Employees aspired to the position of private corner officer and the higher status that it afforded in the past.
However, new office designs have been modified to reflect open communication between employees as well as executives.
“Previously, offices showed a definite hierarchy with large, executive offices circling the perimeter windows with open space in the center, like a donut,”Rod Vickrow, a Smith Group design director, said that he is the design director of a top office design firm. “Now it’s more of an inverted donut.”
Managers are now moved to the center of an office by companies.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg rejected an executive position and chose instead to work in cubicles alongside his staff.
In a Newsweek interview, a Wall Street trader exclaimed that the market is now “unstoppable.” “My whole career has been spent sitting out in the middle. You want privacy? Do it at home.”
One company in office furniture: The HON Companywww.hon.com), redesigned its products to fit the new office model, then started to use them in its own headquarters.
“There’s no such thing as a formal corner office at The HON Company,”Don Mead, vice president of marketing at HON. “Our furniture systems allow us to create work areas that achieve necessary privacy for our executives without putting them up on an unreachable pedestal.”
HON Company developed its Initiate Panel system. This allows for open floorplans, and uses sustainable, low-air emission materials.
“We believe in teamwork here, and our teams include everyone from the receptionist to the company president,”Mead.
Other large companies also embrace the teamwork-over-executive-suite philosophy. According to Intel’s policy, “Executives are not entitled to operate under different standards than other employees.”
Even consultants, accountants, and attorneys who need confidentiality work in smaller areas. The private offices of law firms are now smaller than 200 and can be anywhere from 144 to 180 square feet.
