CHICAGO—Perhaps the most prominent fad in the world of commercial office space is the attempt to attract millennial workers by reconstructing traditional workplaces into open, collaborative spaces. In Chicago, the new strategy has been especially popular among tech companies and those involved in creative work such as advertising and most visible in the West Loop and River North submarkets where many of these firms have settled. But in its latest market report, MBRE cites a recent story in the New Yorker that criticizes the fad and broaches the possibility that open offices harm workers' health and productivity.

Although many firms believe these open spaces increase productivity by promoting cooperation and greater interaction among workers, the New Yorker article cited “increased noise and distractions, as well as the decreased privacy and control” as drawbacks. “In other words,” MBRE notes, “according to the studies cited in the New Yorker, open offices are shown to cause underperformance, increasing dissatisfaction and higher rates of stress and illness in millennials on through baby boomers.”

However, MBRE researchers go on to sound a note of caution regarding the New Yorker's critique. For one thing, millennials will keep flooding into US offices, and according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, will comprise nearly 50% of the workforce by 2020. And MBRE cites a survey by Knoll Inc. researchers who studied the preferences of about 15,000 employees in 40 countries and found that millennial workers most wanted an “engaging workplace. Salary has even been indicated by millennials to be of less consequence than the environment in which they work.”