Working in Open Spaces Increases Stress and Deteriorates Interpersonal Relationships

Working in open offices, designed to facilitate employee communication, increases stress and deteriorates interpersonal relationships.

Noisy colleagues, frequent interruptions, attention fluctuations due to constant movement. Working in open offices, designed to facilitate employee communication, increases stress and deteriorates interpersonal relationships, several studies conducted separately by French psychosocial risk experts have shown. More than half of French workers, 57 percent, work in open offices where often more than 20 people are present or in office spaces where between four and ten people are simultaneously present, says Odile Duchenne, director of the French company Actineo, which monitors work quality and time spent in the office.

As the media reports, according to Actinea’s 2014 research, in the UK, 73 percent of employees worked in such offices, in Spain 66 percent, in the Netherlands 66 percent, in Germany 55 percent, and in Sweden 49 percent.

– Research conducted among the French showed that job satisfaction decreases when workers are in such a large open office without partitions or walls, says Duchenne.

– I will buy noise-canceling headphones! But that won’t help me avoid being constantly interrupted by phone ringing or colleagues’ questions, but at least I will avoid listening to all those conversations that do not interest me and that distract me from work, says a young French journalist (30) who wished to remain anonymous. Some of her colleagues, she recounted, sit in such an open office with earplugs or headphones and isolate themselves whenever possible, moving to a meeting room when they need to get work done, not wanting to be disturbed.

– I have always worked in such an open space, so I cannot compare it to any other. Undoubtedly, such offices facilitate teamwork and communication among employees, but at the same time, they prevent uninterrupted work, says the journalist.

A study conducted in September by the French company Eleas (which studies work quality) showed that for 58 percent of employees, working in an open space is a favored place for rude communication, showing disrespect towards colleagues, verbal insults, and even physical attacks, regardless of the company’s size, the age of workers, or business activity.

– It is not terrible when someone next to you talks louder or interrupts you once in your work, but when that occurrence is constant or recurring, it worsens the overall atmosphere of relationships in the office and in some way belittles and offends the person who is working at that moment and whom such behavior disrupts, says the founder and president of Eleas, Xavier Alas Luquetas.

– When such behavior lasts for several years, it is a source of potentially great stress for some employees, says Philippe Douillet, director of the state agency for improving working conditions, Anact.

– Open office spaces came into fashion in the 1980s, and after the 1990s, they became common, with the explanation that such spaces encourage mutual communication among employees, Douillet said, adding that over the years it has been shown that noise, frequent interruptions in work, loss of privacy, constant hierarchical control, and similar factors in combination increase tension and stress and affect productivity reduction, he explained.

Because of this, the owners of many companies have decided to install partitions in open offices that also serve as sound insulation and provide a bit of privacy, Duchenne said.

Actinea’s research also showed that immediately after interest in the type of work, the quality of working conditions is the second most important factor for French employees. When it comes to the quality of working conditions, the French ranked relationships with colleagues first (71 percent), workspace second (38 percent), a quiet working environment without noise third (29 percent), and a pleasant space last (26 percent). The research also showed that 92 percent of respondents believe that the workspace has a significant impact on their work efficiency, compared to 80 percent in 2011, more than half or 57 percent said they are disturbed by noise and conversations of colleagues, and 50 percent are distracted by attention fluctuations caused by constant movement around the room.