Hashtags: #OpenPlanOffice #WorkFromHome #OfficeJob #MentalHealth #Productivity
🏢 The Struggle of Open Plan Office
So, you’ve just quit your open plan office job – congratulations! It’s a bold move, but one that many can relate to. The constant buzz of activity, lack of privacy, and fluorescent lights can take a toll on anyone’s mental health. If you’re feeling lost and unsure of what to do next, you’re not alone. Let’s explore the next steps and how to make the most of your new freedom.
🌟 The Benefits of Working from Home
When you had the opportunity to work from home during the COVID-19 lockdown, you experienced a surge in productivity and an improvement in your overall well-being. This is no surprise, as many studies have shown the benefits of remote work, such as:
– Increased productivity due to fewer distractions
– Improved mental health and reduced stress
– Greater work-life balance and flexibility
– Savings on commute expenses and time
– Ability to create a more personalized and comfortable workspace
– Less exposure to illness and reduced sick days
It’s clear that working from home has its perks, and it’s no wonder why you made the decision to leave the stifling open plan office environment.
🤔 What’s Next After Quitting?
Now that you’ve quit your open plan office job, it’s time to consider your next move. Here are some steps you can take to navigate this transition:
1. Evaluate Your Finances
– Assess your savings and financial situation to determine how long you can go without a steady income.
– Consider creating a budget and exploring potential freelance or remote work opportunities to supplement your income.
2. Update Your Resume and Portfolio
– Highlight your remote work experience and the skills you’ve gained from your previous job.
– Tailor your resume and portfolio to showcase your ability to thrive in a remote work setting.
3. Network and Explore Remote Job Opportunities
– Connect with professionals in your industry through virtual networking events, LinkedIn, and industry-specific forums.
– Research companies that offer remote work options and apply for positions that align with your skills and interests.
4. Consider Freelancing or Entrepreneurship
– Explore the possibility of freelancing in your field or starting your own remote business.
– Utilize online resources and platforms to market your services and find potential clients or customers.
🌐 The Future of Remote Work
As you embark on this new chapter, it’s important to consider the future of remote work and how it may align with your career goals. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards remote work, and many companies are embracing a hybrid or fully remote work model.
High-Search-Volume Keyword: Remote Work Opportunities
The demand for remote work opportunities is on the rise, and there are a plethora of companies across various industries that are actively hiring remote employees. By staying informed about the latest remote job trends and honing your remote work skills, you can position yourself for success in the evolving job market.
📈 Embracing Your Freedom
Quitting your open plan office job is a bold step towards reclaiming your autonomy and prioritizing your well-being. As you navigate this new chapter, remember to embrace the freedom and flexibility that comes with remote work. Whether you pursue remote employment, freelancing, or entrepreneurship, the possibilities are endless.
In conclusion, the decision to leave your open plan office job is a significant milestone that opens the door to new opportunities and possibilities. By leveraging your remote work experience and exploring the dynamic landscape of remote job opportunities, you can chart a path towards a fulfilling and sustainable career. Embrace this change, and remember that the future is yours to shape. Good luck on your remote work journey! 🌟
My current work is experimenting with the concept of it. There is an even split of pro/against. All pro are all leadership, and every single against is someone who actually has to sit in the open concept desks.
I worked in an open floor plan office for 2 months with a verbally abusive boss and only two other people. Our boss made us take every call and meeting sitting at our desk, even if everyone else was being loud and we couldn’t hear ourselves. Sometimes we would sit in on the SAME ZOOM MEETING from our desks 1ft away from each other. It was actually impossible to get anything done.
Open plan offices suck. It’s a festering pool of disease, especially when people insist in coming to work sick. When I was still working, it’s always a job that has an open office area where I would get sick the most. Any jobs where I had my own office or got to work from remotely, getting sick dropped dramatically, if not completely.
There’s another business that utilizes an open space plan too. A cattle farm. People are basically cattle, the only difference is that they’re producing something other than milk.
