Eighteen staff, one window wall, and a copier in the middle of the room
A firm of chartered accountants proposes to shift 18 staff into a first-floor premises of about 1,150 sq ft on a main road in Madurai. The landlord has offered four small private cabins along the rear wall and the rest as open hall. Traffic noise measured at the road-facing windows is around 72 dB, and the firm's own photocopier and printer would sit in the centre of the hall. Windows exist on one side only. Staff already complain that afternoons are stuffy, that screens reflect the window, and of headaches; two of the four cabins have no opening window. The manager wants to sign the lease next week and has asked for a short note on how the space should be used, because he believes 'layout is only about fitting in the desks'.
1. Advise on open and private accommodation for these 18 staff, and state which functions genuinely need a cabin.
Read the worked answer
The manager's assumption is wrong: layout decides output, not merely fit. But open plan is not automatically the answer either.
Case for open hall here: 18 staff in 1,150 sq ft leaves roughly 60 sq ft per person once circulation space is counted, which is workable only in an open arrangement. Open plan also shortens communication lines, lets one senior review the work of many, uses light and ventilation better than a corridor of cabins, and costs less to build and re-partition as the firm grows.
Case for cabins: the work is not uniform. Four cabins should go to the partner, and to the functions that handle confidential client records, staff matters and cash and bank work. Audit files awaiting a statutory deadline also need a lockable room.
The mistake to avoid: four cabins along the rear wall means the most senior people occupy the darkest, least ventilated part of the floor. That is a poor use of scarce space if those rooms are used only occasionally. Give cabins to functions that need privacy, not to rank - and consider a shared conference or client room that serves all four instead of four private offices.
The rest should be open, with the partner's cabin placed to see the hall, not hidden behind it.
2. Propose remedies for the noise, glare, lighting and ventilation problems, using the physical facts given. Explain how each remedy works.
Read the worked answer
Noise (72 dB at the windows): the copier in the centre of the hall is the firm's own source of noise and the easiest to fix. Move it into a corner room or alcove with a door, keep it away from desks, and put an exhaust there. For traffic noise, keep the desks back from the window wall, seal the gaps around the windows and fit heavier curtains or secondary glazing; specify double doors at the road-facing entrance. At 72 dB, conversation at a desk is difficult, and sustained exposure of this kind is not merely annoying.
Glare: the screens reflect the window because the desks face it. Turn the desks so that users sit parallel to the window wall or with the window at their side, never with the window behind the screen or facing the eye. Add adjustable blinds and task lamps.
Lighting: a single window wall gives good light to the first row and none to the last. Provide general lighting at roughly 300–500 lux for general office work, with additional task lamps where files are read, and avoid bare tubes that create glare on screens.
Ventilation: windows on one side only give poor cross-ventilation, and the two cabins without opening windows will become stale. Fit exhaust fans in the cabins, mechanical ventilation or split air-conditioning for the hall, keep the copier room separately exhausted, and reduce the afternoon stuffiness before sickness complaints spread the blame to the whole lease.
3. Sketch a workable furniture layout, naming at least five placement decisions and the reasoning for each.
Read the worked answer
- Reception and client seating close to the entrance, so visitors do not walk through confidential work to reach a chair; it also protects the hall from casual looking.
- Partner's cabin placed to see the hall through a glass partition, keeping supervision without a closed door - useful when the partner's span covers all 18 staff.
- Accounts, cash and personnel work in the lockable cabins, because these need privacy and controlled access.
- Filing cabinets and the current audit files placed at the point of heaviest use, near the desks that consult them, not against a distant wall; a filing cabinet 15 metres from its users is a filing cabinet that stays empty.
- Copier and printer in a separate corner with a door and exhaust, away from seats and from the window wall, so that fumes and noise do not reach the hall.
- Staff who deal with visitors or telephone calls seated away from the quiet work zone, so that one group's talking does not interrupt another's concentration.
- Clear circulation aisles of about one metre and a clear fire exit route, because no arrangement is efficient if people have to squeeze past chairs.
Before signing the lease, the manager should also check power load, water, toilet provision and the right to install exhausts and air-conditioning - defects in these are far more expensive to fix than furniture layout.