I am ok with open-office if company provides paid sick leave. In Ireland there is at least one week every year, when 70% of company is at home with flu.
Would you really trade your health, physical and mentally for paid sick leave?
I rarely get sick, but then again we're seven people in one office and only one have kids ( kids makes a difference ). Mentally it's different story. I can't begin to count the number of days where I get home stressed out due to the noise of my co-workers and people going in an out of the room to talk to one of my colleagues.
Maybe I'm just special, but for me to completely focus and do my best work, I need an almost eerie silence. That's doesn't mix well with co-workers talking on the phone or a radio playing.
Open offices have been known to be a bad idea since Peopleware, but they are just so cheap to build.
People in open-space are more sick, paid sick leave ensures that employer is not passing his cost savings on me. Non-paid sick leave indicates dysfunctional company and lack of trust (at least in Europe). It is a principle.
Open-space was major reason (together with new born children) why I quit corporate world and started my own business two years ago.