I was never able to handle open offices. It was always too loud, too many random noises, and the fluorescent lights just gave me migraines. I’ll never go back to an open office or somewhere I can’t control the lighting.
It was the constant illness that got to me — getting sick then months to get over it.
Right before COVID, I caught something “going around” the office and half the staff was off sick. It turned into bronchitis and I went to the doctor.
It was the fifth time I had been sick in two years. I thought my immune system was bad. The doc knew where I worked and said it was environmental — lack of sunlight, no fresh air exchange, close environment, open office plan. But mostly, it was that they didn’t clean. The same dirty rag was dragged over all the surfaces. They never vacuumed and there was so much hair on the floor it would stick to your shoes. There was an inch of black grime on the tops of the cubicle dividers. The bathrooms were atrocious.
He told me to never touch any surface at work that I didn’t disinfect — door knobs, light switches, desks, arms of chairs, keyboard and mouse. Never ever touch a coworker.
I looked insane but I did it. I used a disinfectant wipe to open doors. I used lysol on my cubicle and chair. I ate in my car. My coworkers thought I was crazy.
Then we had an epidemic of both strains of flu, more than half our department was out — hundreds in the company got sick.
I did not.
Then COVID hit and people started copying my disinfection routine. Then we were sent home to work.
That’s why I won’t return.
The only saving grace to my job is that I never have to go in unless they ask me to (all hands meetings, meeting new interns, etc.). Any other time I can work from home and I do. I hate the open office concept so much because our “office” walls are barely higher than my head and I can see what everyone in my little cubicle is working on. It’s super annoying when you’re on client calls because Teams is meant to pick up voices, and when you’re constantly on calls that means it can pick up what everyone else is saying too. Multiple times back when I was in the office on a call I would have to apologize for being there because it would pick up *all* the noise.
I also couldn’t do with the fact that literally anyone and everyone could be just *looking over my shoulder* whenever they wanted, and could see what I was doing at any time. I struggle hard enough to do work, I don’t need the fear of being watched on top of that. As an introvert, open floor concepts also meant there was no way for me to have quiet, any time anyone wanted to talk to me I would have next to no excuse beyond being on calls, there was no door for me to close or busy signal for me to hit because they would still be there. I’m not here to make small talk with you about work I don’t understand, I’m here to do my job and leave.
At least at home I can adjust my environment to suit me, versus having to deal with all the bullshit of an office. I don’t really care if my coworkers don’t see me, the team I’m on and actually work with? We’re all remote or barely in our *home offices* anyway, and I get more solid work done at home when I’m not fielding awkward coworker conversations or trying not to ease drop on whatever the person in the cubicle next to me is doing.
Unless my boss has an issue with it (and she doesn’t, she was the one who said working from home was fine so long as I was completing my work) I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. I’m not here to make friends or be particularly sociable, this job is literally just a paycheck so I can pay my bills and save for fun stuff. I have a life beyond work. Working from home helps me do that a lot easier now that I’m not wasting time to a commute and having to deal with other people beyond our clients.
I’ve been work from home since the 1st wave. Quit my job in 2021 when they asked me to come back and joined my husbands start up instead. I am able to admit that office world is not meant for me anymore. I’m not built for it.
I lasted 4 years in an open office, but only because I managed to be so unpleasant, but good at my job, that they moved me to an unoccupied open office. Basically it was an overflow open office, and since I worked overnights, we never needed the overflow. But they moved me back there, and I stayed there for 4 years at 10 bucks an hour. I know I know, but it was ok.
Then I went to a higher paying job, also open office. I lasted 8 months, and I was a supervisor.
Next job was another open office, but covid had hit so they sent us home and I had never actually stepped foot in the open office in 2 years, but it was in the BASEMENT of a large open building with 500 other employees all sharing desks, computers, chairs, phones, etc. Then I left when they forced us back in. I quit the same day they emailed declaring back in office required. Fuck open offices.
