There’s something cathartic about watching home repair shows on television. In the space of an hour, a hopelessly outdated and un-functional house is transformed into a showplace of modern beauty. It’s great entertainment, but for me one element is missing: I need a pair of horse blinders to put over my eyes so I can more easily ignore the chaos of my own home while I’m watching the television.
I sometimes wonder if that’s the explanation for how work spaces are created or redesigned: Are bosses wearing blinders while reviewing their architects’ blueprints? How else can we explain the apparent disregard for the needs of employees while work spaces are being developed? And why do so many work spaces turn out to be hard to work in?
Here are just a few of the issues I’ve observed or heard from my clients:
Open-space configurations with no assigned places. That is, a competitive system where employees and contractors stake out their space each day depending on whether they need to work alone or with others. As the assumption is that some people will be working remotely, there might be fewer stations than there are workers on staff. If you enjoyed Musical Chairs as a child, this might be fun. As a jobs counselor, I hear about the stress of carting around a coffee cup and laptop while looking for a place to land for the day.
Nifty computer stands and tables with no place to lay out paperwork. Not everyone is composing straight from their heads or using online documents; without a flat surface, the effort to balance or shuffle hard copy makes every task a trial.
Cubicles with no space for clients. If you don't work with clients, then this isn't a problem. But I regularly visit social service agencies whose counselors and clients meet knee-to-knee in tiny spaces, cheek-by-jowl with other counselors and clients in adjacent cubicles. It's difficult to build rapport with someone who feels overheard by a dozen other people.
Writers and other "quiet" workers placed in busy traffic streams or directly next to salespeople, again in the dreaded cubicle farm or open space design. Even with headphones, it can be difficult to drown out distracting phone conversations and water cooler chatter.
Employee bathrooms stationed in somewhat embarrassing places – directly off of a constantly-used meeting room, for example, or behind the receptionist's desk. Did no one imagine the way sound carries when they made the floor plans?
Restaurants, fast food companies, retailers and others with no accommodations for their workers to change clothes or store personal items. Whatever happened to locker rooms, or at least, roomy bathrooms with small lockers for purses and cell phones? These days, I would say the minimum accommodation would include an outlet in the back of each locker so workers can charge their phones without worrying they might be taken.
The demise of coat closets. I know, how retro. But I live in Minnesota and it's all kinds of trouble to stash a down jacket and snow boots in a cubicle or on a crowded coat tree in the coffee room.
In some ways, the conversation around work space might seem frivolous. If everyone is warm and dry and the lights are on, what is there to complain about? Ironically, I don’t think people have been complaining and that’s part of the problem. When jobs are at a premium, workers stay quiet about these kinds of issues. And when the market loosens up as it’s doing now, they don’t hang around asking their boss to remodel the office – they just leave for new jobs that feel more accommodating to their work processes.
I think space issues might be like radon leaks in homes: Silent and unnoticed unless you intentionally look for them, but potentially disastrous to the health of the home’s occupants. Being interested in the way businesses make their decisions, I’m forced to ask: Why would companies invest in hiring and training people but not ensure they could work efficiently?
If you’re a worker facing some of these problems, it may be difficult to improve what might literally be set in stone. But you could try adapting your space, asking for a different space, requesting accommodations to the overall setup, working remotely, etc.
If you decide to solve the problem by moving on, just remember to ask your next employer for a tour before you accept an offer. It would be a shame to land in the same situation the next time around.
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