The open office, once the trendiest office fad, has hit a downturn in popularity. From academic studies to exposes in The New Yorker, BBC, and elsewhere, experts and employees alike have complained about the detriments of the open office.

Although most organizations will not revert to the traditional model of having a number of private offices, help is on the way in 2019. Many have started looking into the value added to their work environment by office privacy booths.

These are nine reasons why companies have started looking at phone booths and moving away from the open office towards an evolved concept called the “agile office." This style combines the best of the open and traditional office concepts & privacy booths can help make the retooling easier and more cost-effective.

The Problematic Open Office

From the 1950s until the first decade of this century, the open office has slowly taken over the work world. German experts created the concept after World War II as a way to force colleagues to occupy the same space instead of hiving off into their own separate spheres. They believed that without walls between them, employees would create a more communicative and creative environment.

By the 1990s, tech companies embraced the ideal just as corporate America was searching for cost cutting measures to remain competitive.

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The way we get work done is changing fast, and therefore the office environment must change with it. To ensure maximum productivity and employee satisfaction in a world where today’s workforce will have five different jobs before the age of 35, company's need to get creative. 

Advertising for, interviewing, and training up new hires is expensive, so it makes sense to provide a workspace where employees will feel comfortable and free to work in a way that ensures high levels of workplace satisfaction. Soundproof office booths help to achieve this goal by lowering anxiety and offering people privacy. 

The Stress Problem Caused By Modern Offices

Open plan offices have been a popular style of workspace design for decades, but we now recognize that while cost-effective and practical, this type of office space may not always be in the best interests of its employees, or result in optimum productivity.

An open office space fosters communication and collaboration, which can improve employee relationships and lead to a more innovative and creative working environment.

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In recent years, workplace culture has shifted away from the ‘traditional’ format of employees being segregated into cubicles and discrete spaces for purposes of focus and control, to an experimentation with more open formats that attempt to foster collaboration. Now there's the more hybridized concept of the so-called 'agile' workspace.  

Working agile respects an employee’s individual need to operate solo or in groups, depending on the moment. It also respects a ‘flatter’ corporate hierarchy, one in which open commentary and input are welcomed to ensure the benefits of creative diversity are captured. 

However, a more open working culture also requires a certain sensitivity to the needs of others; the respect to let them work as they need to without interruption or diversion. It’s the cultural ‘software’ that goes with the territory.

It doesn’t give free license to create noise, disrespect colleagues. So, when an employee displays overly talkative, loud behavior, how can managers confront them effectively? 

When Confronting Talkative Coworkers, Define The Default Setting

First, define what the accepted ‘norm’ is for your working environment. 

Although outright silence isn’t a prerequisite for workplace productivity, given the choice between ‘more noise’ and ‘more quiet’, a quieter environment prevails because it caters to the needs of the majority. If music is required, it can be collectively chosen or selectively listened to via personal headphones. 

Excessive talking doesn’t come with a volume control. It infringes upon the ‘default setting’ of workplace calm, breaking up concentration and flow. When talking oversteps the common boundary of acceptance it may be one of several things in play; a ‘cry for help’ in gaining attention when that employee feels pressured, a form of ‘presenteeism’ by making an auditory statement to conceal the fact that work isn’t being done, or the employee in question may be used to different conditions.

Either way, handling that employee requires a few key steps to align their understanding of what the ‘default setting’ needs to be, and those steps also require a certain level of diplomacy and tact on the part of HR or management.

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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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The open office plan has become extremely popular over the last few years, particularly riding the expansion of the start-up tech company culture that prized creating the opportunity for open collaboration. In fact, it is estimated that over 70% of modern offices now employ some kind of open format. 

It was a logical reaction to the much longer-standing tradition of the cellular or closed office space plan, in which cubicles and partitions underlined individual focus and corporate hierarchy.

However, despite the best intentions of companies to pool teams together, concentrating differing talents around clusters of tables or long benches, the open-office format is simply not delivering.

The modern workplace needs to offer one attribute above all — flexibility. By offering only a highly socialized environment, the open office has failed to be flexible. 

Yes, it’s egalitarian, but it simply doesn't cater to the very relevant need for personal privacy and focus, and the bottom line is that productivity is suffering as a result.

