Current research into the misinterpretation and misapplication of Frank Lloyd Wright’s  open office plan has companies scrambling to adopt new equipment to address its downsides.

Additionally, studies showing how open-plan office setups can negatively impact worker productivity, creativity, and focus. The result has been a new demand for flexible workstations. 

Studies about open offices have also established how proponents of this style failed when assuming it would foster greater collaboration & personal interaction. It turns out not many workers felt like communicating with each other was a huge obstacle to begin with.

The biggest problems workers are facing is with excessive noise and distractions. At company's where there is no private space, these are impossible to avoid.

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Has your workplace adopted an open office floor plan? 

Have you experienced your work and train of thought being interrupted in the middle of typing an urgent, complicated report? 

Are there times when you just want to scream and shout at your office mates for being so noisy? Don’t worry. You're not alone.

 In fact, studies have shown that people working in both open-plan and cubicle settings are unhappy about the amount of sound privacy they have at work.  A small number of those who have their own offices expressed the same sentiment.

Of course, the open-plan office has accomplished a few things: more face time with your colleagues, maximized space and the resulting cost savings. 

But it hasn’t really done much for employees in terms of the level of collaboration, quality of communication, and productivity. Instead, people complain that being out in the open, forced to share space at close quarters, discourages open communication and leads people to lose focus, thereby reducing productivity and delaying work.

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Zenbooth is a California based company that has delivered comfort and quiet to some of the biggest brands in the world, including Lyft, Zenefits, Virgin and Samsung.

Recently featured in the New York Times & CNBC, we set out with a mission to improve chaotic working environments and improve worker health with uniquely quiet office pods.

In the Times article, it described how Gizmodo Media Group, home to some of the largest publications online, started off buying a few Zenbooths and trying them out with their writers and editors. The feedback was “positively positive” across the board. Soon more Zenbooths were ordered.

We know that this demand comes from workers. But why are they so desperately in need of an isolated space to focus?

Employees feel that they can be more productive and reach their true potential with office pods. Indeed, studies have shown over and over again that noise is one of the most distracting, disruptive forces a person can experience when they desperately need to focus on intense tasks.

In some cases it can take up to 23 minutes for an employee to get back on track. Over 54% of high performance workers say their office is too distracting. Yet today roughly 70% of offices have zero or law partitions.

At Zenbooth, we don’t just promote office pods as a solution to workplace distractions. We actually use them. They’re great for video chats, phone calls, or just getting some alone time.

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Zenbooth office pods are a unique and modern solution that enables you to provide quiet, distraction-free workspaces at your company. 

Built for between one and six people to work free from noise and visual disruptions, Zenbooths are flexible enough to be for private 1v1 calls or group meetings.

Below, we've listed 17 ways an office pod can upgrade your workspace, from health to utility. For questions about shipping or discounts, get in touch with us here. 

1. Lower the stress & anxiety of your workers

Working in an open plan office is known to increase the stress levels of employees, particularly those who are introverts.

For folks who work best alone in a quiet environment, trying to concentrate in the hustle and bustle of an open office can be extremely daunting.

Lack of privacy can also cause anxiety for individuals who are constantly worrying that what they’re doing can be seen at all times by a manager. 

Some people just need a break from having to constantly interact with coworkers all day. For these individuals, an indoor office pod provides a convenient retreat where they can work in peace and privacy for as long as they need to.

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At a busy company, an office quiet space for meetings and confidential phone calls can be hard to find. The sounds of other employees making calls, typing and consulting with one another can prevent you from focusing on intense tasks.

Indoor office pods or work booths provide private, quiet spaces that minimize distractions. You can have a meeting or make a confidential phone call without leaving the office or looking for a private area in a hallway or bathroom. You can also use it as a place to escape when you're feeling overwhelmed. 

An Indoor Office Pod Sizes for Every Use

Office pods are available in sizes that can accommodate from one to four people. Maybe you need a quiet space where an individual employee can work without distraction.

Perhaps management needs a room for confidential meetings with employees or conferences with clients. Whether you are a small startup or an established corporation, a booth that is the right size for your business needs can make the workday more convenient and less stressful.

The Failure of the Open Office Concept

At first glance, an open office plan appears to promote collaboration and communication among employees. To conduct a meeting, you simply turn around and talk to the coworker next to you. However, you may have to leave the office to hold a meeting or make a phone call that involves sensitive information. The constant activity, interruptions and distractions of an open office plan can decrease productivity, increase stress and hurt employee morale.

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Believe it or not, the open office was in vogue before cubicles. With it came the constant noise and lack of privacy that results from having no barriers or partitions. 

