The open office plan looks great and definitely has that über hip professional edge that we all want to attach to our professional personas, but does the reality match the cool factor once you have moved in?
The day of the work cubicle has gone, replaced by the open plan which promotes team interaction, a sharing of ideas or just simply the flexibility of spaces as the dollar per square meter put financial strain on companies. Signing up to the company also means signing up to its corporate culture.
Or perhaps your share office corrals a group of freelancers, offering a break in the isolationist footprint of working for yourself? How do you balance being sociable to this bunch of disparate people and bunkering down to work, after all you do have to pay the rent?
The biggest problem to these open warehouse / shared environments is sound bleed. Both within your immediate work area and the larger office plan.
The second peril is distraction. How do you maintain focus in a casual environment geared towards informal conversations and collaborations?
ArtsHub has canvassed freelancers and come up with this short list of tips to get you in the zone, while maximizing productivity in the share office environment.
1. Wear headphones
We are not talking about chilling down to your favourite tunes, rather whack on some noise cancelling headphones and download white noise free off the internet. It will focus you and also create a ‘respect zone’ that others can visible read.
2. Personalise
You have to be comfortable in your space to be productive. There are limits and compromises to what you can do in a shared space, so the trick is to create some boundaries that make the workspace “yours”. After all, you spend as much time working as you do at home! This also assists in creating a respect by others in the office for that space, especially when you are working in a shared environment.
3. Speak Easy
If you need to have an impromptu meeting, conference call or take a personal call, step out of the workspace and into a communal zone. Most share office environments today have cool meeting or recreational areas – use them.
4. Define your time
If you are on a deadline, then turn your phone, iChat or mail system onto “away” or “not available”. It is a really easy way to filter interruptions at those crucial moments. However remember the old “cry wolf” adage – only use it when you need and remember to turn it back, otherwise it will be ignored.
5. Dampen it down
While the hip warehouse open plan office looks great with slick surfaces and hardwood floors, it seems to amplify every spoken word, roll of a chair or phone ring. Consider some soft elements to dampen the sound – be creative (restaurants are often good for design ideas) or it might be as simple as adding a rug.
6. Bully to bad bugs
The golden rule to any office is don’t come in if you are sick. With today’s technology there is no reason you can’t work from home, and especially as freelancers where you are running your own business it is just damn bad form to pass on those bad bugs to another sole trader.