So, what’s the solution?

Creating Agile Offices

The agile working concept is the key to improving baseline focus, creativity, and output in the modern workplace. Put simply, it achieves this by not planning a top-down assumption of what people need. It looks at work as an 

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Over the past decade open-plan workspaces have gained popularity across the country despite studies showing that they're not in workers' favor. 

It's an office design concept that encourages collaborating together and a smooth flow of information from peer to peer. However, with an open-plan workspace comes a few new etiquette tips that you may want to practice so you can mitigate its downsides.

These tips can help ensure that everyone is comfortable and able to get their work done in a timely manner. 

1. Be Mindful of Your Noise Level 

Open-plan workspaces don't have a lot of buffers for noise, and people cause distractions as they move around and work together. This can make it very hard for people to hear important phone calls, conference calls or to concentrate on their work. 

It's essential that you're mindful of your own volume. Speak at an indoor level, set your phone's ringer on silent or so it's not as loud as it can possibly be, and have extended conversations away from the workspace. If you enjoy listening to music, always bring headphones. 

2. Consider a Separate Meeting Space 

If you have a lot of group meetings, webinars, or conference calls, consider having a separate space for these activities, like an office meeting pod. It should be closed off from the open workspace. This will provide a buffer for your group to complete their calls and webinars without interrupting your coworkers who are working on different projects. 

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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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No matter how well you get along with people, there's usually one coworker that you simply can't stand. If you're a full-time employee, you could spend 40 hours per week with them. It's like a prison sentence where your cellmate is Dwight from The Office. 

Fear not, these nine tips for dealing with annoying, distracting coworkers can help. (Sorry, we don't include vengeful, hilarious office pranks to get even.)


1. Develop a Solid Exit Strategy 

Every time your coworker starts on one of their soul crushing dialogues, have an exit strategy in place. This will help to limit the time you spend with them each day.

It could be something as simple as saying that you have to make an important phone call, complete an urgent report or work on a project that's due immediately. When your coworker realizes that you're not listening to them or entertaining their negativity, they usually give up. 


2. Keep Your 'Tude Positive 

If you're having a problem with a coworker being obnoxious, chances are other coworkers are having similar issues. It's important that you keep your attitude upbeat no matter how frustrated you get.

People naturally gravitate to those who keep a positive attitude, and this can discourage your negative colleagues from hanging around.

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Every day we're surrounded by noise, from the moment we wake up until our head hits the pillow . Some noise is pleasant, like your favorite music or the sound of falling rain. Other types of noise can be disruptive and unwelcome, and this is the type of noise that can negatively affect your stress levels. 

Below we describe which types of noise are disruptive and the myriad of negative health consequences they stir up.

First, The Main Causes of Disruptive Noise 

Although there are technically hundreds of causes of disruptive noises, we've narrowed it down to a few broad categories. These categories have the biggest impact on your everyday stress levels. 

• Traffic - Cars are one of the biggest causes of noise pollution in modern society. Even muted traffic sounds can push your stress levels up when it is a chronic disturbance. From speeding autos, motorcycles to frustrated drivers honking their horns, the roadway is not a peaceful environment by any stretch of the imagination. 

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Times change and each successive generation brings a different cultural viewpoint to the table. Millennials, with birthdates landing between the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, are conspicuous as being the first cohort to emerge with the defining trait of extensive web and mobile technology use from an early age.

They are, in short, the first truly tech-connected generation, and this has driven a huge shift in expectations of work, job frequency, the education required to clinch those jobs, and the technological methods of communication and collaboration employed to succeed.

They seek to balance professional and personal obligations, find deep importance in relationship networks both at work and at play and are generally less blindly work-oriented for the sake of a company or employer.

This all has massive consequences for office design, challenging workplace thinkers to optimize their surroundings to fit an evolving concept of what works best.

Millennial Office Design: Out with the Old

The major shift in millennial thinking has been the demise of the so-called "cellular workplace." This was the organizational layout that arranged separate desk spaces, floor plates, or cubicles designated to each employee.

Partition walls were the rage and the idea that you were given your own privacy was a pretext for siloing employees to create an atmosphere of heads-down focus. 