I quit my last job for many reasons, including the open office nonsense. The 2 people sitting 8 feet behind me were so loud, that the person sitting 1 foot away from me that I was training couldn’t hear anything I said.
Now imagine that bullshit when you’re on a client call with a client who paid your firm 6 figures a year for services. It was MORTIFYING. But I was the “not a team player” who was “not creating a positive spirit” who got to explain the situation to my manager who dgaf because the noisy idiots were manager’s pets. All because when I got off the phone, I asked them to be mindful when people are on calls because my client was extremely offended at both their noise and use of expletives in a professional environment. Yeah, fuck open offices and the toxic environments they breed.
I’ve had a private office for 7 years plus mostly WFH since covid. I could never even go back to a cubicle. I had one interview with a start up type company years ago. I had a private office at my job at the time. I walked in for the interview and was greeted by just a long table, like a high school cafeteria with a secured bench and everything, with everyone hunched over tiny laptops while coding and working with data. I nearly noped out then and there!
I could not imagine trying to work on my code on one tiny screen much less constantly worry about knocking into someone, feeling the bench get kicked or jarred every time someone got up, all the noise. It seemed awful.
I wonder if you could have sought a paper trail to request disability accommodations as a ramp-up to quitting. Maybe others are having luck with this?
I’m currently on medical leave thanks to the open office plan. We returned to office 4 days a week about two years ago and it has been hell ever since. I have bad adhd and sensory issues so the overhead lighting, constant conversation, and smells of everyone being jam packed into a room with tables became way more than I could handle. My psych is recommending wfh if I return to this job. Im gonna see if they allow it but I won’t be surprised if they don’t budge either.
Open plans are horrible. Literally nothing benefits from them beyond lower cost to install and enabling of micromanagement. I declined a job where during the final interview I was told the facility was scheduled to be renovated to convert to an open office plan and they couldn’t understand why.
Interviewed for a company years ago to do software development for an insurance company. It was like my worst nightmare. The work area was just this huge warehouse. It had long tables like you see from a High School chemistry lab arranged in rows. If everyone held out their arms they could easily touch their neighbors. A ton of workstations had two people that were even close together.
End of the interview I learned that if I were to be hired I would be expected to do pair programming full time. That is two people at one work station: one doing the talking and one doing the driving. Thankfully didn’t get the job.
We have open cubes and they want everyone to be in the office but everyone in the office is on zoom calls all day with people in other offices so you can’t get anything done because you can hear everyone else talking all day long
Had an open office plan that was ass to elbow space avail, dogs running around everywhere, rap music blasting, and sun glaring off the monitor. I could handle everything except the glare and asked for it to be fixed with blinds. Instead they put a beach umbrella above my desk. There were no windows directly above me, so, yeah. Problem not solved and now I have a ridiculous umbrella.
You are listening to your body and soul. Many people would just plug along for years.
I was terminated at a role recently and I’m pretty confident my issues stemmed from being completely out in the open with 8 people just staring at me all day.
I have an office again and my productivity has increased.
Open plan offices serve only one purpose, to maximize the square foot value of commercial real estate. The resulting impact to employee welfare and productivity are not even afterthoughts. They are not even a consideration if the impact reduces the return on investment for the 1%ers, even if that reduction is minimal.
I guess my bosses noticed the increase of productivity that WFH created, before covid no WFH was allowed at all, now? All future positions are WFH.
I lasted 7 weeks (with many call outs) when my desk was in a hallway. The people with offices would yell back and forth from their offices and walk through my area all day long and I just couldn’t take it.
Prior to Covid, my work was semi-hybrid not only had an open office, but hotel style seating. Only a few people had assigned desks, most of us had a locker then had to hunt for a place to work. We were also able to work from home a few days a week.
Fast forward to the present, we’re all WFH with the exception of some of the IT infrastructure staff, and the occasional in person workshop/meeting. The company let most of their office space go and now hires where people live vs limiting their candidate pool by office location(s).
