TURBAN: Also the lack of privacy, and the feeling that they’re being watched by others.īERNSTEIN: Privacy tends to give us license to be more experimental, to potentially find opportunities for continuous improvement, to avoid distractions that might take us away from the focus we have on our work. But proceed please.īERNSTEIN: People find it impossible to get work done.

TURBAN: I don’t think I realized how much anger there was against open offices until the research was published and I was contacted by a number of friends and colleagues about their open offices and their deep, deep emotional scarring.īERNSTEIN: There’s certainly a population of people out there who hate - I think that’s perhaps even not strong enough-ĭUBNER: Not strong enough, agreed. Stephen DUBNER: OK so, we’re here to talk about a paper that you co-authored, called “ The Impact of the Open Workspace on Human Collaboration.

I am a recent graduate of Harvard College and I currently work for a global management consultancy. Stephen TURBAN: My name is Stephen Turban. Wouldn’t it be nice to know if this were true? That’s what these people wanted to learn.Įthan BERNSTEIN: I’m Ethan Bernstein, I’m an associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. But you could also imagine that an open office produces better interaction and more collaboration.

If you’re a cynic, you might think an open office is all about cramming the maximum number of employees into the minimum amount of real estate. The open office design has been around for decades, in a variety of forms. Hey, are you at work right now? And do you work in an office? Have you ever worked in an office? If you have, there’s a good chance it was an open office, at least to some degree.

Open the office