The Immortal Awfulness of Open Plan Workplaces

I agree with most everything in the article.

But, in some situations open plan can actually make for an OK experience. For example, in the opening pic, there is a sea of table & chairs with monitors, etc. Yeah, that's awful if you're trying to do some kinds of work. But when I did temp work in the 90's, this setup was pretty common for places that needed a few weeks of data entry, typically for migrations. Easier to get help, less boring. No headphones, mostly, because no mp3's. A few radios, usually turned low, and shared. The key feature, of course, was "temporary".

In the 00's, I handled PBX setups for a half-dozen call-centers in a building. It was mostly all open plan, but most used noise dampening dividers. Depending on the departments preference, some used tall dividers to allow workers to concentrate on phone calls. But several also used short dividers, which workers might like better for the types of calls they were receiving - short calls requiring judgement about customer credit overrides, etc. Apparently it was easier to get manager assistance (wave at someone), or ask a neighbor to help with a call, etc.

This will only stop when companies are unable to staff open positions. As long as the sheep enter the pen, why change?