There has been a growing trend of businesses cutting back on the amount of work space allocated per person. Sharing offices has become more common. Cubicles are getting tinier. And open shared space with a number of desks or work stations in one open area – once considered so cutting-edge — has become ubiquitous. Employees are being packed into ever-smaller spaces. There have been a few tech firms in the San Francisco Bay Area that have gotten to worker densities of up to seven workers per 1,000 square feet of space or 142 SF per employee. The average just a decade ago was four workers per 1,000 square feet. As the Russian adage says, they are packed so tight that there is no room for an apple to fall.

Last week, we looked at how smaller work spaces are impacting employee productivity. The evidence — at least in some occupations such as computer programming (which, like many jobs, benefits from quiet and concentration) — shows that cramped, busy, noisy offices can have a negative impact on productivity. In one study, programmers working in quiet, private offices were up to 10 times more productive than equally talented programmers in office environments that were busy, crowded and noisy. If small work spaces can affect productivity, what impact might smaller work spaces have on creativity and innovation. Whereas once upon a time, open shared office space was heralded as a springboard for collaboration, managers are reconsidering the evidence. Continue reading →

Office design has been evolving over the last few years. Once upon a time, all managers and executives had offices with walls, doors, desks and furniture. Space was abundant and a deluxe office was a standard perk of working at most any successful company. Clerical, secretarial and support staff also had individual work areas such as cubicles or separated from other desks by partitions, cabinets and space.

However, with the advent of technology coupled with the increase in population density and the skyrocketing cost of office space, business owners have been increasingly forced to make more of every bit of space. Architects are tasked with being ever more creative in the use of space. According to Corenet Global, a commercial real estate association, the average amount of space per office worker in North America dropped to 176 square feet in 2012, from 225 in 2010; a decrease of over 20%. Employees are being packed into increasingly smaller work areas. The question is how these smaller office environments are impacting productivity. Does this trend in design work? Continue reading →