This layout worked for jobs that demanded discretion and privacy. Calls could be made, repetitive administrative tasks could be processed, and high focus could be achieved without distraction.

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Over the last few decades, the nature of office layouts has evolved. Closed rooms used to reflect the hierarchical structure of offices, but today it’s more common to work in an open environment.

Although open offices convey plenty of benefits in terms of interactions between workers, they’re far from ideal for productivity. For example, those who work in open offices take up to 62-percent more sick days. Additionally, 25-30 percent of those who work in open office environments dislike the noise levels they experience. At Zenbooth, we believe our office meeting pods allow you to enjoy the best of both worlds. Our pods block up to 40 decibels of noise, allowing those who work in open offices to find peace when need it. Thanks to their mobile nature, you can add one to your open office and rearrange it with minimal fuss.

Details about Zenbooth office furniture

Zenbooths are a non-confined space that employees can use for intensive work tasks. Our design team has created a product that is fully flexible, relaxing, and ideal for creating an office environment that evolves with your business’s needs. For example, you may choose to invest in one of our

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Does your office need more privacy? 70% of American offices have adopted an open plan design, but they're not always conducive to peace and quiet.

Those who work in them take up to 62% more sick days, which suggests a lot about how the stress and noise levels of these office styles hurt workers' immune systems. 

Additionally, 58% of high-performing employees state that they would like their office at a lower volume to be more productive. 

At Zenbooth, we recognize that open offices come with unique advantages. By banishing the hierarchy that comes with secretive cubicles, they make it easier for employees to engage with one another, no matter what their job title is. With excellent communication generating new ideas, abandoning this aspect of an open office work space wouldn't be a positive move.

Additionally, open offices could reduce isolation in the workplace, giving colleagues the chance to get to know one another. Again, this is an excellent asset in terms of collaboration and team building.

But there's a need to overcome the chaos that open offices bring. With our private phone booths, you can retain the benefits of an open office environment while giving your employees somewhere calm and quiet to work on high priority assignments. 

With clients such as Bosch and Samsung under our belts, we proudly deliver tranquility to offices throughout the U.S. 

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Open office plans may be an economical way to save space, but they cause excessive distractions for employees. hampering their productivity.

25-30 percent of people working in an open office environment report being dissatisfied with the level of noise at work. Add to that the 54 percent of high-performance employees who find their workplace too distracting, and its clear companies need a solution. 

When offices have low partitions between desks - or none at all - workers are not afforded any amount of privacy or quiet they need to get things done. Enter noise reduction phone booths, a viable solution for eradicating distraction and restoring peace at your office.

Zenbooth offers modular office booths that come in varying sizes. From small, singular, comfort booths to larger executive booths that can accommodate up to two people, these solutions offer a quiet space for completing work or conducting important meetings. 

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Companies have recently placed a heavy importance on office morale and space utilization. Savvy business owners are finding innovative ways to achieve positive outcomes in these areas while maximizing savings. 

One trendy way to refresh the workplace for you and your employees is to opt for an agile office layout. Companies like Zenbooth eliminate the downsides of open-style offices with modern phone booth furniture.

Why Are Open Offices So Popular?

Proponents of open offices argue that they can be much more cost effective than cubicles and private offices. It's no wonder that 70% of offices now have no partitions — or if they do have them, they're at very low height. 

It's true that open offices can make better use of space. The "open area" allows workers to share resources, so you can purchase fewer printers and the like. The more meaningful benefits of the open office, however, revolve around collaboration. That's why it's ironic that many of the challenges presented by open offices relate to employees' peak performance.

Is Communication Better Between Co-Workers?

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Walk into any bustling office in America and you'll find that most workers share the same grievance: their disruptive working environment. 

While some people find that open office plans suit their personality type, others would rather immerse themselves in a world of seclusion. Workers may also have expectations that shift in accordance with their role. For example, while some execute tasks that require hours of peace and isolation, others need to collaborate before heading into a meeting.

At first glance, it's easy to assume that there's no way to please everyone. However architects around the world have recently begun carving out a new concept called office neighborhoods.

In short, office neighborhoods feature an amalgamation of working environments that adapt in accordance with the workplace's needs. 

