They recently added partitions to my office desks - grouped in rows of 2 and 3, facing each other to make a bank of 4 or 6. These barriers were erected in the hopes of channelling people's attention to their computers. The work levels dropped, noise level increased, as did the amount of mess and the time it took to answer the telephones.

People were standing up to hold conversations over the barriers, thus not working. People talk louder over the barriers because they feel they cannot be heard through them - the barriers are psycological as well as physical. The phones go unanswered because no-one can see over the barriers without standing up. We cannot tell who is at their desks or engaged on a telephone call so the majority of people ignore the phone as 'not their job'. Finally, they took away another few inches of the available space that had already been reduced by a quarter a few months previously, leaving some with not enough room to store all their necessary equipment.

Walls don't work, unless you keep sheep.

LTS