Apparently I missed something because people think "Open-plan" office are a nice idea.

News.com.au features write up on how "Open-plan" offices are not very good for the health. I must have missed something as this is the first I had heard of "Open-plan" office. I must live in a hole or something. Anyway, the study looked at the health affects on people in this type of environment. I can only say "Well duh!".

Who came up with the bright idea of placing a bunch of people in close proximity to each other and expect them to be productive? I always had the problem in school of talking to friends that were close to me in class. I was told I was unproductive. According to open-plan proponents my teach was wrong. I should have been very productive being able to talk with the people near me. Now you get me shut off from the distractions of other people then I can productive.

This isn't to say their shouldn't be some interaction. However if you want "knowledge workers" to be productive they need time to work and time to collaborate. "Work" and "Collaboration" are not the most effective with the same environments.

I'm glad Dr. Vinesh Oommen was able to straighten out the world on the concerns of "Open-Plan". Now if he can only study the "open-plan" setup of schools and show how that has the same problems, then maybe the government won't be so miffed when people want to do home schooling.