OFFICE LAYOUT

Cellular/Traditional/Enclosed Office

The cellular layout of an office is also known as a private or closed

office.

It is generally partitioned with walls or panels to form separate office

places for every staff and each cubicle has a door. It is typically
equipped with common fixtures like a chair and a table.

Each cellular office accommodates normally one or two employees.

Cellular office layouts are extremely essential for those who require
noiseless surroundings to focus.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cellular Office

Layout:
Cellular Office Layout
S.no Advantages Disadvantages

1 Confidentiality Consumes Huge Space

2 Focus Poor Administration

3 Imagination Employees Becoming Unproductive

4 Distinct Rankings and Motivations Ineffective Communication

5 Little Gossip Expensive

 Cellular Office Layout
6 Good for Health Equipment cannot be shared

Adjust Room Temperature and Lighting as Difficult to Adjust Workspace to Match Work
7
Per Convenience Load

It’s tougher for the Junior Employees to

8 Loud Equipment Can Be Isolated
approach Senior Managers

9 Better Security Sense of Seclusion

Maintenance of Standard Operating Procedure

10 Perfect For Long Duration Group Ventures
Become Difficult

Typically Has a Window, Letting in

11 Training Employees Can be a Long Process
Sunlight and Fresh Air

Advantages of Cellular Office Layout:

1. Confidentiality:

Since it is a closed layout, employees have full confidentiality and

privateness for themselves.

They can take confidential calls inside their cubicles and can even have
spur-of-the-moment meetings with other staff.

They can typify their workspaces according to their coziness and ease
and can create their own joyful ambiance which will eventually
increase their efficiency.
A cellular office layout is accurate for administrative office layout in
companies where regular jobs are required to be completed in high
privacy.

2. Focus:

One of the main drawbacks of an open office is the cacophonous

environment which frequently creates disturbances for staff and
results in a lack of concentration.

Unlike open offices, cellular offices offer a commotion free and

peaceful ambiance for the staff, thus, letting them concentrate on
their job.

Particularly the programmers, analysts, and technical staff find

it immensely favorable for their jobs which demands high
concentration and focus.

3. Imagination:

A noiseless space is often essential for imaginative and innovative jobs

that are easily accessible in a cellular office layout.

Contrasting to the open layout, people working in a cellular office

can work in peace, away from noises, avoiding movement of
lots of people around, thus helping innovative or creative
employees to be more productive in their outputs.
4. Distinct Rankings and Motivations:

The hierarchical structure becomes very clear in the cellular offices

and anyone can make out anyone’s hierarchical position by just
looking at their cubicles.

The principle is, higher the rank, better will be the cubicles in all
aspects.

This often motivates an employee to work harder to have a better

office of their own, which in turn instigates healthy competition
amongst employees to perform better.

5. Little Gossip:

Gossip is a big problem for employees working in an open space layout

as all crowded in one big space and can easily interact with each other,
which actually diminishes their efficiency.

On the other hand, in the cellular layout, employees scatter and

partition in their own spaces to work without having much
opportunity to gossip with other colleagues during their office timings.

6. Good for Health:

In open offices, since all employees jam-packed in one space, the

chances of acquiring infections also increase as any employee who
infected with any contagious illness may spread the infection easily to
others in that office.

Whereas, in a cellular office, chances of spreading of infections are

diminished, since all employees are separated from the walls or
partitions of their cubicles, thus, preventing germs to spread and
keeping them healthy.

7. Adjust Room Temperature and Lighting as Per

Convenience:

In the open office layout, since all employees have to sit in one big
common space, they have to adjust themselves with the heating, air
conditioning or lightings which are common for all.

For example, if anyone feels cold and others are feeling hot, that
particular employee has to bear with others regarding temperature
control of the air conditioner.

But, in a cellular layout, all employees have the benefit to regulate

the heating, lighting or other conditions as per their choice to
satisfy themselves.

8. Loud Equipment Can Be Isolated:

In the cellular office layout, it is a big advantage that the noisy
equipment which can cause disturbances can be isolated in separate
rooms.

This will help to preserve the quiet ambiance inside the office allowing
the employees to work in peace.

Whereas, in open layout, whether be it the employees or any kind of

equipment, all are kept in that same common big room, thus, causing
a noisy work atmosphere for the employees and resulting in a lack of
concentration.

9. Better Security:

In the cellular offices, individual cubicles can make inaccessible by

locking them up thus, safekeeping important, confidential documents
and individual things when the offices not used.

While, in the open office since all employees share the common room,
there is not much security to either documents or personal belongings.

10. Perfect For Long Duration Group Ventures:

Unlike the open layout, Cellular offices offer the perfect ambiance for
long-duration projects allowing the team to stay together in one
cubicle, isolated from the others, and helps them to communicate
efficiently within the team and even provides them confidentiality and
privacy for team meetings.

