What would the author prefer, then? A closed-plan office where the manager can close his door and chase his secretary?
I can't find a link to the paper, only a press release (https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/aru-nom05011...), but the article mentions that out of 27 women interviewed, "some female employees felt like the new office space promoted equality, others had the opposite reaction... multiple women told them that “there isn’t anywhere that you don’t feel watched”... [and] one woman who was going through menopause... felt like she couldn’t have a fan on her desk to help with hot flashes because everyone would have noticed". I would caution against going straight from some women see open-plan offices as empowering and others see them as sexist to open-plan offices are sexist as the article has done.
"Some people find open-plan offices really really uncomfortable. Why are you doing that to your employees?"
Here's my answer to that headline question, by the way: because the perceived savings on rent exceed the perceived loss of productivity.
Whether that perception is true is quite arguable, and the article provides evidence for increased costs in loss of productivity. I assure you, unhappy employees are less productive.
I agree with your second point, but you would need to change the substantive content of the article as well. As written, it currently presents both issue and cause as sexism, finishing with (in the last paragraph) "Perhaps it’s no coincidence that all the designers of the workspace were men".
4 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 26.0 ms ] threadI can't find a link to the paper, only a press release (https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/aru-nom05011...), but the article mentions that out of 27 women interviewed, "some female employees felt like the new office space promoted equality, others had the opposite reaction... multiple women told them that “there isn’t anywhere that you don’t feel watched”... [and] one woman who was going through menopause... felt like she couldn’t have a fan on her desk to help with hot flashes because everyone would have noticed". I would caution against going straight from some women see open-plan offices as empowering and others see them as sexist to open-plan offices are sexist as the article has done.
"Some people find open-plan offices really really uncomfortable. Why are you doing that to your employees?"
Here's my answer to that headline question, by the way: because the perceived savings on rent exceed the perceived loss of productivity.
Whether that perception is true is quite arguable, and the article provides evidence for increased costs in loss of productivity. I assure you, unhappy employees are less productive.