Cubicles were the remedy to the open office, but with their own drawbacks: a lack of sunlight and the drabness of grey cubicle walls became associated with communication problems between employees that would lead to unstable businesses. 

Open offices made a comeback two decades ago for startups who wanted to participate in the new business model, with some company CEOs not even having private offices. It was an attempt to bring employees together for collaboration and offered a modern design with an affordable upfront cost. 

The popular belief was that the chaos would be positive and promote creativity. But new does not necessarily mean effective. Research has found that employees in such spaces experience negative effects on their well-being and productivity. 

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Peace and quiet is one thing that all employees need to work effectively — and in some workplaces, it’s anything but silent. 

Office spaces promote chatter and workplace noise simply because of the way they're arranged.

If your office is wide open without cubicles, your employees might complain about excessive sound being a distraction.In fact, one study showed that a whopping 58 percent of high performing office employees said they need a more quiet work environment. 

If you’re looking for an office space solution that gives your employees the peace and quiet they need to focus, then the two-person phone booth by Zenbooth is the furniture addition you want. 

Why your office space needs a two-person phone booth

Did you know that 70 percent of today’s office spaces have either zero or minimal partitions? That means there’s hardly any space for employees to go when they need a minute to regroup, make a phone call, or finish up an important project.

But with Zenbooth, all of that can change.

1. Our phone booths are virutally soundproof

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The future of office space & design is here, and office pods are one of the best new additions to 2019. Why are they becoming so popular?

Studies show that over half of high-performance employees find their workplace to be too distracting — 54% to be exact. Distractions in the workplace lead to decreased productivity and efficiency, which can lead to fewer sales, finished products, and less revenue in the long run.

To keep efficiency and productivity at an all-time high, Zenbooth office pods block noise, visual distractions and provide a quiet place for people to focus on important assignments or meetings. 

Here are 5 unique features of our office pods that will make them a welcome addition to your company. 

1. State of the art ventilation systems

You won’t have to worry about fresh air in your Zenbooth — our top-of-the-line ventilation system has you covered. It can sometimes become stuffy in a small space, but our booths provide fresh, clean, cool air to users via our motion-activated fans that come standard with every booth. 

Our systems can completely exchange the air in the booth in one to two minutes time so that your comfort level while using the booth is always in check.

2. Soundproofing unlike any other booth

One of the highest priorities of a Zenbooth is to offer a quiet place to work and concentrate. When you enter the booth, you’ll find that our top quality wall insulation keeps all noise at bay. 

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The trend toward open office space is based on the belief that it encourages greater communication. Companies assumed that “taking down the walls” would help employees generate new ideas, which could in turn increase business growth. 

Initially, not putting up individual enclosures offered a sense of openness and a change from the traditional partitioned environment. Currently, 70% of offices have no or minimal partitions. 

However, the stress caused by working in an open environment can lead to more health problems and a loss of productivity.

Open Offices Spread Germs Similar to Classrooms

As soon as a child has a cold, flu, or another contagious virus, they’re likely going to share it with their classmates. Every time they handle classroom supplies, toys, or even the doorknobs, they pass germs to the next kid who touches that object.

The ease with which they share germs is the reason there are so many school absences during cold and flu season each year. 

Open offices work the same way for adults as open classrooms do for kids. That’s one reason that workers in open offices take up to 62% more sick days. 

When an employee doesn't feel well, their only options are to come into work and spread more germs or stay at home and use one of their sick days. The risk to every employee’s health is an unnecessary one. 

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Every business aims to create a work environment that enhances productivity. To achieve this, you need to optimize worker satisfaction and happiness, while also making the most of your physical setting. Installing office privacy pods is a fantastic, contemporary way to reach all of these goals.

How can our modern Zenbooths do this? To answer this question, let’s first analyze the conventional open-plan layout that many offices use. Then we’ll explore reasons why an office phone booth is the perfect compliment to your workplace layout.

The Cons of an Open-Plan Office Layout

A 2005 study conducted by the University of Sydney investigated employee satisfaction levels in connection with their work space conditions. They looked at sound privacy, comfort, noise level, ease of interaction, temperature, lighting and air quality. Hands down, the researchers found that private enclosed offices had the highest overall satisfaction rate, and open layouts had the lowest. 

Employees appreciated the visual and sound privacy of their own space, and they claimed that collaboration was just as easy in private offices as it was in an open plan. In general, workers found that their creative and intellectual juices flowed more smoothly when they had an isolated environment for focusing.

