Privacy is almost always an issue in projects we work on. Privacy and the private office, associated with it, is often a status factor. Somehow the request for greater privacy has evaded the rest of the office as well, resulting in a maze of cubicles. In the movie office space we can see workers sitting in these 1.6 meter high cubicles communicating with each other over the phone, eventhough they are sitting next to each other. We have worked on a project that the staff described as “the silent office”. Most of the staff would read and check documents faxing the results back to head office, resulting that very few telephones calls were made. The office consisted of cubicles as the argument was that the work required concentration and privacy for all of the staff was needed. When someone had to make the occassional telephone call it felt like the whole office was listening in, creating a very uneasy atmosphere, “like a library” as one of the staff described it.

We got rid of the cubicles and went completely open plan and provided internal meeting spaces nearby that could be used for the occasional telephone call that requires “privacy”.