Making the Most of Shared Workspaces

When being told that the office is switching over the shared workspaces, we are often told the same things: “It will encourage collaboration! It will promote learning! It’s going to foster our organizational culture!” The whole while, most people are thinking: “There goes my peace and quiet.” Regardless of how we feel, it is our new reality, so we might as well learn to make the most of it. But here at EPSI, we’ve been navigating shared workspaces for a while, and we have some tips to help!
Dos and Don’ts for those sharing an office space
Dos

1. Keep an open mind: If you’ve never shared an office space before, you can’t be sure that you’re going to hate it. You may find that all the promises of improvement to your work are true.
2. Invest in headphones or earplugs: Regardless of the intentions of your new office-mates, there are bound to be times when you will want to block out their voices.
3. Be courteous: This should be a given for all human interactions, but it becomes even more important when you are forced to share a small space with others five days a week.
4. Keep your workspace tidy: Your clutter is no longer yours alone. Think of this as part of point 3, as messiness can be very distracting to some people.

Don’ts

1. Hold meetings in your office: Unless every person in the office is part of the meeting, book a separate room or meeting space. It can be very frustrating to try and do your work while a full scale debate is playing out within earshot.
2. Make all of your work collaborative: Some tasks can still be completed without involving your office mates.
3. Invade the minimal personal space of others: Just because there aren’t walls separating you, doesn’t mean you have free reign over other people’s things and personal bubbles.
4. Take personal calls at your desk: Sometimes this can be unavoidable, but in most cases, either make the call on your cell outside your workspace, or make arrangements to call from an empty office or meeting room.

 What employers can do:

1. Ask for employee input: While you are bound to get some negative responses towards the idea of these changes, some people may have great ideas of how to make their offices work better.
2. Plan offices for function: By putting people together who have good reason to be collaborating throughout the day, you will actually increase their productivity instead of reducing it.
3. Provide alternative meeting spaces: Employees will still need places to meet with people who do not share their workspace. Providing even a few small spaces will allow everyone to work more comfortably and effectively.
4. Allow people to personalize their space: You’ve already taken away their walls, there’s no need to take away their freedom of expression.
5. Re–evaluate office lay-outs & seating plans: Monitor the mood and work of your employees. If you notice issues arising from the workspace changes, make adjustments to ensure the happiness and productivity of your workforce. See what small changes can be made, and stagger them, allowing enough time for people to become used to the changes before assessing their effectiveness, or making further alterations.

With the introduction of Office 2.0, and other initiatives to maximize office space in recent years, sharing your space is almost unavoidable. But doesn’t mean it has to be terrible. So long as both employees and employers remain respectful and open (and employ some of the tips above), these changes might even help build those stronger, more communicative, and committed workplaces everyone is hoping for!
References:
Dourish, P., & Bellotti, V. (1992, December). Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. In Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work (pp. 107-114). ACM.
Congdon, C., Flynn, D., & Redman, M. (2014, October). Balancing “we” and “me”: The best collaborative spaces also support solitude. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/10/balancing-we-and-me-the-best-collaborative-spaces-also-support-solitude