{"id":20483,"date":"2011-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\/"},"modified":"2020-03-21T08:30:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T08:30:10","slug":"on-offices-real-and-virtual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\/","title":{"rendered":"On offices, real and virtual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2394\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2394\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/open-plan-offices.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2394\" title=\"Happy Office Worker at his Desk.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/open-plan-offices-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Open plan, or small office?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By Kevan Hall, CEO, Global Integration<\/p>\n<p>I have had a couple of discussions recently with participants on the subject of open plan offices and virtual working. Open plan offices are always unpopular with the people who have been used to working in their own office spaces and are now losing them. They have concerns about noise and lack of privacy, and also some assume it is a reduction in status.<\/p>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">I have had a couple of discussions recently with training participants on the subject of open plan offices and virtual working.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">Open plan offices are always unpopular with the people who have been used to working in their own office spaces and are now losing them. They have concerns about noise and lack of privacy, and some assume it is a reduction in status.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">Open plan offices have become popular in recent decades, largely because they are cheaper (accommodating more people per given amount of space) but also because they were intended to improve communication and break down barriers to cooperation. In my corporate career, I worked for an organization that had always been open so I never knew anything different and it never bothered me. Open plan offices can improve communication if the colleagues you need to work with are in close proximity to you.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\"><!--more-->The opposite, however, is true in virtual teams. In virtual teams our colleagues are in different locations and we communicate mainly through technology. It can be distracting to the individual and to immediate colleagues if we are speaking loudly on the telephone or participating in a webinar with remote colleagues. Inevitably, we have no choice but to speak a little louder in this context.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">There are clearly things we can do to improve the quality of audio in the office \u2013 ranging from investing in decent headsets to using technologies like white noise to mask ambient sound levels. The fact remains, however, that one of the original rationales for open plan office is not true for virtual team working: an open plan office does not automatically improve cooperation and communication and may even inhibit them further!<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">However, given the investment in this form of office and the difficulty and cost in going back to closed offices, it is unlikely that this is going to change. We need to develop the skills to work in this more distracting environment.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">One way of dealing with this level of distraction is to increase the opportunities for working from home. Global Integration\u2019s consultants around the world work from home when they are not at client sites and I am a big fan of this style of working. People are often far more productive then when they work in a busy office, and it can also help with work\/life balance.<\/div>\n<div>.<\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\">So maybe the silver lining, the answer to the communication distraction cloud, could be the opportunity to work from home more regularly?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On open plan offices and remote working<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","type-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On offices, real and virtual - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On open plan offices and remote working\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On offices, real and virtual\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On open plan offices and remote working\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-17T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-21T08:30:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/open-plan-offices-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3ad6577af9c33612e410fbcdc3ff2a9a\"},\"headline\":\"On offices, real and virtual\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-17T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-21T08:30:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":502,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/02\\\/open-plan-offices-300x199.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-offices-real-and-virtual\\\/\",\"name\":\"On offices, real and virtual - 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