In the late 1990s, open office plans started to become popular, partly because of the tech boom. In 2017, an estimated 68 percent of American offices had low or no separation between workers. The thought behind open office plans was sound enough – remove the walls between employees and you’ll foster more collaboration. It didn’t, however, end up working like that. Research shows removing partitions is actually much worse for collaborative work, and employees miss their privacy.
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