In November, after 45 years in cloistered offices at 777 Third Avenue, the advertising giant Grey Group moved to an open-plan layout in the International Toy Center building at 200 Fifth Avenue.
The change was astonishing — and a little unsettling — for the 1,200 employees, who now occupy just six floors instead of 26. Before, most everyone had an office; now there are three in the entire company. And the floor that houses the creative and production departments lacks even cubicle walls.
Grey, founded in 1917 and known these days for the frequent references to it on “Mad Men” and its talking baby campaign for E*Trade, is far from the first company to try an open layout.
Notably, Alcoa’s corporate center in Pittsburgh has had an open plan since 1998, and when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office in 2002, he sat with his top deputies and aides in an open office with low dividers, an arrangement that has since been adopted by almost a dozen other New York City departments. But at Grey, dispensing with the traditional hierarchy shook the company to its roots — as it was meant to.
Despite the appeal of the new building — and the dreary seclusion of the old one — it took a grand effort to convince employees that improving the company meant dispensing with their private offices. Management spent a full year introducing the open plan to employees, and in coming months, a business psychologist will hold “space therapy” sessions to ease any lingering concerns.
The interior space, designed by Studios Architecture, reflects the trend in office design of combining industrial and residential elements. Slabs of raw, reclaimed oak line many of the walls.
Grand arched windows offer prized views of Madison Square Park. And the furniture, much of which was selected from among discards from Grey’s history, represents just about every decade back to the ’40s.
Dr. Mausner said the newly office-less employees might be feeling both what he called intrusion anxiety and exposure anxiety. He is planning to hold three types of sessions: one to let employees mourn the loss of the old building; a second to come up with ways to handle potential drawbacks of the open plan; and a third to help workers use the new space to its full potential.
Before the big move, anxiety levels were high. Not only were employees concerned about losing their walls, but they also had to drastically condense their files and possessions. Those in creative positions got one box; everyone else got two. The creative and production area has long, continuous work tables; the other floors have separate desks with low cubicle walls.
Employees are still adjusting to the lack of privacy. They are working on a gesture to replace the traditional knock on the door and have learned to duck into a conference room to take important calls.
Unofficial house rules have emerged, too. For example, Ms. Schultz said, “Tuna should never be consumed in the open plan.”
Some longtime employees miss their old offices. For Rob Baiocco, executive creative director at Grey New York, the move was bittersweet. “I spent 17 years of my life going into the old building,” he said. “It was my first job in New York, and I had a little bit of a bond with it. I knew it like the back of my hand.”
Over all, however, Mr. Baiocco said he was thrilled about the new space. “It’s a little bit like the old Yankee Stadium,” he said. “The new stadium kind of blows it away, but people were still fond of the old one.”
– from nytimes.com By JONATHAN VATNER