Surviving the Open Office Trap
By Edward G. Brown, author of The Time Bandit Solution, Learn more with ProThink Learning’s course Time Management: Recapturing Lost Time
More and more companies are embracing open office layouts with the goal of improving communication, increasing collaboration, and cutting back on overhead by packing more workers into less space.
This might sound well and good, but every change has unintended consequences. Workers in open-floor plans are more exposed to interruptions by people I call “Time Bandits” — those who unwittingly interrupt you and steal your time. These people make it almost impossible for you to focus on work as they constantly bombard you with conversation and other activity.
Ironically enough, open-floor plans might actually cause a drop in productivity. In self-assessments taken by executives at my management consulting firm, Cohen Brown Management Group, office workers at all levels reported losing three to five hours of productive time every day due to unwanted, unneeded, and unproductive interruptions. What’s more, 93% said “yes” when asked if they are “often interrupted” at work. And of this group, 68% said those interruptions came from within the company.
When we asked employees how their inability to avoid interruptions affected them, the majority, 80%, said it created more stress for them, while 66% said it reduced their productivity. Another 60% said it diminished their job satisfaction, while 41% reported they made more mistakes.
The fix for all these issues isn’t a physical one. It’s a matter of changing behavior, so here’s three ways to survive the pitfalls of an open office.
1. Know the cost. You may not know how costly interruptions are to your workflow, but according to Basex Research, U.S. companies waste $588 billion annually because of interruptions. You may fear telling your colleagues that interruptions are inconvenient for you or think interruptions are not detrimental to your work, that you should be flexible enough to tolerate your colleague’s changing priorities. However, it’s critical that you realize how much havoc interruptions cause you. At the end of a normal day, calculate how many interruptions you had and how much time those interruptions “stole” from your day. You’ll likely be astonished (even horrified) by how much time you lost.
2. Communicate. The next step is to stare down the fear of letting your colleagues know they’re interrupting your work. This isn’t always easy to do. After all, these are your colleagues. Perhaps it would help to explain how your ability to work without interruption will also benefit them. That means finding the right words and tone, practicing your delivery, anticipating how they might object, and preparing responses to any objections.
1. Carve out alone time. I call this Time Locking — finding time to work free of interruptions. If it involves writing a long report, you might negotiate a half day behind closed doors. Maybe you only need an hour of answering no phones while you focus on some budget calculations. You can also ask a colleague to cover for you while you’re gone and agree to do the same for them at another time.
About the Author
Edward G. Brown is the author of The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You Had and co-founder of the #1 firm in culture change management, consulting, and training for the financial services industry, Cohen Brown Management Group Inc. Connect with Mr. Brown on Twitter, @EdwardGBrown.
