Nowadays, a lot of offices employ open-space designs instead of separate rooms for work.

Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

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Workplaces are not only about work. They are where we spend most of our day. Thus, we are connected with them both physically and emotionally. Today, offices have become more socially cohesive with the introduction of cubicles. This development is equally beneficial and harmful.

As stated above, one major merit of this change is the encouragement given to social cohesion. To be precise, with individual cabins, it is hard to gel with your co-workers. Nonetheless, with adjoining cubicles, it becomes easy. For instance, in my first company, I knew only five or six people owing to the enclosed work areas. On the contrary, in the second one, I had befriended almost everyone because of the open-space arrangement.

Similarly, a positive is a bigger workforce in a particular area. That is to say, individual rooms demand more space than adjacent cubicles. To illustrate, while a sixty-square-foot office can have approximately ten cabins on a floor, the same floor can accommodate about twenty cubicles. Hence, it becomes viable to employ more workers in specific dimensions in the open-space kind.

Nevertheless, such types of workplaces also invite disturbance. In other words, workers around one another are going to speak, write, and eat. Such activities have noises associated with them, and these noises can easily distract others. For example, suppose an employee is making a report, and another is talking to his or her spouse on the next seat. The former is sure to have concentration issues, as a result.

Furthermore, adjoining work stations are potential locations of disease transmission. To elaborate, touching things belonging to your work neighbors or sharing their breakfast seems a very strong carrier of germs. Consequently, there can be a transfer of illnesses, too. A case in point is of AB Corporation. Aided by an open office plan, a carrier (employee) of COVID-19 had infected the whole office in their Mumbai branch.

In conclusion, a workplace full of cubicles is as advantageous as it is hazardous. It gives the opportunity to build warm work relationships in a relatively large workforce. It, however, can also foster disease transmission and lead to disturbance.