WASHINGTON — The old image of the boss in the corner office may be on the way out.
Slate reports that fewer bosses are tucking themselves into hidden spaces and surrounding themselves with their employees and with the work of the day in “open plan” offices.
At Bloomberg News, Michael Bloomberg says, “transparency produces fairness.”
A spokesperson for Bloomberg says that the company’s open-plan layout encourages “institutional eavesdropping” — in short, employees get to hear what’s going on on all levels of the company, and they’re less likely to think someone’s out to get them.
Josh Tyrangiel, the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, tells Slate that the open plan “ensures that everyone is attuned to the broad mission, and … it encourages curiosity between people who work in different disciplines.”
The open plan is a trademark of what Slate calls “startup culture,” where a company runs a bare-bones operation. And, as Slate notes, it’s a cost-effective way of getting employees into as small a space as possible.
Still, Slate says, entrepreneurs and CEOs are catching on.
At Business Insider, Henry Blodget stands in the middle of the floor. And Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says he is a fan.
“People can come right up to me and ask questions if they want to,” Dorsey says.
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