In recent years, many start-ups have also tried to design offices as open-plan, reducing the partition between the office wall and the seats, and increasing the common space for employees.
For example, the use of conference tables to replace traditional personal desks, and even the development of “hot desks”.
The so-called “hot desk” is actually a shared desk, employees do not have specific seats, everyone takes turns to use the desk, so that employees can freely choose their own suitable seats, but also make the office furnishings more changeable.
For Xinda Clover, we could offer many models of ”hot desk”, of which metal office desk square with square feet for office desk is one of our pop models, quite tough and elegant.
The open-plan office has a lot of room for change and has become the darling of many start-ups or the design industry.
First of all, the open office saves space, such as replacing the personal desk with a common conference table, in addition to reducing the partition space, the shared desk greatly reduces the per capita area, which can allocate excess space and make better use of the office. There would be appropriate model for open office space with different demands, If it’s bigger space for staff, we could offer modern square l shaped office desk, but if it’s small space, small square office desk or small square office with l shape desk would be better choice.
Seating can also be arranged more flexibly when adding or subtracting staff.
Reducing the spacing of seats between employees, but also enabling employees to communicate more, increase the opportunity for communication, employees can more sparkle, play creativity, stimulate thinking, design, marketing planning and other creative enterprises have more positive results.
For example, companies such as Facebook and Google, which are famous for implementing open offices, attach importance to employee creativity and thinking, and open offices just promote communication between employees, among which Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and ceo of Facebook, once made a short film to introduce its open office, pointing out that “open office can make employees work more closely together, increase sharing and communication between employees, and make cooperation smoother.” That’s the point of building a good service on our platform.”
In recent years, more and more companies in Shanghai have attached great importance to social networking sites, and even focused on the development of social platforms, so they have also set up open offices.
More importantly, the open office reduces the indoor wall partition, feels more open, the line of sight is not only trapped in the desk and the combination of intervals, the working environment is more relaxed, and the staff is more engaged in work.
In the early days of the open office boom, the above mentioned benefits were indeed sought after by many large and small enterprises, and they designed different open offices in the hope of improving the work efficiency of employees, but the above one-sided benefits ignored the potential shortcomings of open offices.
For example, the lack of intervals for sound insulation may be counterproductive, making the working environment too loud, affecting the concentration and work efficiency of other colleagues, coupled with the fact that most of the open offices have increased the population density of employees due to the good use of space, the office air is not circulated, and the carbon dioxide content is greatly improved, in addition to reducing the quality of work, it is more likely to affect the health of employees in the long run;
At the same time, dense and shared spaces can also make infectious bacteria easy to spread, and employers need to pay more attention to the cleanliness of the office environment during the peak of the flu. Open offices also involve privacy issues, and employees worry that their bosses or colleagues will monitor each other with the open office design, which will weaken the trust between colleagues in disguise, and there will be friction when cooperating.
Arrangements such as the absence of specific seats, shared desks and other furniture can also make employees feel less private, lack of private space, difficult to cope with different jobs and information at the same time, and also affect the handling of confidential documents and answer customer calls, making it difficult for employees to work properly.
In fact, the appropriate closed environment is more suitable for most enterprises than the open office, the BBC wrote earlier this year, pointing out that although the concept of open office is attractive, it is difficult to implement, and it is more suggested that many enterprises that have implemented open offices have gradually abandoned open plan design and returned to the traditional office environment.
For local businesses, open offices reduce the footprint and do attract employers, but in the face of various possible negative effects, before deciding to choose open and traditional closed designs, semi-open designs can also be considered, taking the two companies, on the one hand, to create a relaxed and suitable atmosphere for discussion, and at the same time have a certain degree of privacy, so that employees can concentrate on their work.
The overall concept of a semi-open office is also based on “sharing”, but it is also necessary to provide a certain amount of private space, such as personal bookcases or drawers for employees to place personal belongings and important documents, so that employees feel valued and more able to protect confidential documents, and should also be divided into different areas according to the needs of the company.
For example, the design department can arrange relevant relaxed and open configurations, the administrative department can take a relatively high privacy design, and can also add furniture that is easy to move or retract, such as curtains and detachable intervals, so that the use of space is more flexible and can be changed in a timely manner to meet the needs of the work.
A good and appropriate working environment can make employees do more with less, and it will benefit both labor and management, but no matter what degree of open or closed office is chosen, the most important thing is that the company needs to cultivate a good sharing atmosphere, respect everyone’s privacy in the common space, and employers should not hold a “surveillance” mentality, so that employees are more willing to enjoy the open environment.
