Open-plan offices: a failed experiment we keep running

The open-plan office is a monument to a theory that was never tested before it was built. It was supposed to make us collaborate. A systematic review found no empirical support for that. It was supposed to make us productive. A field study found a 14% drop in cognitive performance compared to cell offices. The same research shows the fix: quiet zones improve performance by about 17%, individual rooms by 22%. So the open-plan office isn't a mistake we haven't learned from; it's a mistake we keep choosing. Maybe because the people who choose it don't have to work in it. And the noise is not a bug; it's a feature of the budget.