Employees Need Office Privacy Pods to Think Clearly

The results of another joint study by the University of California, Irvine, and Berlin’s Humboldt University showed how it could take up to 23 minutes to restore focus after an interruption.

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The way employees work in an office environment is evolving, and the offices of today must be able to adjust and adapt to suit the needs of their staff. 

The standard workspace we imagine as an office with cubicles or open office has gone through several iterations over the last few decades. Office design in 2019 may take a variety of shapes but the ‘90s style workplace where each person has a desk and cubicle is still popular – mainly because it’s a cost-effective design that allows more workers to be squeezed into limited space.

Open offices have their advantages – they encourage collaboration and communication between employees and, as already mentioned, they’re an economical form of office planning.

However, these perks are offset by many other negatives. Open spaces can be noisy and visually distracting. They can damage productivity and even employee health. Traditional open offices assume that everyone works in the same way and they don’t make any provisions for different working styles and different personalities.

So what’s the solution if you want the advantages of an open plan office without the downsides? 

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Unlike office pods, the modern concept of the work place layout stretches back well into the 20th-century, and – from a design standpoint – has been relatively unchanged. 

Although certain forms of technology such as desktop computers and wireless headsets have replaced magnetic-card typewriters and rotary telephones, the overall layout of an office space has remained roughly the same.

Now, as was the case during the 1960s, workers sit around a series of clustered desks in an “open air”-style environment. However, a novel innovation is poised to radically shift the ergonomics of office space planning, while also boosting employee productivity, health, and happiness. That revolutionary innovation is the office pod concept.

The Risks Related to an Open Office System

Before we address the specifics of what an office pod is, it would be best to overview the myriad features and disadvantages of an open office setup. 

Granted, open environments are easy for workers to maneuver through the office and allow for easy middle management supervision, but these are at best marginal benefits.

First, a mere 10 percent of office employees consistently report that “ease of interaction” with fellow employees is a serious concern to them.

View each model's features here

Second, an open setup may lead to obsessive observation of employees by management, rather than an appropriate amount of supervision. In addition to being a waste of a manager's time, this over-supervision can make employees feel crowded and be a source of distraction. Such distractions can severely sap productivity and reduce company revenue.

In other words, the few advantages of an open office layout are at best superfluous.

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The open office plan was created to save both space and money. By placing desks in close proximity to one another, rather than giving each employee their own office or cubicle, it seemed like a smart way to conserve resources. 

It was also believed that an open space would foster collaboration and a sense of equity at work. The reality? Open offices are actually causing more stress and distraction for employees throughout the workday.

The open office consists of rows of desks, sometimes with low cubicle-like partitions, that afford no quiet or privacy to employees when working. This causes a good deal of interruption during the day, especially in situations where high-performance employees are expected to handle multiple tasks quickly and efficiently.

Office phone pods by Zenbooth offer a viable solution to the problems caused by open office plans, eliminating distraction and restoring calm and quiet in the workplace. 

They boast many great features and offer a wide range of benefits that make them the perfect choice for any open office setting. Here are the top five features we think potential buyers should know about.

1. Office phone pods allow you to choose your own office space

Because Zenbooths are available in varying sizes, you can choose the mobile office solution to fit the exact issues plaguing your offce. From small comfort pods created for one person use, to the executive model designed to accommodate two people, these quiet spaces are perfect for getting work done or conducting important conferences or meetings.

You'll be able to step inside your own personal workspace whenever you need it. 

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In 2016, we at Zenbooth set out on a mission to help individuals overcome the challenges of the “open-office” and introduced the single-person Comfort Booth. Now, after several iterations, the new two-person model is tackling even more of those pain points, such as the lack of adequate spaces to have private conversations.

From small businesses to larger corporate offices, the open-concept floor plan has made it challenging for the modern worker to not only collaborate with others, but to simply find focus. Conference rooms are often scarce. They can be difficult to book, or simply too much room for one or two people to occupy, when the room could be used for larger groups. The Executive Booth XL is the answer for employers looking for ways to make better use of their space.

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Did you know that people who work in open offices are 62 percent more likely to take sick days? Although there's a chance those sick days come as a result of spreading germs, you could also argue that stress is a factor. 

The fact that 25-30 percent of open office employees express dissatisfaction with workplace noise levels is a revealing statistic in and of itself. Trying to meet targets in a hectic environment can feel chaotic, and where there is chaos, stress often follows.

Open offices do come with plenty of benefits, though. Employees feel less isolated when they're able to interact with one another away from the confines of office walls. Additionally, it's easier to gain support from each other. Employees can bounce ideas without heading to a meeting, and asking someone to pitch in with a task generates immediate responses.

