Within any modern office it’s important to be able to find privacy when you need it, but also to maintain productivity. Without productivity, a business fails!
Within a large and busy open-plan office, privacy can sometimes be hard to find, and productivity can be difficult to achieve if there is a lot of noise or many people moving around. From time to time, everyone finds it difficult to focus, especially if the task at hand is particularly in-depth or requires real concentration. In that case, how can you find that privacy in a large office and balance it with productivity at the same time?
The problem lies in the fact that productivity doesn’t always mean isolating yourself from everyone else in your office and getting on with your work. Much of the time, productivity means collaborating with others and being able to brainstorm or ask questions. As you can see, a real balance is required.
So, how can you do it?
It really comes down to the design of the office generally but also the way you position and arrange your office desks.
Why a Sideways Desk is Best For Balance
If you want to remain approachable to your colleagues but you want to get on with your work without distraction at the same time, positioning your executive desks sideways to the main door is the best route forwards.
With this type of placement, you’re not facing the door, so you’re not going to be distracted by every type of movement and nobody is going to come to you first as a result. That means you can get your head down and continue with your work in the most productive manner. However, the fact that you haven’t got your back to the door also means that your colleagues or your employees will feel more comfortable approaching you if they want to ask you a question or collaborate on something.
Creating a barrier between you and the rest of the office isn’t going to look good and it’s not going to help you discuss or collaborate, however having a sideways desk layout means that you’re getting the best of both worlds. If you have regular visitors to the office, you can also be more mindful of when they enter your office space, and act in a necessary way too. It really doesn’t have many downsides when you think about it!
Of course, it totally depends on the construction of your office in terms of whether having all desks sideways is possible. If the door is to one side, it could be that your office isn’t large enough for every desk to be sideways on and in that case, someone might have to face the door or even have their back to it. This can’t be helped, but in that case, you could think about having an office seating plan which encourages movement, e.g. an agile workspace or a hot-desking arrangement.
By opting for one of these alternative office layouts, you can ensure that everyone is able to get on with the work they need to do, by choosing the best place to sit on that particular day. Of course, hot-desking has its haters, but when you look carefully at changing your office layout, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons carefully too.
By optimising the way you design your office, can create that balance between the ability to find privacy when needed but also maintain a certain amount of approachability for your colleagues or your employee if you’re a manager or supervisor.
Some tasks require total concentration without any distraction, but other tasks require a more sociable type of approach. It really depends upon the task you have in front of you on that particular day, but positioning your desks in this layout means that you can chop and change your approach whenever a task calls for it.