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Open plan offices

I have to question, who come up with the idea of open plan offices?

It was obviously someone who:

  1. Didn't have any learning difficulties or physical disability
  2. Thought it would improve the working environment 
  3. Was trying to getting more desks onto the space
  4. Didn't trust their staff! 
There's nothing worst than sitting row upon row of desks, people either side of you, looking at either the back of someone's head or the back of the computer screen in front of you. How does this improve anything? It just makes you act or feel like a robot or like your working on a production line. Its cold and unfriendly. You can't make it personal, and I don't mean have photos of your cat all-round the work space! I mean it's hard to adjust the working area as you have very little space. If you need to have lists or useful notes pinned around your desk- there on full view of other colleagues. No harm it that, other than they might find the odd word I have written on good old Post-It Notes strange when out of context. These are words I often need to write but always spell wrong and having them in full view struck around my computer screen exposes my flaws. From experience putting this on show  will always end up with someone making a comment.

Making any sort of adjustment in an open plan office just makes you stand out, highlights differences. I once worked in an office where a colleague had back problems. She needed to stand up and raise her keyboard on her desk every now and then. But as soon as she did, she stood out, everyone else were sitting in neat row, at the same height all facing the same way. She looked like a giraffe towering over everyone, and she was aware of it. Having worked in open plan offices I've very quickly came to the conclusion that this type of working environment really isn't suitable for me - it just makes me more self-conscious of my dyslexia. 
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