I did not realize just how stressful pre-Covid working conditions were on me. As well how simply how annoying open office spaces were, so noisy and distracting. I’m so much happier these days and instead of using my social interaction bandwidth (I’m very much an introvert) chitchatting with coworkers, I spend it on actual friends.
I was recently hired into a cushy job, and I love the actual work.
Day 1, I realize I get a cubicle in a sea of cubicles. Not even normal cubicles. The walls are baby walls that are only like 4 ft tall. I’m RIGHT next to my co-worker and my boss has an office. My boss is in direct eye sight of us from her desk. I feel like a fucking child with zero privacy. I can’t see out windows either.
I immediately started applying to other jobs. Then, I find out her boss thinks we need privacy and our own offices. Since every phone call, the entire room of cubicle people can hear you.
I get an office next month, thank God.
Open office is sitting in a lunchroom or beer hall style tables with nowhere to even tack up work notes. If your on the internet and it’s paperless, you have zero reason to be in an office. It’s only for functional illiterates who think being noisy and a boar =working.
I just started wearing wearing headphones and made everyone around me get used to it. I loudly say if I’m cold, and do everything to keep the big lights off as long as it’s still light enough to work. I’m 30, I’m tired of trying to please people. And so far, it’s been working!
Open plan offices are fucking asinine. Good for you for saying no, and good luck finding something better.
Look up panopticons.
Amazon just purchased an old prison in the Netherlands that was built as one, and the story writes itself.
I had a temp job for one day with an open plan. If I looked slightly above my monitor, I would be staring at the person across from me, and each person next to me was about 2 feet away. The whole thing was weird and I got a different job offer 20 minutes closer to my house with regular cubicles (and better pay).
Yeah eff that. Like a fish in a fishbowl
I got fired because I wrote a personal blog about how open offices were proven not to work, that wasn’t the reason the put on my letter but I found out later it was the reason…good riddance.
Facebook tried to hire me during covid. I was expected to drive to DC (fuck no), and sit in their open office layout (fuck no again).
Being productive doesn’t seem to be a goal for these companies. They prefer complete control even at great cost.
I’ve told my boss directly that I consider bullpens to be punitive. Bullpens or open plans are what you do when you don’t trust that your minions are working.
One credit I will give to my old job: when they moved to cubicles instead of offices they put the senior people on one side of the floor and the junior people on the other. Also ended up with a bunch of senior people working from home half the time because one person has a super loud voice. Now my direct boss works in a different office from me. I hate feeling like I’m being watched by anyone other than my cats.
I left a job once because my office mate, who was a genuinely good person, and in all other respects was easy to share space with, had breath that smelled like he was rotting from the inside out. His breath would fill the small space we shared. After a couple of months I found a job and moved on.
In my last on-site job, they demolished my office, along with three other managers, to expand the existing open office space and make it an Obeya room with open office space in the middle. At first I didn’t mind it, my responsibilities had me all over site, I’d only spend 2 – 3 hours max each day at my desk. I also got to pick my spot, which was in the furthest corner from the high traffic area. Got to keep my three monitors, the space was still dedicated to me (they moved my name plaque over there even), I had a lock for my drawers. Wasn’t what I would consider ideal, but could certainly be worse.
Once the pandemic hit, I was working mostly remote, coming in about once a week. Every time I came in I could tell someone was using my space. Annoying, but it is what it is. Then one of my monitors went missing, then my dock, then a second monitor. The last time I ever went there someone was in my spot, and told me I had to reserve my own desk using some garbage spreadsheet. I noticed my name plaque wasn’t there anymore. I packed up my personal belongings, left my key on the desk, and told my boss I’ll be at home if they need me. Never went back!
Open plans are terrible. I support your decision.
Don’t remind me, I literally only lasted 6 months at a place because of the open office bs. I could barely roll my chair back without hitting my coworkers chair. The constant noise, lack of privacy, lack of windows did such damage to my mental health so quickly I just couldn’t take it anymore.
I quit a job once because my office had no windows and they wouldn’t move me