Page 14 - CCCA 259155 Magazine_Winter 2016

{ WORKPLACE }

WORKING OUT IN THE OPEN

By Karen Hacker

I began my legal career in private practice, where the only staff ■ Effciency: This is hard to measure but
not working in enclosed offces were the accountants and articling can be supported by having private
workspaces available when needed.
students. Even as more open workspaces were introduced, lawyers ■ Privacy: Locked cabinets are essential,
kept their private offces. This is still the typical arrangement in and a “clean desk” policy requiring em-
ployees to lock up all materials at night
most private frms and in-house departments, even though other ensures confdential work is not com-
business groups have long been working in open spaces. promised. An available “war room” can
help lawyers to work through large,
lengthy transactions. Policies that re-
he private-offce tradition meant ■ Germs: There is no containing the duce the amount of paper through
that the legal team at the Toronto spread of germs when there are no walls. technology also generally reduce the
TOrganizing Committee for the 2015 Arguably, lawyers have some additional risk of physical privacy breaches. Spac-
Pan American and Parapan American issues: es for making private calls or holding
Games (TO2015) had to learn a new way ■ Effciency: While it is hard to measure meetings allow lawyers to have sensi-
to work when we took space in Corus differences in effciency, it is logical to tive conversations. Higher barriers
Quay. In this bright and beautiful build- assume that noise and visual distrac- between workstations and screen pro-
ing, everyone works in an open space, in- tions can impede concentration. tectors also help create privacy from
cluding the CEO. ■ Privacy: Lawyers trade in the confden- casual prying eyes.
I asked Julie Edwards, Vice President tiality of both conversations and docu- There were defnite advantages to the open
of Facilities and Administration at Corus ments, and many spend large parts of space for the TO2015 legal department:
Entertainment, about the genesis of this the day on the phone or in meetings. ■ Collaboration: We worked in a clus-
design. She told me that the architects Issues of sensitivity are even greater in ter of adjoining work stations. Any-
and management wanted a “democracy of publicly traded companies. one who needed to discuss an issue or
light,” whereby offces on the perimeter of Can these issues be resolved to the sat- share information could simply stand
the building would not impede the views isfaction of employees generally and the up and peer over the top to get the at-
or natural light for those in interior offc- legal department specifcally? tention of a colleague.
es. Essentially, they wanted to “bring the ■ Noise: To a large extent, noise can be ■ Workfow: When a new matter arrived
outdoors indoors.” controlled through employee education, in the department, we could immedi-
Open space offces also make it easier such as reminding staff to take loud or ately consult with each other to deter-
to treat air quality; workstations can be group discussions to meeting rooms. mine who could best to handle it.
reconfgured more quickly; and offce Interestingly, Corus found noise lev- ■ Integration: The information sharing
build-out is signifcantly more affordable. els dropped when the barriers between and close proximity meant new team
In addition, workspaces without assigned workstations were lowered—if you can members were integrated quickly.
desks suit a growing virtual workforce. see your neighbour, you are more likely Edwards reminded me that in most work-
So the question on everyone’s mind: do to keep your voice down. Many employ- places today, only about 30% of employ-
open space offces work for legal depart- ees also use noise-cancelling headphones. ees—mostly management and profes-
ments? ■ Germs: Again, education is key. Em- sional staff—work in closed offces. So the
Some of the problems with these envi- ployees who are ill must be encouraged successful open-concept offce requires
ronments are not exclusive to lawyers: to stay home. Corus in particular runs buy-in from the top down, as well as a
■ Noise: This is the biggest issue and var- fu-shot clinics and encourages fre- shift in the traditional view that impor-
ies from space to space. quent handwashing. tance is tied to the size of one’s offce.

14 CCCA MAGAZINE | WINTER 2016 HIVER