I’ll add that some/many companies have it backwards where managers have offices and rank and file live in cubes.
This is how it was way back when I worked at Apple and Intuit where at both companies I was an engineer and a manager. (FYI I also worked at Xerox which was all offices as you noted).
It really should be the other way around. The managers need to be wondering around and facilitating communication amongst the rank and file if needed but the rank and file need to be able to think/work in a private setting to get stuff done as they are the ones that really work.
Regarding cost; I think focusing on the marginal cost is more important; Sure, maybe it costs slightly more per square meter for an office. However, even if it does you also need to weigh in the productivity improvement per employee of having an office.
One small comment about an aspect of this not often raised, but which I encountered during my times in "open plan" offices: gender. Imagine an open plan office, dozens of desks, lots of people, all open sightlines everywhere, except for a few columns or maybe tall file cabinets. Sally decides to go get a coffee. She now must walk slowly (so as to not bump into a random chair) through or around or along many desks to a peripheral open hall, onward to the coffee station (which oddly enough, tends to have its own "private office.") Even if her male co-workers are NOT a pack of oversexed hound dogs, it is only human nature for them to glance up as she makes her way along. Several of my female coworkers expressed some level of distress about this forced "parade" as it were. (Maybe males were ogled also, but I never heard them complain.)
It's maybe a minor thing, but if one is having issues with the what-is-it-called "Male Gaze," open plan offices enable it. (Though when I mentioned this to my male coworkers I did hear of a reciprocal "Male Aversion" habit that had emerged: If you saw a female making her Long Walk to Coffee you immediately AVERTED your gaze and studied your computer screen, so as not to embarrass her.)
In my experience, one office design stands out. It was based on two-person cubes. The walls separated facing desks. The walls had cutouts with lazy susans in them. The concept was to have software developers share a CRT on the lazy susan. This design was the result of missile engineers managing a software development project.
I remember interviewing with a few AT&T product groups in 1985. Most of the groups had offices, though one group had cubes. Interestingly enough, the space with cubes was the most inviting, because it was personalized. I remember a Doctor Who poster, and I think some of the team had brought in their kids' artwork. The other spaces had corporate artwork and seemed kind of sterile.
Asking the old heads about WFH is pretty biased. I hate the open office too of course, but being in the office vs at home is a huge difference on productivity and learning. As a fresh grad in the office, i learned a ton more from my coworkers than WFH. Mostly from the older coworkers. Old heads dont value that much of course so they dont see many of the benefits of the office. they also likely have a social network or family and so dont value the friendship and small talk of the office.
I actually enjoyed the environment of my first job. It was a narrow building divided into sections. Each section had a couple offices and an area of cubicles. It was probably something like 6-8 cubicles in each area. The areas roughly corresponded with the teams you worked with.
Most of us were young, college grads, management was absolutely terrible, but we decorated our cubicle space, played games after hours, and hung out after work. It compensated for the terrible management. If you were working on something that required concentration, you put on headphones and put a note on the corner of your cubicle. Because there were only a few cubicles in each area the noise was not bad.
After about a year of growth, the company moved into a big office space with all the cubicles in one big room with big windows. Things went downhill quite a bit after that. While it may have been the employees involved, I still think the small, shared space was a pretty good environment.
I’ll add that some/many companies have it backwards where managers have offices and rank and file live in cubes.
This is how it was way back when I worked at Apple and Intuit where at both companies I was an engineer and a manager. (FYI I also worked at Xerox which was all offices as you noted).
It really should be the other way around. The managers need to be wondering around and facilitating communication amongst the rank and file if needed but the rank and file need to be able to think/work in a private setting to get stuff done as they are the ones that really work.
Regarding cost; I think focusing on the marginal cost is more important; Sure, maybe it costs slightly more per square meter for an office. However, even if it does you also need to weigh in the productivity improvement per employee of having an office.
One small comment about an aspect of this not often raised, but which I encountered during my times in "open plan" offices: gender. Imagine an open plan office, dozens of desks, lots of people, all open sightlines everywhere, except for a few columns or maybe tall file cabinets. Sally decides to go get a coffee. She now must walk slowly (so as to not bump into a random chair) through or around or along many desks to a peripheral open hall, onward to the coffee station (which oddly enough, tends to have its own "private office.") Even if her male co-workers are NOT a pack of oversexed hound dogs, it is only human nature for them to glance up as she makes her way along. Several of my female coworkers expressed some level of distress about this forced "parade" as it were. (Maybe males were ogled also, but I never heard them complain.)
It's maybe a minor thing, but if one is having issues with the what-is-it-called "Male Gaze," open plan offices enable it. (Though when I mentioned this to my male coworkers I did hear of a reciprocal "Male Aversion" habit that had emerged: If you saw a female making her Long Walk to Coffee you immediately AVERTED your gaze and studied your computer screen, so as not to embarrass her.)
Modern life....
In my experience, one office design stands out. It was based on two-person cubes. The walls separated facing desks. The walls had cutouts with lazy susans in them. The concept was to have software developers share a CRT on the lazy susan. This design was the result of missile engineers managing a software development project.
I remember interviewing with a few AT&T product groups in 1985. Most of the groups had offices, though one group had cubes. Interestingly enough, the space with cubes was the most inviting, because it was personalized. I remember a Doctor Who poster, and I think some of the team had brought in their kids' artwork. The other spaces had corporate artwork and seemed kind of sterile.
The "these photos" link takes you to the Pilot paper, not Paul's photos.
Asking the old heads about WFH is pretty biased. I hate the open office too of course, but being in the office vs at home is a huge difference on productivity and learning. As a fresh grad in the office, i learned a ton more from my coworkers than WFH. Mostly from the older coworkers. Old heads dont value that much of course so they dont see many of the benefits of the office. they also likely have a social network or family and so dont value the friendship and small talk of the office.
I actually enjoyed the environment of my first job. It was a narrow building divided into sections. Each section had a couple offices and an area of cubicles. It was probably something like 6-8 cubicles in each area. The areas roughly corresponded with the teams you worked with.
Most of us were young, college grads, management was absolutely terrible, but we decorated our cubicle space, played games after hours, and hung out after work. It compensated for the terrible management. If you were working on something that required concentration, you put on headphones and put a note on the corner of your cubicle. Because there were only a few cubicles in each area the noise was not bad.
After about a year of growth, the company moved into a big office space with all the cubicles in one big room with big windows. Things went downhill quite a bit after that. While it may have been the employees involved, I still think the small, shared space was a pretty good environment.