Open-plan offices are making workers sick

Published 14 January 09 by Justin French

Joel and Dan (and probably most of the internet by now) have jumped on this piece on news.com.au:

Australian scientists have reviewed a global pool of research into the effect of modern office design, concluding the switch to open-plan has led to lower productivity and higher worker stress.

It’s fantastic to see some science and numbers to back this up, and I couldn’t agree more with the findings, but whoever funded this could’ve saved a few bucks by spending about 10 minutes in such an environment, which is exactly what management should do before asking their staff to do the same.

If money or space is really tight, at least break it up into slightly smaller spaces. Halving or quartering the noise and distractions by halving or quartering the space will have a huge, positive impact.