Equality of space

28 November 2009

By Elizabeth Dodson

Office space has been a hot topic recently in my department, as plans for a new building have created potential opportunities for change.  At the moment I work in a large open plan environment (home to over 35 people at full capacity) and I have mixed feelings about this.  I enjoy the vibrancy and the frequent opportunities to interact with colleagues without having to plan meetings.  I’ll be honest though, it is a difficult setting to concentrate in and I find myself choosing to work at home when I have to do tasks that require a lot of focus.  I also manage my hours such that I often work late, when the office is quieter. 

So as part of the new building consultation, my colleagues and I were each asked what sort of office we actually want.  Choices ranged from individual offices, to small shared offices through to the large open plan spaces that I’m currently used to.  This simple questionnaire became the focus of much debate.   People were split not only on what they wanted, but also what their choices meant.  There are some who love open plan working – as long as the space is well designed and the aim isn’t to pack as many people in as possible.  However even some of the open plan enthusiasts asked for individual or small shared offices.  Part of this related to the sentiment that it is very easy to get open plan wrong and that even when the design is good, it is easily overpopulated if staff numbers increase (after all – how easy is it to squeeze extra desks in...?).  Beyond all this though was the issue of prestige.

Generally speaking (within my institution at least), lecturers get individual offices.  As I understand it, this is because a clear need has been identified to allow privacy when lecturers are providing pastoral care.  However there are lots of reasons why many researchers might also need that ability to shut the door...  It may be that they are working on something highly confidential.  They too sometimes need to conduct private meetings at times when dedicated meeting rooms are all booked out – and this includes meetings with students.  Many, like me, benefit from having some control over the level of noise and interruption.  Personally I would also love to have space to keep all my books and papers to hand rather than piling them high at home!

I could easily go on, but the basic point is that I believe that researchers have as much need for good quality office space as lecturers do.  Although not all would choose the solitude of an individual office, having the choice would be nice!  If researchers do not have this option, then this suggests a status issue – one that appears to be somewhat endemic in academia.  I therefore hope that the final decisions will be based on a combination of need, preference and grade, without regard to job titles.   

So having touched upon these issues, I’m interested to know – how do other researchers feel about their office space?  What do you have, does it meet your needs, and do you feel happy that there is equality of space in your institution?