11. Typically Has a Window, Letting in Sunlight and Fresh

Air:

Generally, the cellular offices have one window for each side cubicles,
allowing enough fresh air, in case there is no air conditioning, and
plenty of sunlight.

This helps the office to look bright and airy without any stuffiness,
providing a fresh-feel to the employees.

Since all good things come with hitches, likewise, cellular office layout
to has certain disadvantages.

Disadvantages of Cellular Office Layout:

1. Consumes Huge Space:

Open office layouts require comparatively low space than cellular

layout as they don’t have to design separate spaces for staff.

Cellular offices need considerably extra space than open layouts. The
need for space can be quite high as every worker has their individual
workspace.
This can very expensive for the company, particularly if the offices
situated in metro cities which extremely expensive, thus every square
inch of the office may cost pretty high.

Even the doors and passageways in cellular layout consume a lot of

areas, for which the company has to pay but cannot be utilized as
workspace.

2. Poor Administration:

Staff management in a cellular office layout can be quite problematic.

In an open layout, supervising the employees is actually easier since

scanning carefully through the area will depict each employee’s
activities, whereas, closed office layout calls for managers to pay a visit
to every single workspace to observe all the employees’ activities, and
this can actually be tiresome.

It’s not possible for the manager to supervise all employees efficiently
in a cellular layout.

3. Employees Becoming Unproductive:

Cellular office layouts can often hamper the employees’ productivity as

the seclusion offered by the partitions offer them chances to waste
their time and might make them inactive.
Even, certain workers might seize this opportunity and misuse the
benefit of the isolation offered by the separate workspaces and not do
the works assigned to them, thus wasting both the company’s time and
money.

Some might even involve undesirable deeds such as workplace

romances and other corruption.

4. Ineffective Communication:

One advantage of the open office layout is that the employees can
easily communicate with each other, thus promoting organizational
efficiency.

But in the case of cellular office layouts, since they are all separated by
the cubicles, it is not appropriate for effective communication amongst
the staff.

In the cellular layout, the main mode of communication among the

employees are e-mails and memos, which is definitely ideal for record-
keeping, but are not as powerful as verbal communication.

5. Expensive:

Constructing and running a cellular office can be quite costly in

comparison to building and managing an open office layout.
Since, in the cellular pattern, all employees have to give separate
cubicles, thus it requires more space which can be really expensive.

Moreover, the fitting of individual workspaces and construction of

panels or walls that isolate the cubicles is also very expensive.

Besides, furnishing them, providing heating, air conditioning, and

lighting the cubicles also require a lot of money.

Even after construction, running a cellular layout office is also very

expensive. Separate doors and windows consume a lot of space which
can be even more costly.

6. Equipment cannot be shared:

Since all cubicles partitioned, each of them will require separate

resources like telephones, fax, printers, and photocopiers.

This will definitely increase the operational cost for any organization
having a cellular layout. Whereas, in open layout, equipment sharing
can be easy and effective, as all the employees share a common space,
thus, reducing operational costs.

7. Difficult to Adjust Workspace to Match Work Load:

Once the cubicles are ready, it becomes difficult to add or reduce the
dimensions of the cubicles as per changes in the workload.
For example, if any organization following the cellular pattern office,
decides to expand, then it becomes nearly impossible to cram extra
space for the additional employees taken in order to match work
pressure.

8. It’s tougher for the Junior Employees to approach

Senior Managers:

An open layout offers an ambiance of equality and senior managers

are easily accessible to the junior employees in case they need any
suggestions or help.

But in the case of cellular layout, it becomes really problematic to

build a comfortable and approachable environment amongst all the
staff as managers or supervisors generally disconnect from the junior
employees by separate cubicles.

This causes invisible discrimination amongst the junior and senior

employees, making it tough for the juniors to approach their seniors.

9. Sense of Seclusion:

Employees may not feel part of a group as they all separated by

cubicles and this can create a feeling of solitude in employees.

They may not find anyone nearby to talk over if support and assistance
required. This isolating feeling may harmful to their productivity.
But, in an open layout, all employees are easily approachable.

10. Maintenance of Standard Operating Procedure Become

Difficult:

Introducing and maintaining a standard operating procedure for all

employees become really challenging in the cellular office layout, as all
employees secluded and partitioned by cubicles as per their hierarchy.

11. Training Employees Can be a Long Process:

Since it is difficult to address all the employees together at a time, so

training employees for any particular job becomes challenging and
time-consuming.

The training has to scheduled over a period of time and only small
groups from each cubicle can be trained at a time. This eventually
results in wastage of time as well as money.

12. The flow of Information Might Decelerated:

Cellular office pattern can cause difficulty in interaction amongst the

employees, as a consequence, the flow of information within the
organization might get decelerated.

It will definitely take more time passing information from one cubicle
to others, thus, causing difficulty in coordinating the workflow.
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