small office without a door and ceiling. It was noisy, but quite nice actually. You could stand up and talk to your neighbor, but if you sat, you didn't see anyone and no one saw you. I would say that cubicles afforded substantial privacy. It was easy for me to concentrate there. You could also have a conversation on the phone without bothering anyone, because it did not register over the background noise. I have fond memories of the two years that I worked there.
It is quite common for firms that work in construction management to rent a place near the job site. It can be a commercial property, an apartment, a single family house, or whatever. The point is to be close to the site. The layout in such places can be somewhat random, depending on the property, but it is typical for 2 to 4 employees to share a room, as I did. Usually there is good comradery in such projects. Everyone is working towards a well-defined common goal--building whatever we are supposed to.
The workdays tend to be long and intense, but the work itself is rewarding. I thrived in those projects. You may be unlucky and get an annoying colleague that takes long personal telephone calls or that has a habit of working with music and singing along. But it doesn't happen so often. I only experienced it once, and it wasn't so bad.
In such an office, everyone works on the same project supervising one contractor. We knew each other's duties and counterparts from the contractor side. Telephone calls were not a disturbance; you knew who your colleagues were talking to, and why. It was not unusual for someone else to chime into a conversation, and shout: "If you have X on the phone, tell him that I want to talk to him afterwards".
Informal talk was easy and happened often, but not in a way that I found distracting.
There is a continuum between having a few desks in an office and an open plan. However as more people share a workspace, you need increasingly library-like rules for it to be effective if concentration work is required. There is less informal talk, more quiet. At one place, we sat 8 employees together in a cramped room. It was fine. We all worked in the same department with similar work duties. It was a temporary office while our building was being renovated. After renovation, we moved back to the old building. The place had been converted to an open plan office, but meeting rooms and other dividers had been placed strategically to create areas of no more than 8 desks. Unfortunately, we were employees from two different departments that shared our area. Those from the other department had constant Zoom meetings while I tried to do work that required concentration. I can still se the numbers jumping on the printed page. It was horrible. This experience shows that the problem was not about the number of people you share the workspace with, but the rules that prevail what makes a workspace work.
Open layout hinders both privacy and communication. It is a myth that by removing offices you encourage serendipity. The opposite is true. I have found that if you have a private office, it is natural for two or three colleagues to sit together in someone's office to discuss a problem or just to chat. This does not happen in an open layout due to fear of disturbing others. People end up sending emails or chatting on Teams when they want to discuss something with a colleague.
There are two variants of open plan offices: those were people are allowed to take telephone calls and Zoom meetings at their desks, and those with dedicated small rooms or pods for such tasks to maintain quiet in the main working area. Both have disadvantages. If you allow noise, no real work gets done. If you don't, no informal collaborations develop.
I have been fortunate to have had a private office several times. This is the best setup for me without any doubt. I cannot see any downside from my point of view as an employee. It is the best option both for collaboration and work that requires concentration. The best private offices for me are those placed around a common area with glass doors. This design allows you to see what is going on, but it affords the possibility to close the door and have some quiet if needed.
Great in theory, if you have an appropriate space at home that you can furnish as an office. In my experience, no company is paying rent for the space you lose at home, but it may be a good compromise if you really prefer working from home rather than commuting.
The threshold for informal conversations with colleagues becomes higher compared to having a private office. It is probably still better than sitting in an open plan office, where you will not engage in spontaneous conversations anyway in order not to disturb your colleagues.
I don't like the lack of separation between work and home. Having a short commute, especially if you can walk, is a nice way to get into work mode and to disconnect after the workday, so that you don't take your work problems home. This is difficult for me while working from home.
Another problem with home office is that it is too easy to make a trip to the fridge or get distracted with household chores.
It is beneficial for companies to have a policy that allows work from home occasionally. It makes family organization much easier, as well as staying productive at home while kids are sick.
This may be controversial, but there is some data that suggests, at least for some occupations, that working from home is not as effective as working from the office. On the other hand, I have experienced the need to work from home in order to have some quiet and finish work that required concentration, so effectiveness may depend on the baseline you compare it to.
I have experienced hot desking as well. It has all the inconveniences of the open plan office plus the fact that you need to remove all your belongings when you leave every day.
Sometimes they try to sell it as activity-based workplace. It may work for some occupations. But I find it very impractical and incompatible with the way I like to work. The activity-based concept may include large lounge areas, work-coffee spaces, project rooms, and quiet rooms with armchairs. The idea is that you move during the day from one area to another depending on what task you are doing. In my experience, it doesn't work. Most of the area is empty most of the time. This contradicts the point of having an open plan with hot desking in the first place, namely to use less floor area and save on rent.
I suspect that hot desking is bad for productivity, and I am certain that it is detrimental to employee engagement and sense of company belongingness.
Despite what I have written, I think many layouts can work well given the right circumstances.
For small project teams, up to 4 people I prefer to share a room, rather than having a private office. I have found that the work climate is better when working in a shared space when there are so few people.
The marketing team at Hewlett Packard tore down their cubicles and created an open plan for themselves. It may be that if you are willing to accept high noise levels and you need to interact with your team constantly, an open plan works well.
Hot desking can be appropriate to provide workspace for salespeople that travel all the time, for inspectors that work on site most of the time, or for consultants between client engagements.
For organizations or departments of more than 4 people, especially if the work requires sustained concentration periods, I think that private offices are the best choice.
I would only consider cubicles if you need to provide office space on the factory floor, where you need people to be close to the production line.
I understand the need to reduce costs in high-rent cities, but I wish that more thought were given to the consequences--such as reduced productivity, loss of informal communication, increased sick leave, and higher turnover--of choosing office layouts that are not well suited to the work that needs to be performed.
Last updated: 2025-07-09