Smaller office footprints have an upside: increased productivity

While office tenants nationally try to save money by fitting more employees into a smaller office, one unintended result is sweetening the deal: more collaboration, the New York Times reported.

A number of businesses have shifted away from the traditional cubicle and office format, and towards collaborative space where employees interact more. And more collaboration has even made some businesses more profitable, the paper said.

“You see and feel work happening all over the space,” said Mike Grindell, an executive vice president at advertising agency 22squared, in Atlanta, which recently consolidated employees to a smaller space. “There’s better density, energy and productivity on two floors now than on two and a third before.”

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Even large corporations, like pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, are getting in on the game, the Times noted.

“We can move to a smaller building with a smarter, improved working environment for reduced [indirect] costs,” said Christian Bigsby, the senior vice president for worldwide real estate at the firm. [NYT]