The Secret to Getting Work Done in an Open Office. Tip#2 : How to Make Open Plans Work
While some offices cope by encouraging the use of noise-canceling headphones, “Do Not Disturb” signs and quiet pods, Fried and Heinemeier Hansson did the opposite and came up with “library rules.”
“Libraries are really open plan offices,” says Fried. “Everybody knows how to behave in a library. They’re reading, studying, and thinking. We treat the office like a library, making quiet the norm.”
Open plan offices can work when you treat your office like a library instead of a chaotic kitchen of work, he says. Basecamp employees keep their voices down. If they need to talk, they grab a room, which is lined with felt and soundproof materials to help deflect sound and reduce any echo. The company also has private soundproof phone booths where you can use your phone at full volume.
Basecamp also made changes to its culture to enable library rules. “There are no phones at desks because phones ring,” says Fried. “We have no incoming calls; we handle communication via email, which helps things stay quiet. If we were a company that required a phone bank, we would need to build a separate space.”
Where people sit is another consideration. “You can’t mix sales, which is naturally a loud process, with developers, designers, or writers,” says Fried. “They go at a different pace. Different jobs require different environments. People who need to make noises are special; we’ve made focus the primary default.”
By making choices and implementing strategies, Basecamp employees can be focused and undistracted even though spaces are all out in the open. “You don’t have to feel like you have to hide to find quiet; quiet is the default here,” says Fried. “Noise is the exception, and it’s in isolated spaces.”
