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Mr. CEO, We Are Not Coming Back To The Office
Signed introverts, empaths and HSPs (Highly Sensitive Persons)
Open plan offices should phase out along with the 9 to 5. It was clearly designed by extroverts for extroverts.
Full disclaimer, I am an ambivert, meaning I get along well with both camps. But when it comes to open plan offices, my highly sensitive personality flares up.
I survived for a long time as the nature of my job meant we were mostly in small groups in clients’ boardrooms. Phew.
If the 9 to 5 is a remnant of the industrial age era of work, then open plan is its close cousin. In some of the offices, the manager will sit at the end of the line of workers just like in an assembly line.
Factory workers produce outputs leading to quality reviews by seniors/supervisors. Then there is also the big boss at the corner office, the final review phase.
In some companies, the big bosses hold an open door policy, which should convey a flat structure where anybody can come in and have a chat/share their concerns. In my experience, open door policy is such a joke it should be in a comedy show.
Whenever I have tried to provide feedback or ideas, it was usually taken at face value and left there. They are simply too busy…
