Open Offices are a typical example of what’s wrong with our country. Bunch of MBAs listened to a bunch of consulting “experts” who read a bunch of “studies” coming out of academia. Upper management listened to the MBAs extol the virtues of these progressive changes, which, of course, must be effective because “science”.
Had anyone bothered to ask the rank and file of the company, they would have pointed out what a dumb idea this was and could have accurately predicted the resulting problems and decrease in productivity. But likely nobody asked, and if they did, why would their opinion matter - they aren’t consultants or MBAs or “experts”.
How much money, time and productivity have been collectively wasted over the last decade due to this latest stupid fad? How much more will now be spent to undo the damage? How many morons were promoted and/or bonused due to their successful advocacy or implementation of the disastrous plans based on this fad and are now in a position to embrace the next dumb idea because they were heavily rewarded for the last dumb idea?
And this is just one boondoggle of many that come out regularly and get swallowed wholesale by those who are supposed to know better.
The most ironic thing is this whole group that are responsible for the promulgation of dumb ideas are some of the more highly compensated people in whatever company they infest.
I think they wanted to believe open-office was better ... wanted to, because it was cheaper.
My observations on this is that it is a veneer for reducing floor space and costs because of fewer offices. They can squeeze them into these shared spaces under the guise of so-called “collaboration”.
Unfortunately in today’s world people are often meeting with people in other cities. Thus the open shared spaces sound like call centers on conference calls. Tacky.
I was lucky I stil had my office when I retired.
A few months later, Trump was elected and the labor market suddenly got tight, even for 60+ guys with my skillset. Signed on as a contractor to my present organization, got hired full time. I now have a spacious office and a $7K annual raise. Most meetings are 3-4 people which can easily be accommodated in my new spacious private office. We get judged by results rather than the ability to play PC office politics. I could actually afford to retire now but don't because I actually enjoy coming to work.
I’d say by like 2015 or 2016 people in tech realized open officers were awful and a productivity sink, but management has kept pushing them because: (1) it’s cheaper and it’s a way of visibly improving the bottom line while productivity costs aren’t captured as easily and (2) as you point out, this change came from the top. for a company to reverse course on open offices their existing management would have to admit they made a mistake. unlikely to happen.
The only science that supports the open or “agile” office plan is the science of stuffing more people into a smaller area. My old company went that way after I retired. People hate it. Many very senior developers quit. It is a disaster. I am glad I did not get caught up in it.