Though the sample size is small, the team found open office layouts dramatically cut employees’ face-to-face conversations at these companies — by as much as 70 percent. Employees made up for ...

There has been a 70 percent decrease in face-to-face interactions in open offices and a 56 percent increase in e-mail usage. 62 percent of employees say their office is too distracting.

This setup is a spacious, open cubicle area that usually spans 10 to 12 feet or more. A bullpen design promotes a feeling of openness within the office, making it ideal for collaboration.

LAZZONI Modern Furniture reports on the shift to purpose-driven home design, prioritizing intentional, multi-functional ...

The following is an edited excerpt from their conversation. ROOM co-founder Brian Chen (left) and Harvard Business School professor Ethan Bernstein. On the right–and wrong–way to design an office: ...

This is more than putting a desk on wheels: It's also providing privacy panels and acoustic screens to give people the privacy and communal work space they want.

Some have scrapped private office layouts for open conference rooms. Since OFIS sources all its own furniture from liquidating offices, customers don’t have to wait for weeks on end to get their ...

The study tracked 52 employees as they transitioned to an open office from a more traditional layout, and found that productivity declined as workers tried to carve out new forms of privacy.

05-27-2025 FAST COMPANY EXECUTIVE BOARD The return-to-office mandate is here. So is the open office. One has to go. As we usher in a new era of work, let’s not default to old environments.