As open offices convey benefits, it's down to you as an employer to find a solution that delivers the best of both worlds. One way to achieve this is through the use of office meeting pods. 

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Open office plans have become common workplace environments. While the idea was originally meant to increase communication and improve collaboration, the end result was a decrease in focus and productivity.

According to an article written by Jeff Pochepan in The Chicago Tribune, “The open office plan was supposed to be less expensive and conducive to building a lighter, happier, more open and collaborative company culture. But it’s backfiring.”

Open office plans often consist of a large open space with desks or cubicles strategically placed throughout. While the cubicles allow for a modicum of privacy, they don’t suppress outside noise because they aren’t truly enclosed spaces.

This lack of enclosure makes it easy for phone and in-person conversations to be easily heard by others, which causes distractions for those who need peace and quiet to work. It also compromises confidentiality in situations where sensitive information needs to be provided by clients or customers.

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Managers around the world have learned in recent years that offices lacking privacy are counter-productive. Staff need places to get away from the chaos of the open office to complete projects, hold meetings, or to make confidential phone calls.

Thankfully, Zenbooth offers the highest quality office pods made in the USA.

Zenbooth Comfort Booths and Executive Booths, as featured in the New York Times, have helped to drive the movement away from pure open offices, which lack barriers or privacy for staff. They instead form part of the “agile office,” which recognizes that while offices do benefit from more openness, staff benefit from having areas to do work or communicate in private.

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As recently as last year, 80 percent of American offices had embraced the failed open office concept as a way to increase productivity, enable more frequent and better communication, and create an improved office environment.

Unfortunately for offices who invested in these changes, studies show that entirely open offices create a number of downsides that often lead to unhappy staff and lowered productivity.

Open plan office research also showed that almost two-thirds of high-performance employees claim that they need more quiet at work to focus. 

A New Work Environment & The Rising Need for Office Phone Pods

The problems created affect not only productivity but also employee health. Those working in open offices take over 60 percent more sick days than their counterparts in other office configurations. Faced with such issues, many American offices looked for other ideas around which to design their workspaces.

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Productivity in the office is a critical element for any business owner or manager. The more productive the employees are, the more successful the business will be overall. 

However, employees face many challenges in the workplace that inhibit their workflow, thus hindering results. What are some of these challenges? Statistics tell us that only 30% of staff are actually engaged at their job.

This is quite a startling and discouraging number. While it’s likely true that many factors are at the root of this lack of engagement among employees, there is one factor that surely contributes to it, and that is that employees are distracted at their job.

When you can’t focus on doing your work, then the potential to lose interest is far too high.

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The secret to boosting workplace productivity and employee well being isn’t always an incentive program. It’s not always having the trendiest employee gifts in your industry or setting up mindfulness Mondays and Pilates on Fridays.

A major key is offering a quiet pod where your employees can think, focus, and get work done without distraction. Having quiet pods in the office creates a haven for your workers to retreat to when they need peace and want to drown out office noise. 

Today, more than ever, with so many businesses using an open plan workspace, giving your employees a place to step away from the distractions and the overwhelming collaborative environment in order to be alone is a simple yet effective way to empower them to do their job. 

At the same time, it signals to them that their peace of mind matters to their employer – letting them know the company they work for cares about their health and happiness. 

Quiet Pods Solve The Office Distraction Dilemma

Without uninterrupted periods of work, accomplishing challenging tasks is next to impossible. Over half of high-performance employees believe their workplace is too distracting. Noise and peripheral movement have the ability to draw away attention, forcing employees to continually have to work towards regaining focus.

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Want one reason your company should consider quiet space pods for its workers? The average full-time employee works forty hours per week — meaning nearly a quarter of their existence is at the office. That's not much alone time compared to the amount medical professionals now suggest we need to focus and stay stress free.

But space pods can help with that, and people who are less stressed will appreciate their office atmosphere so much more.

According to the American Society of Interior Designers, employees who like their office environment are 31% more likely to be satisfied with their job. 

A study by Metro Design also showed that an open office makeover would dramatically increase the productivity of nearly half of the employees surveyed. 

Creating a pleasant and inspiring office environment that also addresses employees’ need for privacy is fundamental to their productivity and work performance.

Today’s open offices are designed to facilitate in-depth communication and collaboration, provide a suitable level of comfort, and foster team-building among employees — all three of utmost importance to a productive office space. 

