Open Offices: Bad for Health, Efficiency?

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.”