A Short Survival Guide to the Open Planned Office

My experience with open plan offices has been getting on now for some 30 years and they certainly can be difficult places to work in. This may be because the original concept of the open plan office has been bastardised by employers, especially when it comes to cramming as many people in as little a space as possible to save costs. However, it could just because human being kept cooped up in small spaces go crazy. It's said there are two places you can learn the personality traits of an individual one at home the other at work.  For given enough time at work the full blossoming individual will shine out.  Perhaps more so in a pressurised work environment. It is fine for scientist who can sit in their little enclosed offices thinking of theories of personality and work behaviour but it's a whole different ball game when you are living it 7 plus hours every single working day.  The type of work done, the working hours, the people you work with and the physical environment all come into play, sometimes because one factor is good it can belay the effects of another poor factor, sometimes it just can not.

Mental strain - work place bully
Mental stresses can come in many forms, such as the relationships with work colleagues, or just plane having more work than you can cope, dealing with poor IT systems which act seem to have a mind of their own.  People have to get on as best they can in the workplace, I have experienced the effect of a workplace bully and at one point it felt like I could of left the job.  But by the same instance my job is my financial livelihood and getting a new job is not an easy task.  The best strategy is avoidance, be in a different part of the office as often as you can, take holidays at different times to the bully, keep your head down and try not to get noticed. Bullies also have their foot soldiers or sycophants and these individuals may even appear quite easy to get along with, perhaps out of the bully's influence they are, but again because of their association never tell them anything which can get back to the bully.  I have heard the phrase "psychological terrorism" used to denote bullies at work and this is true if you are a victim.  The research ultimate indicates there is only one way out for the victim and that is to leave the job. It may be a matter of thinking long term, considering whether the individual concerned will change job, in some cases they get promoted, others they leave, but it is while they are in your vicinity they are a danger. Management often do very little about them, if you happen to be in an organization which does do something then you will be very lucky. Try the waiting game, if it doesn't work move job.  Union reps are of little use.  Taking all that crap home can tear up your family, it's a tough decision but may be the only one.  Of course this factor happens when in a open plan office or not.

Mental strain - too much work
Having more work than you can cope with. Well why should this be any different in an open plan office to a secluded closed office.  At least in a place where you can close the door behind you the noise and strain of being constantly available to other colleagues will take it's toll.  Employee Assistance Programs will take the view it is you who has to change.  Perhaps in many respects it is, because it is how you view that ever increasing pile of paperwork, or should I say emails which have bottle necked into  your in tray.  The thing is as human beings are at their best to working when under a little bit of pressure but too much pressure and it is like the fulcrum of a see-saw has been breached.  You have to used your own mental strategies to keep calm, find relaxation techniques.  In finding these it is possible to lower your blood pressure and heart rate and give yourself a moment to think.  What an open plan office does is hit you with stimuli every minute of the day. This is usually in the noise around you so finding thinking space may be difficult to do.  Try and focus on priorities, however what is needed more than anything else is flexibility.  You can only do one thing at a time and sometimes doing that one thing if it is complex can be too difficult to do. In which case change the thing you were going to do.  When I have a large work tray of 2-300 items, I will try and identify those things which will cause me problems if they are not done and also try and identify those quick things which can cause problems. For example, it is quick to authorise someone's leave however if I leave the email request for leave that individual will either ring me up or sit at their desk getting frustrated, it adds a little tension to their day.  So by getting it done quickly it relieves their stressess and gives me breathing space as well.  Sometimes if I have too many high pressure items on me I will then get loaded with the one item which becomes the straw for the camel's back. The one item I know which to do properly will take hours and  hours of work.  Then, I do the best I can to pass the buck. Most times the buck may well stay with me, but if the caseload of bucks is too high then it is too high.  If I were telling the truth, I got way too much work to actually do now, it would take me a month to catch up with it but I don't have a month of extra time.  I don't stand around chatting about things, e.g. game on TV, the weather, my holiday, I get my head down and get on with it.  You'll find individuals who are like this do get more work done than the others.  As for moaning, do your best not to bitch. It gets you no where at the end of the day and is wasted energy.  It can pull other work colleagues into a bitching competition and before you know it half an afternoon has passed and nobody has done a thing.  Write a list, sometimes it is easy to forget what you should be doing your list can keep you on track and there's some self satisfaction when you start to see items ticked off the list, like its an achievement you didn't quite realise you should be patting yourself on the back as well.

Work Environment
In my open plan office there is in place this idiot thing called hot desking.  It is an idiot thing especially if there are tools you need to get on with the trade. Such as reference books pens, paper, the list can go on and on.  Effectively if you use lots of stuff you are either forced to carry these items from your locker to your desk each day or try and reduce the items.  Ultimately try and reduce them, if you can save reference material on your computer fine, however then ensure you have got a decent filing system and you know what folder you put it in. The worst thing which is inescapable from in an open plan office however is noise.  My current office has been built like a car park, once they have decided to sack all the office staff or another company takes over their roll they can then convert the building into car parking spaces. Noise and chatter in particular carries all over the place.  Now if your job is as boring as shit and once you learn it, it becomes just a matter of doing with it in a mechanical way this is fine, office noise may well not have an effect, however if you have to think then you are in trouble. Noise is a killer of concentration. Only last week two senior managers were sat behind me having discussions about their holidays, their memory and shoes.  In the meantime there I sat trying to unpick a very difficult piece of work which was like learning calculus. It just was not happening.   I have bought a supply of ear plugs and now also have ear muffs as well and I am unashamed that I put my plugs in and ear muffs on in the office in order to try and dampen down the voices around me.

It is as though the people around me don't give a shit about me, and in fact they don't they only care about getting their own work done, if they have tedious jobs this means they will talk a lot.  If they don't like their job they will wonder around and waste the day away having discussions with other staff members, they will appear to be the nicest people in the world. However, they are not good employees, they are in many respects taking the piss out of employers. These individuals run throughout an organization, whether they are clericals or high ranking managers. The company would improve in productivity if it sacked them. I heard it once that employers should sack ten percent of their staff every year. I would hope this applied to these lazy arses and they then gave other unemployed people a chance to do the job. There's a lot of individuals out there who would chop an arm off to be in work. So if someone is not doing their job why do we put up with them?


There, I'll keep it short because this is a subject I could write a book on very easily and maybe I should.