If you think the idea of an office neighborhood design sounds crazy or unattainable, you're not alone. Many people felt the same was about agile offices. But when you start learning more about how they function and the ways big brands use them, you'll likely change your mind.

How office neighborhoods differ from other layouts

The two most common types of office layouts act as polar opposites. On the one hand, you have traditional office styles with a peaceful setting where each person benefits from their own room. Such offices are becoming more rare nowadays, but they feature something very important - an available meeting space for essential group decisions or projects. 

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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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Open plan offices have been popular since the 1950s, but various studies conducted over the years have revealed significant flaws in the concept. While they were initially created to cut down on business costs and promote the sharing of ideas, the open desk placement or cubicle-less environment has caused issues with productivity and wellbeing.

Open office plans save money by saving space that would otherwise be used to build physical offices, but placing employees in a large area with little to no privacy causes unwanted distractions. Add to that the potential confidentiality breaches brought on by such placement, plus the absence of quiet meeting spaces, and the end result is a decrease in productivity and increase in unhappy employees.

One way to counteract this problem is to implement the office neighborhood design. This popular idea is taking hold in a variety of settings, and even some of the largest, well-known companies are beginning to embrace it. 

Now, tech giants like Uber are navigating away from the traditional open office plan in favor for one that is more conducive to work productivity and employee collaboration. According to an article titled Goodbye Open Office, Hello Office Neighborhoods, “Instead of vast floors of workers buzzing next to each other, Uber’s avant-garde plans involve organizing its new offices into ‘neighborhoods,’ creating communities of 30 to 60 employees.”

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When you add a meeting pod to your office, you should aim for high quality over what looks like a bargain. Overall, the goal is to create a peaceful meeting space that's free from noise pollution and distractions. In addition to preventing office noise from filtering in, your meeting pod should also maintain absolute privacy.

Holding sensitive conversations or making important phone calls that escape prying ears makes your investment worthwhile. So does ease of use, functionality and durability. 

Unfortunately, the meeting pod market is brimming with cheap imitations. Although they may save some money initially, you run the risk of having to purchase a better model when you realize it doesn't meet your needs. 

If you're not convinced that a high-end model is more practical, now's the time to read further.

Cheap meeting pods don't offer reliable soundproofing 

Around 70 percent of American offices now use open plan layouts. The original aim of the open workspace was to eliminate the isolation that is intrinsic to cubical working. Open offices do allow for greater collaboration between workers, and in addition, they remove the hierarchies that come with traditional offices.

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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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Do you ever wonder how you can increase work productivity and long-term success without the hassle that often comes from redesigning your whole office?

At Zenbooth, we understand this unique challenge and have come up with modern phone booth solution that aims to reinvent the way companies address workplace efficiency.

Modern Phone Booths Offer A Balance of Discretion and Usability

Thanks to our extensive lineup of office phone booths, your business can attain the perfect mixture of seclusion and usability when your workers feel they need a quiet place to be productive.

Our products are proven to significantly reduce background noise and distractions. They're a great fit for whenever a team member needs to take an important phone call or have a private business discussion.

We use special soundproofing denim material in the insulation of our phone booths, which blocks out excessive ambient noise to create a peaceful workspace. 

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Office designs and concepts constantly evolve as managers of private sector, non-profit, and government facilities alike search out the best way to inspire the most productivity out of their workers. 

Yesterday’s ideal set up, the “open office” design, was meant to break down every wall and barrier to facilitate communication. Advocates of the concept believed that it would lead to enhanced innovation and productivity.

They, however, got it very wrong. Their were far more cons than pros to this new layout. Extroverted younger people tended to favor it (no word on if it made them more productive). But studies showed that most people struggled with open offices overall. 

Many who worked in the open office merely faced too much distraction. Studies indicate that once lost, concentration on work could take up to 20 minutes to be restored. 

Some saw the effects of constant noise and no escape from others harmful to people's health.

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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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For today’s office, meetings that spark more productive collaboration aren’t only a luxury--they’re a necessity. With the advent of agile office design and innovations in agile office furniture, companies have discovered that highly compartmentalized workplaces don’t produce as well as those that can combine all their workers’ talents.

