Offices vs. open space: deciding whether to tear down the walls or build them up isn't always an open-and-shut decision - Cover Story

HR Magazine, Sept, 2002 by Robert J. Grossman

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RELATED ARTICLE: CommonHealth: Offices Had to Go

At CommonHealth, a New Jersey-based health-products ad agency, Susan DiDonato, senior vice president of human resources, was handed the challenge of coordinating the renovation of 90,000 square feet in three buildings without interrupting business. "The goal of the project was to enhance interaction at all levels-between departments and among the people in each department, while sticking to a space allocation of no more than 175 square feet per person," she says. Process goals were to hold complaints to a minimum and not restrict workflow.

Initially, the CEO and the presidents of each of the company's 10 operating groups said they would consider open offices, but not for themselves. "When we ran the numbers, we discovered that we couldn't deliver the project within budget and still maintain their private offices," recalls the project consultant, Arnold Levin, design principal of Mancini Duffy in Washington, D.C.

Then a key senior manager relented. "If he could have a place to have meetings, he agreed to sacrifice his private office. With everyone on board, we moved people by groups into open workstations and clustered conference rooms around the groups. We also, put in silence rooms, increased the amount of collaborative space, and brought the whole project in within budget."

Each building has an atrium featuring a place where workers can congregate-a kitchen, cafeteria (designed like a bistro), cappuccino bar or other area that encourages informal interaction. "We find the best ideas may happen in the hallways, and the open cubicles give us a balance between chaos and concentration," DiDonato says.

"So far, people seem to enjoy the openness," she says. "Each brand team is assigned to its own room; it makes the workflow faster, and you can see the excitement of people when they're together. Going from private offices to cubicles was a huge cultural change. But we did it in a way that recognized the different characteristics of our various business units. No one size fits all; the units all look different"

MITRE Corp: 'We Want Walls'

Any doubts about where MITRE's 4,000 engineers stood on the issue of private offices were settled when they were asked for their opinions on the subject "It put to bed forever, that, in our engineering environment, a private office, no matter the size, is preferable to open space," says Lisa Bender, vice president and director of HR at MITRE.

"Collaboration and information sharing is a cornerstone of the MITRE culture, yet our folks say they need quiet, private time. They would kill the corporate officers if we moved them into open space."

Bender says asking people what they want can be risky ... and costly. "In cultures that don't think about employees as adult human beings it's a scary proposition when you talk about facilities. You're afraid everyone wants a private office with a bathroom and the cost of the project won't allow you to meet expectations." At MITRE, private offices, from a cost perspective are "off benchmark," but worth it, Bender says.