my worst was either when they gave me a phone that wouldn't mute and I had to do a conference call at my desk with various people incl a junior government minister or when I was going through what i think was a nervous breakdown and spent three hours crying hard at my desk and nobody commented

you will have a great time

There are absolutely no benefits for the people who actually have to generate anything involving thought in being in an open-plan office. 

Recommend purchase of noise cancelling earphones at soonest oppo.

Really depends on your colleagues.

If your firm has a presenteeism issue then yes it's impossible to sneak out bang on the dot of 5.30 without being noticed but same goes if you also happen to have the office next to your head department.

I sit in a room with six of us and occasionally it's a bit loud if everyone is in and talking simultaneously and generally it's fine.  Only problem I have making serious calls is when the secretaries across the corridor have one of their falling outs and scream profanities while I'm on the phone.

It's shit if you have a face time culture - so PP basically

Every other profession deals with it perfectly well, I don't understand why Lawyers find it so troublesome.

"project management" isn't a profession

Open plan is shit. Whatever 'profession' you are in.

Never had an office of my own. It's absolutely fine, lawyers are far too precious and up themselves about this.

OP I can assure you that being in the open plan does not prevent or even slightly decrease the amount of fooking around on the internet

its fine for junior office drones. 

To my mind, a switch to open plan is basically telling your employees to fook off and work from home and do meetings by skype.  better for the environment. better for you.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

OP I can assure you that being in the open plan does not prevent or even slightly decrease the amount of fooking around on the internet

No, but it does increase the amount of chatting about shite. 

Open plan is such an ineffective way of working for lawyers. I would quit unless they let you do at least two-days a week WFH. 

What ebitda and All Washed Up said.

Lawyers need to get over themselves.

Eh, open plan is unequivocally shitter than having an office and only actually happens to save money on rent. Lawyers are pompous and self-important and that's served them well in enabling them to keep offices while everyone else loses them. 

It's fine if your immediate neighbours are generally considerate and don't have voices like foghorns.  On the other hand if you happen to sit opposite a selfish boor with no self-awareness who uses the phone loudly and constantly, then it is complete shit.  

a selfish boor with no self-awareness who uses the phone loudly and constantly, then it is complete shit. 

You mean a lawyer? This is one reason it does not work.

I did this when training and for a year after qualifying. Leave now. 

Obadiah - yes, this was a lawyer.  Not all lawyers are like that but sitting near one in an open plan office is truly shite.  

The worst is when you sit next to a micro manager, who is constantly looking over your shoulder. You have BBC news on once and you are forever pegged as somebody who wastes time.

Its always women who shout the loudest when they are on the phone. I think it is because they are more likely to be spoken over so you just hear them repeating the same thing in increasingly louder shouts in order to get heard at all.

The worst is when you sit next to a micro manager, who is constantly looking over your shoulder.

I've had this too.  The firm moved offices after a couple of months and I escaped from this particular person but I was on the cusp of resigning.   

Its always women who shout the loudest when they are on the phone.

No it isn't. 

Its always women who shout the loudest when they are on the phone.

Definitely not the case in my office.

M&A Bankers, Scientists, Mathematicians, Actuaries, programmers/coders work in office plan without any bother. I do accept though to the extent it might be difficult is driven by colleagues in your immediate vicinity.

A&O where I have friends at are moving to new offices soon and are going open plan, and everyone is I am told screaming about the prospect.

If you think open plan is bad, then agile is like open plan but without the humanity. But if it accelerates WFH even more then it can only be a good thing.

I’ve never had an office :(

I was at a US firm when one department went open plan, with loads of bullshit from the partners that they were all in it together. Within weeks the partners had quietly taken over the meeting rooms and left everyone else to suffer

A&O went open plan in the CW office the best part of 15 years ago

“If you think open plan is bad, then agile is like open plan but without the humanity. But if it accelerates WFH even more then it can only be a good thing.”

Agile with workspaces for only 75% of maximum staff if all in is the way to go.  Manages absence time and allows staff to properly understand what personal office-bound senior management really thinks of them.

"agile open plan" - just the name made me want to go on a killing spree. 

I have my own office, with my PA in a sub office to filter people from getting to me. Its amazing. 

I had always worked in open plan and was fine with it, however I now have my own massive office and love it

agile open plan

Is that what was previously known as hot-desking? 

It's shyte. HTH

Loving the 2006 vibe to this thread. 

Open plan is fine but the hot-desking/agile think is bollocks unless you work in something where most of your team is either out at a client site or travelling.  It's a nightmare if you're the last one in in the morning and have to spend half an hour finding somewhere to just sit down.  When I worked somewhere with this system I often spent the first half hour or so of the day working from my laptop on top of my locker while I waited for the person who'd taken the desk I'd reserved to reappear from their morning dump. 

I value my employees so little I wont even buy enough desks and chair them all to sit at... 

Why do people agree to work for aunts like that?

HE LEFT HIS PEN ON IT!!! IT WAS HIS!! LOOK ITS MY PEN!! 

Abbs it was a few years ago but yes at EY you could book a desk a week ahead so first thing you did every morning was log on and find a desk for the same day the following week.  Only downside was coming back from holiday and having no reservations for your first week back.

Wibble it made sense for EY's auditors where at any given time only a fraction of them were actually in their home office.  Why pay for space that's not used for most of the year?

Because you value your workers and want them to feel part of a team, and not just lumps of fee earning asset that need the absolute minimum time, effort and cost expended on then to gain max profit. . 

We can book ours too. I tend to just rock up late and sit wherever there is space though.

I am one of only two people at my place who has their own office, everyone else here is open plan the sad sacks of shite, i used to work OP though absolutely hated it, but now my stomach can rumble without a care in the world 

The funny thing about the management of law firms , and professional services firms like Deloitte, and CBRE advocating open plan , is have you seen the size of the Partners an Directors "open plan space"?

Usually corner plots occupying 4 times as much space as the rest, with the nearest space 12 feet plus away from anyone else. Hardly open plan, they may as well just had their own office FGS

heh 

at the office I work in most of the time atm you have to sit at a different desk every day 

it’s rubbish

Sometimes people come to my office and theyre like 'hey you dont have to sit here alone come join us out here theres space right next to me itll be a laugh'

And im looking at them thinking 'get the fook out of my office mate' i love it here damit