Open-plan offices are making us less social: opinion

Members work on laptop computers in a common room at the Embarcadero WeWork Cos Inc. offices in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. WeWork has focused its attention on Asia since 2016 with the opening of its first facility in Shanghai amid booming demand for flexible work spaces. Photographer: Michael Short/Bloomberg

In recent years, a number of big companies – IBM, Bank of America, Aetna, Yahoo! under former chief executive officer Marissa Mayer – cut back on their telecommuting programs in the name of more interaction and cooperation between employees, supposedly fostered by being stuck together in an office. 

The business model of companies providing co-working spaces, such as US$20bil (RM80.86bil) “unicorn” WeWork, is also based on the proposition that if people find themselves in a shared space, they’ll network and cooperate more.