‘Don’t stop, make it pop, DJ blow my speakers up, tonight I’m a fight til we see the sunlight, tick tock on the clock but the party don’t stop no, whoah oh oh oh, whoah oh oh oh.’

So garbles Swedish pop star Kesha. No, I’m not at a concert singing along to what I consider to be a finely crafted piece of poetry. Instead, I’m at work and this delightful ring tone has alerted its owner, and the rest of the office, to the fact that she has an incoming call.

Luckily for me, I don’t mind hearing this catchy chorus pierce the room at random times throughout the day … yet. Actually, I admit (somewhat ashamedly) that I hum to the beat while my head shakes rhythmically. Or at least I like to think it does. And although highly unlikely, I also delight in imagining that the toes of my fellow office dwellers are tapping in unison across the whole room.

However, when the request goes out for some Barry Manilow to be played on the communal iPod, I have to draw the line. That’s right, there it is: a solid line right down the middle of our office. Take that.

Thus starts the debate over open versus closed. Office plans that is. Music and mobile phones are just two examples on a long list of things about which workmates may have wildly divergent views. As is the smell of last night’s Indian takeaway wafting through the room, enough to bring back to reality those who dare to daydream. Then there are the varying degrees of desk tidiness – a conversation favourite in our office, predictably resulting in those who are not bound by the laws of order and structure protesting that they are simply demonstrating the benefits of ‘creative’ organisation to the rest of us. Hmmm, I’m not quite sold on that one.

Interest in this topic was recently renewed when a study by Queensland University of Technology reported that open-plan offices are a health hazard. The findings included high stress levels, high staff absenteeism and turnover, increased workplace conflict, reduced concentration levels, lack of privacy, greater spread of infectious diseases and lowered productivity in 90 per cent of the research conducted. Despite the fact that the majority of offices are now open plan, the study recommended a return to the past. Back to those enclosed, small, private offices of yesteryear.

Of course, there are a number of reasons why open-plan offices became so popular in the first place. They can promote communication, teamwork, a communal work environment and improved workflow. Gone are the barriers separating senior management from junior employees. And having fewer walls is also kinder on that all-important bottom line, with cheaper office fit-outs, higher worker density and reduced energy bills.

But does it really need to be one or the other? Providing a safe, happy and productive office setting is definitely important. How a business reaches this ideal isn’t necessarily as obvious. Could it be possible that a mix of both open and closed is the way to go? There’s probably no right or wrong answer – it’s just a matter of getting the fit (and fit-out) right for the individual workplace.

My experience? Well, I’m happy to say that I’m firmly entrenched in the minority here. I thoroughly enjoy the open-plan office that I inhabit with others for hours each weekday. A great mix of personalities sees extroverts, introverts and those in between drawing out the best in each other. It doesn’t hurt that everyone seems to have a similar work ethic and knows what has to get done. But there’s also a lot of laughter and a genuine feeling of being part of a team. Nobody here is withering away in isolation. However, I will concede that not everything is perfect and in reality a few lessons on office etiquette wouldn’t go astray. So, any ideas on how to break it to a colleague that Barry Manilow is best appreciated in private?

Brandy Munro is a Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency where diversity (displayed to its fullest in an open-plan space) breeds creativity.

Where do you stand?

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