Does the Workplace Concept Fit the Work?

Open office, private offices, assigned seats or shared spaces are design responses. The owner first needs to define what people actually need the workplace to support.

Originally published July 2012. Updated September 2026 to reflect current owner-side workplace planning considerations.

For years, workplace discussions have swung between competing ideas.

Open office.
Private offices.
Assigned workstations.
Shared desks.
Collaboration space.
Quiet rooms.
Hybrid work.

Each can be presented as the answer.

I would start somewhere else.

“What kind of work are we trying to support?”

Because the workplace concept shouldn’t come first.

The work should.

Don’t Start With the Trend

A workplace strategy can quickly become a discussion about what other companies are doing.

That’s useful context.

It isn’t a program.

Another organization’s workplace may reflect a different culture, operating model, headcount pattern, technology environment or reason for coming to the office.

The owner needs to understand what happens inside this organization before selecting the environment intended to support it.

Different Work Requires Different Conditions

• Some work benefits from frequent interaction.
• Some requires sustained concentration.
• Some involves confidential conversations.
• Some depends on specialized equipment.
• Some brings employees together primarily for meetings, collaboration or training.
• Some requires employees to be physically present every day.

And within the same organization, several of those conditions may exist simultaneously.

That’s why the question isn’t whether open office or private office is better.

The question is whether the workplace provides the right mix of environments for the work being performed.

Understand Why People Come to the Office

Occupancy alone doesn’t explain workplace demand.

Two organizations can have the same number of employees in the office and use the space very differently.

Why are people there?
To perform individual work?
Meet clients?
Collaborate with colleagues?
Use equipment they don’t have elsewhere?
Train?
Make decisions?
Build teams?
Support operations?

Those activities should influence the space program.

Otherwise, the project can optimize the number of seats while missing the reason people need the workplace in the first place.

Acoustics and Privacy Are Operational Issues

Noise isn’t simply a comfort issue.

Neither is privacy.

A workplace can become difficult to use when employees don’t have appropriate places for concentrated work, sensitive conversations or virtual meetings.

The solution doesn’t necessarily require giving everyone a private office.

It may require a better mix of enclosed rooms, open work areas, acoustic treatment, separation between incompatible activities and clear expectations about how different spaces are used.

Those decisions should be intentional.

They shouldn’t be corrections made after occupancy.

Collaboration Needs More Than an Open Floor

Removing walls doesn’t automatically create collaboration.

People collaborate when the work requires it and the environment makes that interaction easier.

Sometimes proximity helps.

Sometimes a project room helps.

Sometimes a conference room, informal meeting area or shared technology does more than an open workstation plan ever could.

The owner should be careful about treating a physical characteristic as a proxy for an organizational outcome.

Test the Workplace Against Different Days

A workplace can perform well at average occupancy and poorly when people actually need it most.

What happens on the busiest day?
Can people find appropriate places for calls and virtual meetings?
Are conference rooms overwhelmed?
Can employees who need concentration find it?
What happens when visitors arrive?
Can teams gather without displacing everyone around them?
What happens when attendance patterns change?

The design should be tested against operating scenarios, not merely an average headcount.

Flexibility Has to Be Usable

Owners often ask for flexibility because they know the organization will change.

But flexibility isn’t simply installing movable furniture.

The workplace may need to accommodate changing team sizes, technology, work patterns and occupancy without requiring significant reconstruction every time something changes.

That requires thinking about the building systems and infrastructure supporting the workplace as well as the furniture.

A flexible floor plan with inflexible infrastructure isn’t particularly flexible.

The Owner Needs to Define the Problem First

Architects and workplace strategists can help develop the solution.

But the organization has to provide the operational inputs.

What work requires physical presence?
What needs privacy?
What benefits from proximity?
What activities create noise?
How frequently do teams gather?
What changes are reasonably foreseeable?

Those answers provide the basis for evaluating workplace concepts.

The same principle carries into detailed space and adjacency planning: the layout should reflect how the business actually operates.

Without them, the project risks selecting a design philosophy and then trying to make the organization fit it.

The workplace should work the other way around.

Leadership takeaway: Don’t choose a workplace concept because it is current, efficient or familiar. Define how the organization needs to work, then design the environment that supports it.