At a minimum, the COVID-19 crisis could be the
death knell for some recent polarizing office
trends, such as the shared workspaces used by
many tech startups to create a more casual and
creative environment. Cubicles and partitions
are making a return as the virus speeds the
move away from open plan office spaces,
architects say.
Design firm Bergmeyer is reinstalling dividers
on 85 desks at its Boston office that had been
removed over the years. That “will return a
greater degree of privacy to the individual desks,
in addition to the physical barrier which this
health crisis now warrants,” said Vice President
Rachel Zsembery.
There’s no rush to return. At Google and
Facebook, employees will be able to work
remotely until the end of the year. Other firms
have realized they don’t even need an office.
Executives at San Francisco teamwork startup
Range had given notice on their office because
they wanted someplace bigger. But when
California’s shelter in place order was issued,
they instead scrapped their search and decided
to go all remote indefinitely, a move that would
save six figures on rent.
“We were looking at the writing on the wall,” said
co-founder Jennifer Dennard.
One upside of having an all-remote workforce
is that the company can hire from a broader
pool of candidates beyond San Francisco, where
astronomical housing costs have priced out
many. But Dennard said the downside is that
it eliminates the “chaotic interruptions” - the
chance encounters between staff members that