Why your brain has to work harder in an open-plan office than private offices: study

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:49:13 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/why-your-brain-has-to-work-harder-in-an-open-plan-office-than-private-offices-study-274946>

"Since the pandemic, offices around the world have quietly shrunk. Many
organisations don’t need as much floor space or as many desks, given many staff
now do a mix of hybrid work from home and the office.

But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel
noticeably busier and noisier. Despite so much focus on getting workers back
into offices, there has been far less focus on the impacts of returning to
open-plan workspaces.

Now, more research confirms what many suspected: our brains have to work harder
in open-plan spaces than in private offices."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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