The biggest factor to workplace dissatisfaction is the perceived noise level in the office, a recent survey found
IT IS A severance package that few can dream of. Adam Neumann, the co-founder of WeWork, the troubled co-working provider, was offered a $1.65bn payoff to leave his office quietly this week. Despite the company’s woes—WeWork’s IPO failed recently and its valuation has fallen from $47bn to $8bn in just a few months—the company remains a trendsetter for many of the latest corporate-office fads.
In recent years, one of the biggest changes has been the move to “activity-based” or “flexible” working. In other words: open-plan offices; unassigned hot desks; break-out areas with sofas; and private booths for phone calls. Many workers seem dissatisfied . According to a survey of some 600,000 desk-bound staff across the world by Leesman, a data provider whose benchmarking survey is used by companies to find out how their employees rate their offices, nearly 40% of respondents disagree with the statement that their office environment “enables me to work productively”.What is the cause of such discontent? Many have identified the open-plan office as the culprit. “Hot-desk hell,” reads one headline; “Open offices are a capitalist dead end,” declares another. But Leesman’s survey data offers a more nuanced view. When analysing precisely what bothers office workers, it finds little correlation between dissatisfaction and hot-desking as such . In contrast, the biggest factor is the perceived noise level in the office , which may be the result of poorly designed open-plan offices. In some cases workers complain about their offices being too quiet. More often, they feel as though they are working in a corporate bear-pit. Getting noise levels just right is difficult and expensive. Many companies are now using innovative technologies to try to reduce the din . It costs companies £6,000 to provide a desk for an average employee in London, according to data from JLL, a property consultancy. To reduce costs, companies have attempted to cram in more people thus creating denser—and louder—environments. Floor-space per worker has fallen by 10% over the past decade in London, now home to the most cramped offices in the world. For all the sofas and ping-pong tables, WeWork provides desks that measure just 120cm by 56cm, 60% smaller than the typical workspace. No wonder so many office workers must get by with noise-reducing headphones.
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