1. First of all, your office environment is a major contributor to how happy you are at your job.
2. Workers in open-plan offices report increased distraction as a major detriment to job satisfaction.
3. Workers in open-plan offices are less satisfied with their job performance than those in private offices.
4. Noise and lack of privacy are the key sources of dissatisfaction in work environments...
5. Loss of productivity due to noise distraction is doubled in open-plan offices.
6. Overhearing irrelevant conversations is detrimental to any task that requires cognitive processing.
7. Tasks requiring complex verbal processes are especially likely to be disrupted.
8. The inability to have private conversations in open-plan offices is cited as a major source of job dissatisfaction.
9. Uncontrollable noise doesn't just lower productivity, it also decreases overall motivation.
10. Perceived lack of visual privacy in open-plan offices is a major contributor to job dissatisfaction.
11. Some researchers feel that open-plan offices actually discourage collaboration, due to lack of privacy.
12. Excessive, uncontrolled social interaction leads to overstimulation and loss of focus.
13. The benefits of collaboration don't outweigh sound and privacy issues.
14. The notion that open-plan offices are good for productivity isn't founded in research. It's just the cheaper option.
15. There is also no empirical evidence that open-plan offices facilitate interaction and collaboration between coworkers.
16. In fact, ease of interaction doesn't rate as a major concern for office workers, regardless of work environment.
17. Personal space is more important than any other factor contributing to job satisfaction, and open-plan offices typically allow for less.
18. Workers in open-plan offices report higher levels of distress, irritation, fatigue, headache, and concentration difficulties.
19. In fact, one study even reported that workers in open-plan offices take more sick days than those in enclosed offices.
20. Workers in open-plan offices did complain about temperature, but so did people in enclosed offices.
21. Open-plan offices are not something that workers can "just get used to."
22. People in enclosed offices are just as satisfied with their ability to collaborate and interact with colleagues as people in open-plan offices are.
23. In terms of noise privacy, the only thing worse than an open-plan office is an office with high-partition cubicles.
24. The disadvantages of open-plan offices dominate any positive impacts cited in previous studies.
Based on findings from Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices from the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 36, December 2013
sciencedirect.com
(Some research based on works cited within the article and a report from nhs.uk.)