Open-layout workspaces may be prime targets for retrofits as companies tried to shield workers from COVID-19 – could the office cubicle make a comeback?
The COVID-19 pandemic is making employers reconsider office layouts. Open-layout workspaces – generally long desks with multiple chairs in a large room – may be prime targets. Could that prompt more firms to bring back cubicles?
“While many organizations prepared for employee safety in other ways, the workplace was not designed to mitigate the spread of disease,” according to Steelcase, a furniture maker, in a newly published brochure, “The Post-COVID Workplace.”
Over the last decade, many firms have tried to get as many workers into a small space as affordably as possible. An open layout without private spaces was one way to do that.
But now with a pandemic in place, businesses are reconsidering their lack of walls.
“I think office space is going to change, [and] we will go back to putting shields between people,” says Carol Bartz, CEO of Autodesk. “I think people are going to want protection.”
Some businesses view a resurgence of the cubicle on the horizon.
“The cubicle is making a comeback. One of the most important innovations (to reduce transmission) may turn out to be cardboard or plastic dividers that turn open-plan offices into something more reminiscent of the 1980s,” Wired announced recently.
But some people wonder if even a cubicle wall’s barrier is enough to fight COVID-19.
“The cubicle wall is not going to be a perfect barrier,” says Peter Raynor, professor at the University of Minnesota’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the university’s industrial hygiene program. “It’s going to prevent those larger droplets from passing within six feet of the person in the next cubicle. From that standpoint, they’re good. Probably for the smaller aerosol droplets, the cubicle walls aren’t going to be much of a barrier. They don’t settle very fast, and they can remain airborne for long periods.”
Many businesses are weighing their options for minimizing the virus’ spread in their workplace – but more offices with doors and walls haven’t been a notable part of any discussions. Air circulation likely will be another important consideration for offices moving forward, experts say.
“Generally, if you have more HVAC [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning], you’re going to tend to dilute the virus so there’s less of it to breathe on any given inhalation if it’s present in the first place,” Raynor told Forbes.com. He says that a higher proportion of air from outside along with higher levels of filtration of recirculated air could make transmission of the virus less likely.
“Planning paradigms of the past were driven by density and cost,” the Steelcase COVID-19 brochure notes. “Going forward, they need to be based on the ability to adapt easily to possible economic, climate and health disruptions. The reinvented office must be designed with an even deeper commitment to the well-being of people, recognizing that their physical, cognitive and emotional states are inherently linked to their safety.”
Source: “The Cubicle Is Suddenly (and Thankfully) Endangered,” Forbes.com (May 3, 2020) and “Welcome Back, Cubicles? Longtime Silicon Valley CEO Says Coronavirus Could Kill the Open Office,” MarketWatch (April 29, 2020)
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