Hi Dave
That's an interesting topic of discussion. After 28 years in academia, and having spent most of that time sharing with colleagues, I would say one size most definitely does not fit all. There is such a thing as a 'working style'. Some people are sociable, and would hate being in a single office (I'm one of those), others prefer their own space. Whilst I consider myself gregarious and enjoy a natter in the office from time to time, and whilst I appreciate sharing offices can also save time as you can have share information face to face with others, large open plan offices create problems, not least a greater degree of absenteeism. There are many activities which are hard to carry out in a busy office, such as reading and doing research, marking even, and importantly tutorials and counselling of students. I work in an office of 14 (only for the last 12 months) but the highest number of colleagues I've found myself sharing with at any time has been 8 or 9, and this has been challenging. There is a good atmosphere in my office, we have been working together for many years now (we are an aging group!) apart from one new young member of staff; we function as a (at times typically dysfunctional) family, and yet it is impossible to do all our work in the office. Many of my colleagues go and find a quieter corner somewhere else on campus, others work from home whenever they can. The best we can hope for is that management are prepared to be flexible about where people feel they work best, and trust us to do so.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/24/open-plan-academia-university-staff-office
Josiane Boutonnet
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Subject: TEACHLING Digest - 23 Jun 2017 to 26 Jun 2017 (#2017-63)
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Topics of the day:
1. Hotdesking and open plan offices
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Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:43:08 +0100
From: Dave Sayers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Hotdesking and open plan offices
Hi everyone,
As the list is a little quiet during the summer period, I thought I'd start a little discussion about the physical geography of our working environments.
Hotdesking, if you haven't come across the term, is where nobody has a fixed desk, and you have to clear your stuff when you leave so someone else can use it. It's a lot like any campus computer lab, and it's slowly on the rise in replacing academic offices (e.g. http://bit.ly/2tEqL0h).
The somewhat less extreme alternative is open plan offices, where large numbers of people (typically 10+) work on adjoining desks. They can claim a particular desk and leave a limited amount of stuff there, though usually don't have any shelving of their own.
Potential benefits of these two trends include greater levels of dialogue among colleagues, less exclusivity between layers of academic management, less territorial tension, and an encouragement away from piling up hard copies of documents and towards more sustainable laptop-based working.
Potential shortcomings include increased risks of theft or loss, reduced productivity if books or non-electronic documents can't be stored to hand, a lack of privacy for potentially sensitive meetings, and a wide range of accessibility issues.
So, what's your experience? Do you currently hotdesk or work open plan? Would you say it's generally better or worse than traditional smaller offices, relating to the factors above and any others?
If you are currently in a smaller office, what are your thoughts about any potential future move to open plan or hotdesking? Would you happily move any time? Gradually get used to it after a period of complaining? Or would this be the final straw before you quit and set up a donkey sanctuary?
Personally, I've worked in offices of 1, 2, 3 and 5 people. Funnily enough, the most awkward one was the office of 2. We were both perfectly friendly, but there was an inevitably heightened awareness of any noises we made, and a greater attention to letting each other know if we were (or weren't) going to be in the office at a given time. As I say we got on just fine, but it seemed slightly trickier in these respects than working even in an office of three, where there's a significantly greater expectation of someone bustling in unannounced. For my part, I think I'd adapt well to hotdesking or working open plan, but then I know I'm extremely unusual in pretty much hotdesking already anyway. Almost everything I do is in my laptop; I am quite the digital hermit crab. I don't use hard copies of anything (ebooks all the way), I don't print stuff out, I don't make notes by hand, and at the end of the day my desk looks I'm the one who's decided to set up that donkey sanctuary. But as I say, I know I'm very odd in that respect (possibly others too!), so I try to diplomatically keep my mouth shut on the matter at work.
What do other TeachLingers think?
Peripatetically yours,
Dave
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Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132 Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University | www.shu.ac.uk Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD | www.wiserd.ac.uk [log in to unmask] | http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers
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End of TEACHLING Digest - 23 Jun 2017 to 26 Jun 2017 (#2017-63)
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