When employees file back into American workplaces—some wearing masks—many will find the office transformed, writes The Wall Street Journal (May 12. 2020). Desks, once tightly packed in open floor plans, will be spread apart, with some covered by plastic shields and chairs atop disposable pads to catch germs. The beer taps, snack containers, coffee bars and elaborate gyms and showers that once set high-dollar, white-collar environments apart will likely remain closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The office adaptations reverse a decadeslong push in American corporations to cram workers into tighter spaces, with few separations between colleagues. Companies once spent millions of dollars retrofitting spaces to create rows of open desks, intimate conference rooms and elaborate communal gathering areas. Those designs, highlighted on page 373 in Chapter 9 (Layout Strategies), are now problematic. Modifying offices to safely allow some workers to return is even more challenging than sending people home. Some hallways and stairwells will become one-way, and many conference rooms will stay shut because they are too small to allow people to spread out.
Co-working giant WeWork once prized density, making corridors narrow on purpose so that people were more likely to bump into each other and chat. It rented out access to its “hot desks”—large, shared tables with no assigned seating. Cushman & Wakefield, a real-estate-services firm, plans to feature plexiglass dividers between desks and circles on the floor to indicate how far apart.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What changes would you recommend we make in our presentation of Office Layout in Chapter 9?
- Will these changes become a permanent part of office life?