Shout across to your boss

Offices are doing away with cabins and cubicles, once considered the symbols of power and hierarchy. Gautam Sheth checks out the new work-floor

The next time you are in office, look around carefully. It can impart intricate lessons in geography that can often rival the complexities of global geopolitics. That innocuous water cooler, for instance, might have been placed there after countless strategy sessions on how it will help different teams to get talking to each other.

Or that cabin is see-through because of its ability to flatten hierarchy and lower the communication barriers between the seniors and juniors. Today designing a perfect workplace is up there with bagging the appropriate talent and keeping the coffers full.

Knock, knock, is anyone there?
The no doors policy of Leo Burnett is an innovative way of keeping the office ‘open’ and communication channels transparent and clear. Seema Sood, head, corporate communications, Leo Burnett, says, “People are encouraged to walk in and out, talk when they want to,” she says. “We have been working in an open office environment for six years now and it has helped us creatively.” A no-door policy is an immediate ice-breaker with everyone feeling completely comfortable.

“It is an empowering environment when a top manager walks to a junior’s table to discuss projects and ideas,” she says. “An office with cabins and cubicles usually perpetuates hierarchies and power structures.”

Strategic seating
Companies make a lot of effort and time to ensure that their core members are seated in a manner that fosters interactivity and transparency. Zubin Zainuddin, principal architect, ZZ Architects, one of Mumbai’s leading office architecting companies, has designed several corporate offices and has had to sit with the human resources department of a leading retail company for several sessions before ‘architecting’ their workplace.

“I had to go through their organisational chart minutely for several days, understanding the position, power and utility of each employee,” he says.

“Companies want high-value individuals, who are capable of handling many teams simultaneously, to be strategically positioned in such a manner that they have physical control over the members.”

Bye-bye cabins
Architect Bhavna Jacob gives an insight into why cabins are no longer in fashion. “If the workplace becomes a fun place, then it helps. It breaks the monotony of work and makes it more exciting,” she says.

It’s a point of view that finds an echo in the services sector companies, where the workforce is young and the age difference between seniors and juniors is not much. Referring to the IT and ITeS companies, Jacob says, “Most of their friends are from the office. Due to long work hours, they almost lose their contacts with the outside world. The office, by default, becomes an extension of their life.”

Cabins don’t foster informal relationships, and reflect, in an obvious manner, the power structure of a company.

Chartered engineer Prem Nath, who owns Prem Nath & Associates, changed his office to an ‘open environment’ recently. His reasoning is quite simple, and in fact prompted by commercial considerations. “An open environment helps in the meeting of people. There is an increase in mobility and eye contact,” he says. “Gone are the days of cabins.”

The placebo effect
The power of suggestion is immense and some companies go that extra mile in educating their employees about the various products and services under their belt. Retail giant Tesco, for instance, makes it a point to give a retail feel to all its employees.

“Each building in our Bangalore campus has been decorated with aesthetically designed images of the various stages of the retail scenario and the facts on Tesco, store layouts, information on the countries that Tesco operates in and Tesco’s values,” says Sudheesh Venkatesh, human resources (HR) head, Tesco.

An office reinforcing the brand of the company helps in building the sense of 'belongingness' among the employees. “It helps in reducing the rate of attrition because people know what their efforts are leading to,” he says.

The town hall approach
Music Television (MTV) is adamant that its employees will not communicate with each other through email. “People have to talk to each other the old-fashioned way,” says Abhinav Chopra, assistant vice-president, MTV. “It fosters team spirit.”

MTV also has a town hall in the middle of the office, a large open space where people congregate to hear everything from the CEO holding forth on profits and ratings to bands rocking the night away.

“In fact, you will find a certain craziness in everything we do,” says Chopra. “For instance, the table -tennis table is located right in the middle of the office. You can measure it, and it will be exactly in the cenrte.”

And yes, if you manage to break a glass in MTV, you will find everyone clapping away to glory. It’s part of their internal HR manual. “It is all about freedom of thoughts and giving everyone their own space,” says Chopra.

Even light matters
Ask Gautam Mani, general manager, facilities and properties, 3 India, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) company. “We believe in intelligent use of lighting to reduce stress levels,” he says. “Our offices are designed to ease the eyes, body and mind through open spaces and colourful ambience.”

Companies are making an effort to designing workplaces that are non-monotonous, non-hierarchical, energy efficient, ergonomically state-of-art and more interactive.

Ultimately, it is all in the culture
TV Mohandas Pai, member of board, Infosys, has a slightly different perspective. “The structuring of office space is only a reflection of a company’s culture,” he says. “It is a culture that eventually determines how open and transparent work places are.”
“At Infosys we have offices with cabins, but the doors are always open, and besides all the cabins have glass walls,” he adds. “Anybody can walk into any cabin.”