Back To Work? How To Make The Office More Private

The more trendy approach to offices these days tends to lean towards multiple shared spaces, or a beautifully modern and open plan. Conceptually, it makes sense. It’s are all about pulling down the walls and barriers to enable us to communicate, collaborate and work together effectively. And when we do this, we are able to see, speak to and enjoy time with our colleagues and coworkers in a way we haven't ever done before. 

However the thing is, this type of setup doesn't allow for much privacy. In fact, an open plan office offers the very least privacy that you can imagine - and that’s not always the best for work efficiency. Additionally, with the return to the office being slow and suspicious in the wake of Covid, adding in a little privacy and personal space barriers can be a much-appreciated safety measure. Additionally, studies show that a little privacy can really help productivity - especially when in deep work mode.

A private office space doesn't necessarily mean that you have to put all the walls back up - but you can include privacy where possible. One example is using custom decorative window film on the windows surrounding your business so that your actual office is more private. This is a great idea for conference rooms as well, making it harder for people to peer in when there’s a meeting going on.

Here are a couple other suggestions:

1. Ask what people need. While you might like the look of an office that’s open plan, you may not think about how your staff need somewhere private to meet and talk. While everyone is going to have different opinions, you’re going to need to have some balance and offer somewhere without the distractions of others to get their work done. Most people are great with open plan arrangements but there has to be something that offers security and privacy.

2. Don't assign private rooms. If you’ve got private offices within your office space, don't assign these to management. Let everyone use them and share the spaces just as you would with an open plan area. Doing this will ensure that everyone has a good balance in their daily work. They’ll thank you for it, that’s for sure! For safety measures, another great option is to set up a sign up sheet for using the private spaces. Not only does this prevent people from fighting over them, but you can space out occupation to keep the air clear.

3. Don't put up walls. You don't necessarily have to assign walls and throw those up if you’re going to keep an open plan, but you can use furniture and plants to indicate which areas are for more private meetings. Room dividers also offer a good solution without you having to worry about people feeling hemmed in. The idea here is that you want to provide the illusion of privacy with the illusion of space. It maintains privacy while keeping an open feeling.

4. Empower your staff to speak up. If you want people to feel like they can tell you when they need peace and quiet, make a point of training them into which signal to use to tell you that they need that time. Hopefully you can empower someone in your team to speak up when they need a minute.

5. Rotate on-site time. Do people still work remotely, rotate time on-site so that even in an open floor plan, there are fewer people at the office at a time. Not only is this safer, but it’s an easy way to add a little more privacy without moving a single piece of furniture.