Some of the first efforts at producing a collaborative atmosphere, though well-intentioned, caused some workers’ usability to fall through the cracks. Open office floor plans may have improved the collaborative aspect from the typical 1980s-era offices full of separated cubicles, but they do have their drawbacks.

How Office Meeting Booths Enhance An Open Floor Plan

If you must deal with an open office floor plan, you already know how chaotic it can be. With nowhere to get your team together by yourselves away from the consistent noise, you either huddle together, keeping your voices low so as not to disturb your office mates, or you conduct the meeting in full voice, contributing to the noise factor.

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It's true; no one really wants to spend a whole day at work but that could be for a different reason than you think. If you walk through the doors of the workplace and suddenly your energy level drops from 10 to 2, your workplace environment needs an overhaul.

What exactly is it that drains your energy? We humans are social creatures who like to talk, laugh, and tell stories. However, if you have a cliquey group in the office or someone who is pessimistic and eternally negative, you expend lots energy combating them. 

Distractions Reduce Productivity

It's commonly known that being distracted keeps people from thinking clearly and has a negative impact on their ability to be productive. One of the biggest culprits of distraction is the popular open office workspace, or “bullpen.” It was originally thought that an open office would promote collaborative thinking and creativity, both of which are huge assets to a company.

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Every company or startup team should have the goal in mind of creating an office space that maximizes their employees' productivity and workflow. 

This is where an agile workspace excels. But striking the right balance between creative freedom and focused work can be challenging. The good news is, there are several small things you can do to help smooth the conversion process and seamlessly shift your employees from a traditional office setting to something way more productive. 

Six Tips for Elite Agile Office Design 

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The last two decades featured the rise of the open office concept. Advocates of the open office coming from the tech sector claimed that the idea was to throw open all of the barriers to communication and collaboration. 

While the original philosophy came from 1950s West Germany, the idea, once called the “bullpen” model had been common in American newspapers, police departments, and some other areas for some time.

The open office ideal, however, ran into problems. Simply tearing down walls did not improve collaboration as much as it increased annoyance and dropped productivity.

Recently, office designers have looked to take the goals and some of the ideas of the open office and improve them with a concept called the “agile workspace.” A good agile office design respects diversity among staff in terms of working practices. It incorporates a number of ideas to support staff and boost productivity.

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In many corners of the business world, “agile” has become more a buzzword than a principle to live by. But when you strip the fads and jargon out, the concept is one that can help a business do be more efficient, achieve lower costs and higher employee & customer satisfaction.

According to the Agile Business Consortium, agility means much the same as it does in real life—to adapt quickly to change, to “respond rapidly and flexibly to customer demands,” to adapt to change effectively without a drop in quality, to be a leader in productive change, and to take the lead in competitive advantage.

A truly agile workspace, then, would be one that facilitates adaptability, collaboration, productivity, and leadership. Here are some ideas that can help you transform your workplace into a more agile one today. 

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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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Sometimes it feels like the office is your home away from home. Just as you don't choose your family, you usually don't have a say as to which coworkers are situated close to you. If one or more of these coworkers are loud and disruptive, not only could it detrimentally affect your productivity, it can create stress and tension between you and your fellow employees. 

Here are a few approaches you can take to work toward a solution.

(1) Try to Mitigate from Your End

See if this loud, disruptive coworker is something that seems to only bother you. Some people are more sensitive to regular noise than others, and there's nothing wrong with that. You could try a pair of earplugs or decent quality noise canceling headphones, and maybe ask your work for a headset extension for your phone. 

If you are allowed to listen to music while you work, remember to wear earbuds or headphones so your music doesn't disrupt other people. Also, remember to take them out of your ears before speaking so you don't end up inadvertently raising your voice when you talk. After all, fair is fair.

(2) Request Quiet From Loud Coworkers When You Need It

If you are about to take an important phone call or meeting at your desk, people are usually good about hushing a little if you politely ask those around you if they would mind keeping it down for a few moments (and explain why). Another option is to make a sign (here's where a sense of humor will help a lot ) which you can put in a visible space to signal that you need some quiet. Try something like, "Do Not Disturb - I'm disturbed enough and on an important call!" 

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