Office

In the High Middle Ages (1000–1300), the medieval chancery acted as a sort of office, serving as the space where records and laws were stored and copied.

[1] By the middle of the 20th century, it became apparent that an efficient office required additional control over privacy, and gradually the cubicle system evolved.

An officium was not necessarily a place, but often referred instead to human staff members of an organization, or even the abstract notion of a formal position like a magistrate.

The elaborate Roman bureaucracy would not be equaled for centuries in the West after the fall of Rome, with areas partially reverting to illiteracy.

[citation needed] The High Middle Ages (1000–1300) saw the rise of the medieval chancery, which was the place where most government letters were written and laws were copied within a kingdom.

The rooms of the chancery often had walls full of pigeonholes, constructed to hold rolled-up pieces of parchment for safekeeping or ready reference.

[citation needed] Medieval paintings and tapestries often show people in their private offices handling record-keeping books or writing on scrolls of parchment.

[citation needed] As mercantilism became the dominant economic theory of the Renaissance, merchants tended to conduct their business in buildings that also sometimes housed people doing retail sales, warehousing, and clerical work.

[2] The first purpose-built office spaces were constructed in the 18th century to suit the needs of large and growing organizations such as the Royal Navy and the East India Company.

The Company developed a very complex bureaucracy for the task, necessitating thousands of office employees to process the required paperwork.

Most of the desks of the era were top-heavy and had a cubicle-like appearance, with paper storage bins extending above the desk-work area, offering workers some degree of privacy.

The relatively high price of land in the central core of cities led to the first multi-story buildings, which were limited to about 10 stories until the use of iron and steel allowed for higher structures.

[2] By the end of the 19th century, larger office buildings frequently contained large glass atriums to allow light into the complex and improve air circulation.

[6] As a result, in 1915, the Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York City introduced the "Modern Efficiency Desk" with a flat top and drawers below, designed to allow managers an easy view of the workers.

[2] However, by the midpoint of the 20th century, it became apparent that an efficient office required more privacy in order to combat tedium, increase productivity, and encourage creativity.

Team space: a semi-enclosed workspace for two to eight people; suitable for teamwork which demands frequent internal communication and a medium level of concentration.

Private office: an enclosed workspace for one person; suitable for activities that are confidential, demand a lot of concentration, or include many small meetings.

Shared office: a compact, semi-private workspace designed for two or three individuals, facilitating both focused work and small group collaboration.

Team room: an enclosed workspace for four to ten people; suitable for teamwork that may be confidential and demands frequent internal communication.

Work lounge: a lounge-like workspace for two to six people; suitable for short-term activities that demand collaboration and/or allow impromptu interaction.

Lactation rooms are also support spaces that are legally mandatory for companies in the United States, as of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

[citation needed] A type of compromise between open plan and individual rooms is provided by the cubicle desk, possibly made most famous by the Dilbert cartoon series, which solves visual privacy to some extent but often fails on acoustic separation and security.

Workers in walled offices typically try to position their normal work seats and desks so that they can see someone entering, and if that goal is not feasible, some install tiny mirrors on things such as computer monitors.

[not specific enough to verify] According to research, open-plan offices are associated with increased stress, a rise in electronic communication, a 70% decrease in face-to-face interactions, a 25% uptick in negative moods, and up to a 20% drop in productivity due to distractions.

In contrast, post-pandemic trends are favoring private "cell-office plans", which address health precautions and have been reported to enhance productivity by up to 22%.

The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers.

The renter pays a set amount of rent per time and the landlord is responsible for all other expenses, including payments for utilities, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and repairs.

The triple net lease is one in which the tenant is liable for a share of various expenses such as property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, climate control, repairs, janitorial services and landscaping.