Due to the coronavirus pandemic, plastic partitions between desks are “hot right now.” From Cushman & Wakefield to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, recommendations are pouring forth for how the owners and managers of buildings — offices, casinos, even schools — should rework their floor plans so as to stop the spread of the coronavirus with see-through barriers. Plexiglass companies are overwhelmed with orders accordingly.
But how safe can it keep workers? In a recent discussion about the office of the future, a Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson told Wired, "You’re going to see a lot of plexiglass ... Having that divider will make people feel safer." But feeling safer and being safer are two different things entirely.
"It’s theater, just like we saw after 9/11," said Ron Weiner, CEO of office furniture purveyor iMovr in Seattle. He believes plexiglass shields only accomplish the first of those two things, feeling safe, and recommendations around these solutions are just "what real estate and furniture companies are trying to get people to think because their stock is now trading at 40% of what it used to ... The acrylic shield is the epitome of theater."
In the 1960s, furniture purveyors and office space visionaries invested in the mid-century "office of the future." Today we know that office as the "cubicle farm."
"Remember those photos of the 1930s of the seas of desks?" Weiner said. "They were trying to get away from that, and ended up with a sea of cubicles instead. Then 30 years ago, everybody moved away from that to the 'open office,' and that saved money — and everyone hated it.” Indeed, open offices can be really quite bad for employees. "[A company with an open office plan] looks like a company where things are moving, and things are happening," Weiner added. "Yet we’ve known for a decade that those people catch the flu a lot more than people in offices or even high-walled cubicle offices. It’s harder to concentrate. People are less happy."
In light of the pandemic, in which that existing risk of catching a virus is multiplied, companies are contemplating a cubicle comeback, and operating under the impression that walls between desks will be the difference between a successful re-entry and a perpetuation of viral spread.