Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what's going on from the text of the study. In "Study 1", they got 52 people from a floor with people in "technology, sales and pricing, human resources (HR), finance, and product development, as well as the top leadership"
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These are really different things and one might expect different results. perhaps even directionally different results, depending on the composition, but the actual composition isn't mentioned at all (nor is the idea that it might matter).
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Another strange thing is the magnitude of the result: 5.8h/day -> 1.7h/day. Was that really all the result of the changing office plan and not a result of any other factors? No way to tell since there was no control and other changes that might've co-occured aren't discussed.
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I don't mean to pick on this too much -- open office advocates typically have zero evidence for their claims. It's nice to see a study on this even if it's unclear what the result actually means in practice.
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I want to see research on team rooms, where is it just a room sized for your team (10-14 people) with proper focus rooms when needed. That is that we use and like but would be cool to see if data supported that too.
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When I've worked in a space where our team and only our team occupied the space, we developed a close and collaborative relationship. Where I've been on an open floor populated by people from multiple less-related teams, I've felt isolated in a crowd.
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The reasons for less conversation in an open office: With no walls & doors, workers work in silence to not disturb others or be castigated for being loud. Conversations are relegated to scheduled mtgs in conference rooms. Conference rooms are always full. So email, chat go up
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That's actually a really interesting and valid explanation.

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In open plan offices people need to actively shut down interactions to get their job done. Headphones and other mechanisms are used to prevent interruption. I imagine that for people on the spectrum, open plan is a nightmare.
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Absolute hell. I have a pair of 3M industrial ear defenders that I use when noise cancelling headphones don’t cut it all out. Specific problem: certain people who don’t seem to care/be aware of the effect of distractions on those who need quiet to think.
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