Is the Corner Office Still a Realistic Aspiration?
The corner office is the classic symbol of success in an office setting. In a literal sense, they have two walls of windows that typically offer the best views possible in an office. The corner offices are often the largest offices available in a workspace, especially when everyone else has a cubicle or are working in an open workplace setting. Usually the most senior member of an office gets the corner office, like a CEO or any other members of the C-suite or vice president level.
Even in a metaphorical sense, it also holds a lot of importance. It connotes prestige and importance; the person who holds the corner office is a top person in the company and should be viewed as such by the rest of the company and anyone visiting.
But is the corner office still a thing in today’s society where offices are morphing, moving away from the traditional layout to a more open space situation?
The modern CEO’s needs are no longer being met by the traditional corner office layout, according to a recent study. The closed off corner office doesn’t accomplish a team working environment that most CEOs want to achieve. Instead, it comes across as cold and distant from your employees.
In some modern offices, C-suite executives are aiming to create more communal workspaces. If there’s still a need for a separate space, there can be reflection rooms to achieve that, which are reserved specifically for business leaders.
This also comes at the same time that remote working is becoming more popular as well, meaning that status doesn’t matter as much. With that in mind, the status won’t resonate with those people if they literally aren’t there to see it, and the bosses need to ensure that there is cohesion with all of their employees whether they’re there in the office or not.
Tracy Brower, former director of human dynamics and work at Herman Miller, said, “Status is a fundamental human motivation—it’s evidence that the group values us.”
Brower points to how everything has changed from the traditional settings since there’s more of an emphasis on connection within offices these days.
She continued, saying, “On the human side, you’re challenged by the difficulty of connecting to other people and to work—providing that essential feeling of belonging—and on the facility side, you’re being asked to extract greater and greater value from every square inch of real estate.”
Additionally, she noted how there’s a new way of showing off status within the office space. “New studies show us that people will choose status over salary, and they are willing to accept a lower-ranking position if it’s associated within a group that they feel will deliver greater status. … The freedom to come and go as I please, being able to choose where I want to sit, getting assigned to a key account, posting to social media about the free organic Thai food in the cafeteria—these are all ways that people sense status now.”
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