I hear this a lot too. All the research I&#x27;ve ever been able to find on the topic suggests the opposite. Teams become <i>less</i> productive when using open-plan style offices, not more productive.<p>But you&#x27;ll never win that argument with a manager in a company that has decided to double down on open-plan layouts. If someone higher up is dogmatic about open-plan, then managers can&#x27;t talk bad about open-plan or else they face career roadblocks. This gets funneled to HR, so then they create bullshit codewords like &quot;team player&quot; or &quot;good cultural fit&quot; that really just mean &quot;someone who agrees to sublimate their natural need for privacy for no other reason than that we told them to.&quot;<p>The only thing you can do is rejection-sample employers until you find one of the rare ones where the upper management just happen to already share your views about offices and productivity.