Designing Offices Where Privacy Doesn’t Compromise Safety
Designing office space is increasingly complicated in a post #MeToo era when more people are concerned with how to curtail sexual harassment and create safe spaces for all employees. Those responsible for making decisions about office space can ask themselves several questions. For example, how much privacy is too much privacy? On the one hand, employees need quiet space to effectively do their work and to tend to their needs without being too exposed (think about having to make a difficult call to a doctor’s office). On the other hand, too much privacy can cause people to feel unsafe. Or, can there be too much transparency in a space? Certainly lots of open spaces can make workers feel exposed and vulnerable. Interior design decisions won’t completely prevent harassment, of course, just as policies won’t. But making decisions that consider how to encourage good behavior and discourage the bad, can help create spaces where everyone feels safe coming to work.
As interior designers, we want to make the world a better place. Some people may think that we do that through beautification, but when it comes to office design we focus more on how to influence employee behaviors through the design of space. And our goal is to encourage good behavior and prevent the bad.
This goal is increasingly complicated in a post #MeToo era when more and more people are asking questions like: How can we create spaces that are safe for everyone who works in them? Is it possible for space design help to curtail sexual harassment and other misconduct at work? Here we pose several questions that we think about as designers and that those interested in creating safe spaces for employees might think about too.
Privacy can be both good and bad. On the one hand, we want employees to have quiet space to effectively do their work and to tend to their needs without being too exposed (think about having to make a difficult call to a doctor’s office, for example). On the other hand, too much privacy can cause people to feel unsafe.
Imagine an employee who is the subject of derogatory comments. If those comments are made in a place where no one else can hear them, the subject will likely worry that without witnesses, they may not be believed. Most individuals will try to make sure they are not alone with that person again, but what if the space precludes that?
Dr. Annalisa Enrile, who teaches at USC in the School of Social Work, told us that with “harassment on everyone’s mind when it comes to the workplace,” she thinks about designing areas where people won’t feel trapped, or can’t be cornered. So you might, for example, provide two exits in common spaces such as copy rooms, storage rooms, lunch rooms — spaces where too much privacy can work against someone.
Private offices are typically the most efficient way to bring in visual and acoustical privacy but consider the level of privacy. An executive might feel productive in their large closed office but how do their direct reports feel in a one-on-one meeting if there’s little to no transparency in the enclosed space? If that employee is asking themselves, “Am I safe here?” how confident, productive, or expressive will they be? Dr. Enrile suspects that to be one of the main reasons some women prefer meeting with an executive in an open area that feels less hierarchical and more transparent.
The short answer — yes. We’ve all heard the complaints about poorly designed open office plans where there is minimal privacy and people are subjected to seeing or hearing their coworkers eat, sleep, cough, and have loud conversations. Never mind the interruptions. These spaces can eat away at focus and productivity. And they can feel unsafe.
Too much transparency can make workers feel exposed and vulnerable. Imagine if someone is being stalked by a co-worker? In a transparent workspace, there may be no place to escape. Would an employee in this situation feel comfortable to complain that a co-worker is “staring at them all day”?
Diane Rogers, an architect at IA San Francisco, explains that office design is about a balance of openness with the right level of privacy. “We are seeing fewer walls in spaces and relying on furniture to add more privacy for individuals so they can function when they need visual privacy,” she says (see the photo below). “People need places to have privacy when their emotions are overrun, or they need to have a highly personal phone call.”
So how do you find the right level of transparency for your organization? “I find a layering approach works well,” says Leah Bauer, a director of interior design at HDR. “A thoughtful progression from private spaces, to semi-private, to open.”
The trick is to have enough diversity to meet everyone’s needs. Completely private areas might include bathrooms, private enclaves, and wellness rooms that can be locked. Partial privacy can be provided by offices with a window to the open space or a transom next to the door or by conference and phone rooms with frosted or partially frosted glass to show someone’s in there but not necessarily show their facial expressions.
Many companies, even in more traditional industries like law and banking, are aiming to have more casual spaces, including ping pong tables or video game consoles that encourage frequent communication and interaction. It’s not uncommon to see community spaces like the one above that look more like a bar or a coffee shop. If people are more at ease, they are more likely to share ideas, the logic goes.
However, when work feels like a set of casual interactions — and people are spending lots of hours at the office — employees likely need more direction on what’s appropriate and what isn’t in those spaces. Dr. Enrile believes, “Policy, practice, and training go hand-in-hand with space design. The procedures for after-hours or before-hours — who is allowed in the space, is it OK for one person to be alone in the space during non-working hours — are all important policies to think about in accordance with safety.”
“For all that designers can do with space and all that leadership can do with policy, social norms trump all,” says Jeff Leitner, a former Innovator in Residence at the University of Southern California, who studies social norms. For instance, a company may communicate a policy that working in the office before 6:00AM and after 7:00PM is prohibited, but there may be unwritten social rule that you actually can work whenever you want because “everyone does it anyway.” The desire to work late may be innocent enough, but this lack of adherence to policy could open the door to a potentially unsafe environment.
We are fully aware that interior design won’t completely prevent harassment, just as policies won’t. But establishing safeguards to stop harassment and assault in the places we work is something we should all be focused on, bringing our unique skills to bear. For us, that’s design, and we’re committed to asking ourselves and our clients questions that will help to create a healthy, safe work environment for everyone.
AJ Paron-Wildes is a National Director of Architecture and Design for Allsteel, the office furniture manufacturer. She is also a speaker, author, and past adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota, College of Design.
Chloe Simoneaux is a workplace strategist and researcher on Allsteel’s Workplace Advisory team, helping organizations enhance the human experience at work.
Designing Offices Where Privacy Doesn’t Compromise Safety
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