Open Office, Closed Office, Post-Pandemic

Not everyone is vaccinated. Many still resist for illogical or misinformed reasons, but which region of the country you may live in may well determine your risk in returning to work. The Delta variant is beginning to surge and decimate the unvaccinated. While employers do have the right to require workers to be vaccinated as a condition to returning to work, many, for ideological and other reasons are resisting that mandate. And while there remain tons of unfilled jobs, particularly in lower-level food services and hospitality and higher-level computer-related work, the post pandemic work world is still unclear and chaotic. Making sense of it all takes a more cautioned understanding.

“The shutdown last year was brutal and chaotic for both individuals and businesses, but it was also a unifying moment. We faced fear and uncertainty together. We all ran out of yeast and toilet paper at the same time. We were forced to rally and lean on each other with a common purpose: Stay healthy, take care of each other, and keep the business going so we’ll have jobs when this is over.

“Several factors make the return to work more challenging. For employees, it will be a staggered, disjointed process marked by uncertainty. Different regions will open up at different times, and some may be forced to close again temporarily. Workers will return to unfamiliar surroundings, with masks, plexiglass screens and hand sanitizer, wondering if their coworkers are vaccinated and how they should greet them.

“This is anything but a unifying experience, and it comes at a time when many people are mentally and physically drained after more than a year of lockdown. A study by the University of Chicago showed that employees worked 30% more than normal during the shutdown, and Microsoft found that work-related messages sent between 6 p.m. and midnight jumped 52%. No wonder people are burned out.” Laszlo Bock, founder/CEO of Humu and former head of people at Google, writing for the July 7th FastCompany.com. Where and how we work is being transformed as well.

For example, the very structure of the pre-pandemic open offices, problematical even without a contagious virus, should bring workplace designers to new conclusions. The assumptions behind open offices – greater interaction, team building, problem solving and internal communication – meet not only new health concerns but also force the question as to whether they really do in fact foster a happier and more efficient workspace. A recent study suggests otherwise.

Writing for the July 4th TheConversation.com, Libby (Elizabeth) Sander (assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Bond Business School at Bond University) illustrates a study that provides some challenges to that open office concept: “If you’ve ever felt your noisy open-plan office makes you cranky and sends your heart racing, our new research shows you aren’t imagining it.

“Prior to the pandemic 70% of office-based employees worked in open-plan offices. Employee complaints about this design are rife… Yet there is little experimental research investigating the effects of office noise on things like cognitive performance, physiological stress and mood… The results of our study, in experimentally controlled conditions using heart rate, skin conductivity and AI facial emotion recognition, shows the effects of that noise are very real.

“Our results show such noise heightens negative mood by 25%—and these results come from testing participants in a simulated open-plan office for just eight minutes at a time. In a real office, where workers are exposed to noise continuously during the day, we would expect the effects on stress and mood to be even greater.”

With resignations and jobs losses reaching unexpected and massive proportions, employers seeking to retain and recruit office workers just may have to approach office design from an entirely new perspective.  People who have recently worked from home are also finding that mandating exclusive in-person office work without at least some work-from-home alternatives can lead to job dissatisfaction as well: “Although open-plan offices rarely present an immediate physical danger in terms of sound levels, unrelenting exposure all day intensifies their effects. Chronically elevated levels of physiological stress are known to be detrimental to mental and physical health. Frequently being in a negative mood is also likely to harm job satisfaction and commitment. It potentially increases the likelihood of employees leaving…

“The pandemic has changed our tolerance for office work. Surveys show up to 70% of employees will seek new jobs if their employer does not offer flexibility to work from home some of the time. So creating a healthy work environment is more important than ever.

“As organizations seek to adapt to COVID-19, many are reconsidering how they set up and use the office. Though open-plan offices are unlikely to go away anytime soon, our study highlights the importance of understanding employee needs in designing work spaces.

“One advantage of more employees working from home at least some of the time is a less-crowded office, reducing both visual and auditory distractions. But there are other things that can be done. Acoustic treatments and sound-masking technologies—ambient sounds designed to make other people talking less intrusive—can help. Good old-fashioned walls or partitions may also assist. Such interventions can be costly, but so is the impact of poor office environmental quality on productivity.” Sander

In the end, the pandemic made a lot of us question aspects of work and life that so many of us had taken for granted. Unless employers can come to terms with these changes in values and expectations, they just may face job changing and unfilled openings for a very long time.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there will be long lasting changes in so many aspects of our lives generated by a shattering impact of the pandemic… and we damned well better get used to it.