In fact, as of 2010 a staggering 70% of US offices utilized open workspaces. Yet, in practice, the open-office design concept is greatly hampering the workplace.

Here, we’re discussing the key downsides of open offices, and how companies can improve their employees’ productivity by incorporating office booths into their work place. 

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Unlike modern day work pods, typical offices of the past were designed to support long periods of sedentary tasks. Walk in, sit down, work throughout the day, then leave. Rinse and repeat. 

Stricter company hierarchies were in place, and available technologies were appropriate for isolated workstations as opposed to web-connected networks of employees. So what happened? 

Well, times changed. For one, by 2010 70% of offices were open planned or had little to no partitions. But that gave way to all kinds of workplace distractions. Work pods are now the third design stage of office productivity evolution.

Work Pods & The Quest for Open Office Flexibility 

The target for successful office design is to effectively support increasingly flexible behavior. And this means the flexibility afforded us by the evolving technologies we can use to work. Flexibility means the opportunity to meet, or to be alone, and to be transient. We can be increasingly effective workers while totally mobile, and most of today’s mobile workers actually spend less than 60% of their days in physical office spaces. 

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Some office managers and business owners have asked, "Are meeting pods just a catchy startup workplace design idea, or are they truly going to increase the bottom line?"

To answer that question, just look at the facts. Open plan office research has shown consistently that employees prefer privacy. It has also shown that it's more than just a preference in terms of their physical setting. It is in fact directly tied to how productive they are at doing tasks essential to their job.

Among the long list of open plan office design issues is that a single distraction can take up to 23 minutes for a worker to recover from.

That was reported by Berlin's Humboldt University. With colleagues everywhere in an open office, this could easily amount to an hour or two of missed time from completing assignments.

Excessive work place noise, which can actually have serious health effects, is seen by many open office workers as detrimental to their ability to succeed. 58% of high performance employees (the ones businesses obviously want to keep around for the long haul) find their office too distracting. 25-30% think that it's too loud.

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Office phone booth pods are a new way to get more out of your office space. With a pod placed in your office, you and your employees will be able to enjoy a wide range of benefits, which we’ve detailed below.

Taking Calls More Easily

Let’s get this one out of the way first since it’s the advantage that you probably expected the most. Having an office phone booth or pod means you can take calls in a quiet area, without the noisy coworkers interfering.

This is fantastic for private phone conversations, especially for calls regarding a project which is governed by a non-disclosure agreement.

This may also give confidence to members of your team who try to get the best deals from clients and suppliers. Building a sense of rapport is hugely important in sales, but they may feel under pressure to keep chat to a minimum while working in an open-plan office space with people nearby. A more comfortable environment could lead to the type of conversation that the customer needs to finally make that huge order.

When making phone calls, it can often be difficult to concentrate when others are talking nearby. Hearing two voices, or more, at once can be disorientating and may cause employees to lose track of what’s being discussed.

For video conferencing and conference calls, this can be even more difficult. A private phone booth allows calls and videos to be put on speaker, without disturbing others. It also ensures a more professional environment, which is important to those on the other end of the line.

Office Phone Booth Pods Provide Mental Health Benefits

You might be surprised to learn that your open-plan office space may actually be harming the mental health of your employees. Several studies have documented the ill effects of this layout, and the availability of a soundproof booth can alleviate many of them.

Lack of privacy, constant noise levels, and not having any control over where you work: these are all big issues that cause stress in your employees.

Having a soundproof office pod available means that your employees can find privacy whenever they need it. It has been proven that employees work harder when they feel that they are working in privacy. Removing that distraction allows workers to get on with the task at hand.

To enable this benefit, a physical barrier is just as important as the soundproofing aspect. If one or the other is missing, the employee simply won’t feel as focused or secure.

The distraction of constant noise is also something that grinds away at our subconscious even when we are not aware of it. It can cause stress levels to rise astronomically, inducing emotions like anger and depression as a result.

On top of all of this, workers can start to feel helpless if they do not have the option to change their environment. They feel trapped even in an open-plan space, with no way to take control and gain privacy or quiet when they need it.

This stress is alleviated when they have the option to go into a private booth as needed.

We know that high levels of stress are very bad for a person’s health, meaning there’s more time off from work for being sick. Employees will also be less productive, which means projects missing deadlines and resources not being used to full capacity. This will fuel lower job satisfaction, meaning a higher turnover and even loss of your top talent.

The soundproof booth acts as a buffer against all of this stress and can help to reduce stress’ negative effects. Your staff will be more productive, happier to stay at their jobs, and healthier overall. Any manager or company owner would be thrilled to see these benefits.

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