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Open Office Floor Plans: Fueling Friendship, Animosity & Rage
I was chatting with a buddy of mine from a mid size software company recently, and he mentioned that they had converted to an open floor plan model. I had heard some horror stories, so I was really interested to hear how it went for them.
Initially The Open Floor Plan Was Awesome
He said that when they initially launched the open floor plan model, it was great. They had a giant open space with designers on one side of the room and developers on the other side of the room with ample space between, but close enough that they could walk back and forth with ease to collaborate since they were rocking a functional agile vibe at the time. The designers would get rowdy from time to time, laughing and joking around, but it didn’t phase the developers because they had their quiet peaceful side of the room to work in. All was well in the world. Both teams were more productive than ever.
They had great interdepartmental relationships, folks in both departments worked really well together, and even had great personal relationships. They had lots of happy smiley coworkers all over the place, who enjoyed coming in to the office.
After Time Passed And They Experienced Rapid Growth, The Open Floor Plan Started To Suck
